h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The bombing of Guernika - A87891231
Author: Mag - U7799651

The bombing of Guernika. A87891231

This is a short outline of what happened.

(I´m Maria)

I´ve added some links.

There´s another one that I´d like to add to the Reconcilation section. Yesterday, a 92 years old woman could give a decent burial to his father, who was murdered during the civil war. I´s been possible because of an Argentinian judge´s intervention. In Spain is almost impossible to do that.

http://www.publico.es/sociedad/ascension-mendieta-entierra-padre-78-anos-despues-asesinado.html

This is a great entry! I learned a lot from it.

That bit where you explained that the Nazis thought the Times was Jewish because 'Times' spelled backwards is 'Semit'? Just brilliant. Unfortunately, there are still people who think like that, and they have Twitter accounts...

I would suggest just a few changes here:

Guernika - Shouldn't we call it 'Guernica'? We usually spell it that way.

Richtolen - It's 'Wolfram von Richthofen'. (Yeah, related to the Red Baron.)

>>the fascist mausoleum where Franco is buried is kept with state founds.<<

It should be 'kept with state funds'.

Thank you! I´ll change all that.

What about the link I mention in the second post? It´s in Spanish. Can I link it anyway?

Sure you can.

gracias

Hello - this is a very important subject and something that really deserves an entry. The information given is well balanced - not too much, not too little, and it puts the events into the context of the Second World War and up to and including the repercussions of the present day. Well done for tackling it.



This expression seems rather stilted "factories of arms" - "arms factories" would be more fluent to read.

"nazi militar " I would give Nazi a capital letter, and "militar" doesn't sound like an English word. "military official", maybe?

You mention twice that the population were machine-gunned as they ran away from the bombs.

I thought my knowledge of Spanish geography was pretty good, but, despite having heard of the bomb attack on Guernica, I didn't know where it was. There are many places called Vitoria - could you give some indication of the whereabouts of the two places in the opening paragraph, please?

"that day at night" - could be shortened to "that night"

In footnote 2, what does "He knew that it was a war class what caused the Spanish Civil War " mean? Further in that footnote: "because of its left policies", would perhaps be clearer if you changed it to "leftist" or "left-wing".

I particularly had a look at footnote 2 because I was puzzled by "Non-Intervention policy of the Axis". Surely if they're charging in and bombing they are hardly "not intervening".

"the communist French daily L´Humanité" - in English, surely "a daily" is a cleaning lady. Perhaps you could add "newspaper" or "publication".

In this sentence "George Steer published in 1938 The Tree of Guernica: a Field Study of Modern War", the section "in 1938" would normally come in English right at the end or right at the beginning. I am particularly aware of this because it's a syntactical error I often make when writing German.

Controversial is missing an "r"

"every day´s events" - Everyday events.

In the same sentence, you write both "an historian" and "a historian". Both are acceptable, but you should be consistent and just use one or the other!

This one is really just nitpicking, but
"In 1997 German president Herzog " - "In 1997 the then German...."

"During the socialist government of Zapatero it was created the Law of Historical Memory (2007)" - the English would use the active rather than the passive: "The socialist Government of Zapatero created (passed) the law of ..."

"However, victims claim that they do not want revenge but justice. The current conservative government ignores completely the law" - Here, "completely" should come right at the end of the sentence.

"francoist criminals" - should be capitalised. "Francoist criminals"

"we wanted that from the rubbles of what once was our village, should emerge a new flag of peace for the rest of the peoples of the world"
This is rather stilted "translationese" and will need complete re-wording.

In footnote 3 "92 years old Ascensión Mendieta has been able to give a decent burial to her father" --> "92-year-old Ascensión Mendieta was able to give her father a decent burial"..

Interesting about the Times/Semit theory. Of course, it only works in German. In French or English the word is Semite, in Italian and Spanish probably even less like Semit (Semiti, Semitos?)

Thank you very much TC!

I´ll mend all that as soon as possible.

I´ve just passed the first part of a state exam to be a teacher and I am very busy preparing the second part. I´ll be back by the end of next week, more or less.

wish me luck!

and muchas gracias por tus comentarios TC

Da nada!

Si quieres, puedo ayudarte con la formulacion(?) en Ingles.

Y Buene suerte con tus examenes.

buena ....

This is a good account and TC had raised most of the points I had noticed.

One question. If Guernica was an ordinary village, why was it bombed so heavily? Was it just unlucky, or was there something there the Francoists wanted to destroy?

No, Guernika is its proper name - it is Basque, the language of where it is situated, just as you say London rather than Londres the name in French or Spanish or Italian...

Guernika had significance because it was a cultural centre and, being the old seat of legislature, it was of great importance to the Basque people. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica

Franco, apart from wanting to suppress republicanism, also strongly objected to separatism in the form of the old provincial divisions that made up Spain (Galicia, Cataluña, Aragón, etc.) so for him it was essential to make a bold statement by destroying Guernika.

That's really helpful information! I didn't know that about Guernika.

Hello!

I´ve mended what TC said.

I´ve added an explanation to the Non-Intervention Pact, in the footnote.
Also, to the painting footnote, I´ve added that Picasso was working on a mural for the Paris Exhibition and used it for the Guernica.

I´ve mentioned what many historians agree on: the bombing was mainly Nazi war practices to try the lethal power of its war planes.

I´m going to look for a link about Euskera. It is a very peculiar language.

the first link is short and give an idea of the peculiarity of the language.
https://www.bizkaiatalent.eus/en/pais-vasco-te-espera/senas-de-identidad/euskera-antigua-europa/

The second
http://www.ehu.eus/en/web/eins/home
is from the official webpage of the University of the Basque Country. It is more for researchers and learners.

In the footnote I´ve added both.

http://www.bizkaiatalent.eus/en/pais-vasco-te-espera/senas-de-identidad/euskera-antigua-europa/

Great entry
It might be an idea to mention that although they had the aircraft? the Condor legion did not use the new Stuka aka Junkers Ju 87 Sturzkampfflugzeug "dive bomber" to attack Guernica.
The common assumption is that legion did use them but this incorrect.

You've added some very useful information there. The story of the Basque language is fascinating!

A very topical entry that I'm surprised hasn't received more attention.
The only thing I wondered is whether the section about the non-intervention treaty could be moved into the main body of the text? Footnotes should ideally be short (although I confess I'm not very good at keeping them under control).

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