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Pare Two
THE SOrfllFRN ISKA ELITE
Friday, September 9, 1966
As We Were Saying
By Robert E. Segal
(A Seven Arts Feature)
Liberty, long enchained in
Spain, still weeps; but there is
new hope in this 28th year of
Generalissimo Franco’s dictator
ship for breaking some of the
shackles.
Even the 7,000 Jews of Madrid,
Barcelona, Valencia, and Malaga
share the promise of a modicum
of recognition, a token of free
dom.
In recent weeks, the world’s
liberal press has spread word of
the scandal of the alleged brutal
beating of more than 100 Roman
Catholic priests in Barcelona.
This seems, at first glance, to
negate any immediate expecta
tion of a’ weakening of tyranny.
But, excesses against t r a de
unionists, rebelling students, and
bold newspaper editors are one
thing; the use of physical viol
ence against Spanish men of the
cloth is something else. Indeed,
the determination of the priests
to protest, added to their cour
age in carrying their cause to
Archbishop Modrego of Barce
lona, may augur the beginning of
a better day.
It is now a year and a half
since Franco received two Jewish
leaders, Marx Mazin and Alberto
Levi, seeking legal recognition of
the small Spanish Jewish com
munities. At that time, a spokes
man for Franco said: “There is
no anti-Semitism and no Jewish
problem in Spain. We respect and
like the Jews.” It was not dif
ficult tp say this considering that
Spanish Jews had obtained no
formal audience with Spanish
rulers in 473 years. And Spain
might well think highly of Jews
who had enriched the pages of
Spanish history with the litera
ture of Judah Halevi, Moses
Maimonides, Hasdai ibn Shaprut
and dozens of other brilliant
scholars.
Spain long in love with the
spoken and written word and
philosophic search, could easily
acknowledge her debt to such in
tellectual giants. She might also
be contrite now about the expul
sion of her Jews in 1492, about
the forced conversions, about the
inquisition serving as a prototype
for Jewish persecution in many
parts of Europe during the past
five centuries.
This observation is one with
the hope expressed above that
the revolt of young priests in
Barcelona cannot now be sup
pressed and dismissed. For these
clerics are of a new age. They
come from the Spanish semin
aries bearing the encyclicals of
Pope John XXIII and determin
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ed to advance the new ecumen
ical spirit proclaimed by Pope
Paul VI. They have no stomach
for a government - controlled
press; they abhor a begrudging
political system permitting only
one political party, the hated
Falange; they insist on sharing
freedom of association with writ
ers, students, scientists in a new
era; they are openly critical of a
lop-sided economy in which
poverty deepens while the favor
ed few grow ever richer.
But if Franco thinks he can
satisfy the young rebels with
slight concessions, he may be in
for a grave disappointment. The
handling of the Spanish press of
fers a pertinent example: Fran
co’s new law of April 9 was sup
posed to have ended government
censorship of the daily press.
Scarcely a month later, the
priests were manhandled by the
Barcelona police. The press, eith
er unused to its new freedom or
waiting for a word from its old
master, did not report this club
bing. Such a default, such prom
ise unfulfilled, are certain to add
edge to the determination of
restless Spaniards to achieve
tangible gains.
The young priests of Spain are
not alone in the cry for liberty.
In March, more than 1,000 Span
iards, including lawyers and
members of university faculties,
boldly signed a petition to Fran
co, seeking freedom of associa
tion, the right to strike, and ac
cess to information. Demonstra
tions by students have been in
creasing in recent months. The
old forces of reaction are on the
defensive.
In all of this, Franco, of course,
still has his admirers and champ
ions on the Continent and in the
United States. After all, he has
stood up to Communist might.
But in doing so, he sold his soul
to his staunch ally, Adolf Hitler;
and there are many who remem
ber the dispatch by Franco of
such telegrams as this (to Hitler
on the fourth anniversary of the
German madman’s acquisition of
man’s madman’s acquisition of
power: “Fervent wishes that the
great German people advance
under the glorious emblem of the
swastika. Heil Hitler!”)
Three decades later, Franco
has to be thinking of stepping
down. He could do that proudly
and stubbornly and find himself
a horrid niche in history along
side Hitler and Mussolini—a dic
tator with greater tenacity and a
longer life. Or he could do it
graciously by acknowledging his
sin of casting his lot with violent
men. He could bow like a man in
the direction of liberty.
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