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Abstract
In Spain after the seizure of power by the victorious General Franco in April 1939, there began the construction of a fascist-catholic society and a mass purging of all who had opposed the rebellion. Foreigners, too, became victims of the Francoist terror, as shown by the case of the Swiss Carlos Brunner, who was sentenced to death simply for serving during the social revolution in Catalonia as a civil servant of a revolutionary committee. It was only the strenuous intervention of the Swiss Consul in Barcelona that saved Brunner's life, although he had to endure the inhuman conditions of the prisons and experience the later negligence by pro-Francoist Ambassadors. This case study serves to illustrate the evolving scope of Swiss diplomatic activity as it adapted to conditions under the emerging dictatorship.
Notes
1 In a long report to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 13 July 1943 Brunner described his career as a Swiss citizen living in Spain (Brunner Dossier in Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv, Berne [BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, p. 1).
2 Brunner Dossier ([BAR], E 2500 1968/87, Vol. 1, p. 1) in which he says he ‘had excellent success within a short period of time’. All translations included in this article are by the author.
3 Brunner did not register with the Swiss consulate until 13 February 1936. From that date he and his family were officially under the protection of that consulate in Barcelona (see Brunner's private estate).
4 See the report of the Swiss Ministry of Justice and Police, ‘Wahrung der schweizerischen Interessen in Spanien’, dated 24 September 1936 ([BAR], E 4001 [B] 1970/187, Vol. 4, [n. p.]).
5 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 2.
6 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 1.
7 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 1.
8 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 1.
9 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 1.
10 See statistics of Swiss refugees (Schweizerisches Bundesarchive [BAR], 2001 [D] 1000/1551, Vol. 175, p. 1).
11 See statistics of Swiss refugees ([BAR], E 2001 [D],-/1 Vols. 149–168, [n. p.]).
12 Adolf Gonzenbach (1893–1970) entered the diplomatic service in 1919 and was sent to Barcelona in 1920 as secretary of the Swiss consulate. In 1934 he was appointed vice-consul and in 1936 he became consul. After the Swiss embassy moved from Madrid to Barcelona he became secretary of the legation and subsequently chargé d'affaires ad interim in Republican Spain. After Franco's victory he was moved to Caracas in November 1939. Following disciplinary proceedings in 1948 he was not reappointed. He died in Palma de Mallorca in 1970 ([BAR], E 2500 1000/179, Vol. 15, [n. p.]).
13 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 2.
14 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 2.
15 The ICRC evacuation was badly organized and had to struggle with a number of shortcomings, which gave rise to criticism (see [BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1551, Vol. 147). See also Sébastien Farré, La Suisse et L'Espagne de Franco. De la guerre civile à la mort du dictateur (1936–1975) (Lausanne: Édition Antipodes, 2006), 136 ff; Antonia Schmidlin, Eine andere Schweiz. Helferinnen, Kriegskinder und humanitäre Politik 1933–1942 (Zürich: Kronos-Verlag, 1999); Pierre Marqués, La Croix-Rouge pendant la Guerre d'Espagne (1936–1939): les Missionaires de l'humanitaire (Paris: Éditions L'Harmattan, 2000), 244.
16 See undated memorandum of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both written after February 1939, in Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 2.
17 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 3.
18 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 3.
19 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 3.
20 According to Marité Fink-Brunner, daughter of Carlos Brunner (interview 8 December 2008, report in the possession of the author).
21 All three undated photographs are in Brunner's private estate. There is no personnel dossier on Brunner in the archive of the ICRC in Geneva.
22 Confidential report of 24 May 1939 written by Georges Graz of the ICRC delegation in Barcelona to the president of the Spanish Commission (Commission d'Espagne), Guillaume Favre, ACICR BCR 212 GEN–55, hereafter referred to as the ‘Graz Report’. In an ICRC report dated 18 October 1939 he is described as ‘chauffeur de la Légation à Barcelone’, which also implies an activity in the service of the Swiss consulate (ACICR BCR 212 GEN–55).
23 The identity card issued by the ICRC's general delegate for Spain, Dr Marcel Junod, bears the number 107 (Brunner's private estate).
24 In the aide-mémoire, the names Mme Perdomo and Sergeant Cesteros are given as witnesses to this state of affairs. Vicente Cesteros was a member of the ICRC delegation. In May 1939 he was arrested by Franco's police following a denunciation and later freed.
25 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 3.
26 See Víctimas de la Guerra Civil, coord. Santos Juliá, Juliàn Casanova, Josep Maria Solé i Sabaté, Joan Villaroya and Francisco Moreno (Madrid: Editorial Temas de Hoy, 2006), 239. For the concept of the ‘universo penitenciario’ see Ricard Vinyes, ‘El universo penitenciario durante el franquismo’, in Una inmensa prisión. Los campos de concentración y las prisiones durante la guerra civil y el franquismo, ed. C. Molinero, M. Sala and J. Sobrequés (Barcelona: Crítica, 2003).
27 Graz Report, 24 May 1939, 2f.
28 See Julius Ruiz, Franco's Justice. Repression in Madrid after the Spanish Civil War (Oxford: Oxford U. P., 2005), 80, 90.
29 See Víctimas de la Guerra Civil, coord. Juliá et al., 239.
30 Concerning the general culture of suspicion under the Franco regime, see Conchita Mir Curcó, ‘La política represiva en la nueva España’, in La guerra civil española, coord. Julián Casanova and Paul Preston (Madrid: Fundación Pablo Iglesias, 2008), 123–160 (p. 151).
31 This would have been ‘A. G.’, a Swiss citizen who had been living in Spain for twenty-eight years and represented a Swiss wine company in Vilafranca. A. G. had fled from the revolution but returned to Vilafranca (where he owned a villa) at the end of August 1936. It is not possible to discover from the available documents who denounced Brunner to the Francoist police. The denunciation was confirmed by ICRC representative Georges Graz, who wrote in his report: ‘Brunner ‘été arreté les premiers jours de février sur une dénonciation’ (‘Brunner was arrested early in February after a denunciation’) (Graz Report, p. 4); Marqués sees the reason for the arrest in a confusion of his name with that of the Swiss International Brigader Otto Brunner (La Croix-Rouge, 336, n. 112).
32 Ernst Risch (b. 1889–?) as head of the courier service of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs escorted many food convoys to Barcelona. He was dismissed in March 1943 after the discovery that he had improperly allowed third parties to use the courier service and had also used it for private purposes. In May 1950 the criminal division in Bern sentenced him to 100 days in prison for passive corruption.
33 See Graz Report in Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 4.
34 Gonzenbach wrote to the Department of Foreign Affairs on 20 February 1939 ([BAR] E 2001 [D] 1000/1551, Vol. 148, p. 2).
35 Graz Report in Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 4.
36 Gonzenbach's letter has been lost, but it is mentioned in an undated aide-mémoire of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 3.
37 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 2.
38 Interview with Marité Fink-Brunner (8 December 2008).
39 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 1.
40 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 1.
41 Concerning the structure and functioning of Franco's justice see Ruiz, Franco's Justice, and Josep M. Solé i Sabaté, La repressió franquista a Catalunya 1938–1953 (Barcelona: Edicions 62, 2003), 83 ff.
42 The term ‘justicia al revés’ stems from Franco's former Minister of the Interior Ramón Serrano Suñer, Entre el silencio y el propaganda, la historia como fue (Barcelona: Planeta, 1977).
43 The other two offences connected with rebellion that were punishable under military law were ‘rebelión militar’ (liable to a term of imprisonment ranging from twelve to twenty years) and ‘auxilio a la rebelión militar’ (prison term ranging from six to twelve years).
44 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 2.
45 See Ruiz, Franco's Justice, 97.
46 See Solé i Sabaté, La repressió franquista, 89.
47 See Solé i Sabaté, La repressió franquista, 84.
48 La Vanguardia Española, 28 April 1939, p. 1.
49 Graz Report in Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 4
50 The ‘auditor de guerra’ was responsible for controlling the verdicts of the military courts. If he disagreed with a verdict, the matter went to the supreme military court for a final decision (see Ruiz, Franco's Justice, 61f, 70f).
51 Eugène Broye (1886–1953) was a lawyer from Fribourg. He began his diplomatic career in 1917 and worked as an embassy counsellor and chargé d'affaires. His postings included Rome and Hungary, both fascist. In May 1938 he was appointed Extraordinary Ambassador to Nationalist Spain in Burgos and San Sebastián. Broye played a decisive role in Switzerland's premature recognition of the Franco regime on 14 February 1939. Three days later he was promoted to the rank of Swiss Ambassador to Spain. He remained in this position until he retired at the end of 1951. Broye died in Geneva in November 1953 ([BAR], E 2500 1968/87, Vol. 1, [n. p.]).
52 Broye wrote to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 26 May 1939, ([BAR], E 2300 1000/716 Vol. 259, p. 2).
53 Franco appointed General Francisco Gómez-Jordana y Sousa as his Foreign Secretary in March 1938. Lorenzo Martínez Fuset was Franco's personal advisor and head of the Asesoría Jurídica del Cuartel General del Generalísimo.
54 This telegram from the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been lost. The wording comes from Broye's report dated 26 May 1939 (see footnote 52).
55 Peter Anton Feldscher, Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, in a letter to Mrs Schmid-Brunner, Carlos Brunner's sister, dated 15 June 1939 (see Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 1).
56 See Ruiz, Franco's Justice, 102f.
57 This was the military attorney Santiago Tarodo.
58 This emerges from a report of the Swiss Embassy to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 12 March 1940 (see Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 1).
59 This is mentioned both in the Swiss Embassy's report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 12 March 1940 (see Dossier Brunner, Vol. 148, p. 2) and in a letter which Brunner wrote to Ernst Risch on 9 December 1940 (private archive, Brunner's estate kept by his daughter Marité Fink-Brunner, in Hinwil ZH, Switzerland).
60 See Solé i Sabaté, La repressió franquista, 94, 114.
61 Graz Report in Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 5.
62 Graz sent a further report to the ICRC headquarters in Geneva on 18 October 1939 (ACICR BCR 212 GEN–55).
63 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 4; see also Martín Torrent, ¿Qué me dice usted de los presos? (Alcalá de Henares: Imprenta Talleres Penitencionarios, 1942), 110.
64 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 4.
65 Graz Report in Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 6.
66 See Torrent, ¿Qué me dice usted de los presos?, 92.
67 Interview with Marité Fink-Brunner (8 December 2008).
68 Drawings (all of 1940) kept in Carlos Brunner's estate, Switzerland.
69 Gonzenbach writing to Broye, 14 July 1939 ([BAR], E 2500 1000/179, Vol. 15, p. 2).
70 Memorandum written by Walter Stucki, 1 September 1939 ([BAR], E 2500 1000/179, Vol. 15, p. 1).
71 Broye's message to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 7 August 1939 ([BAR], E 2500 1000/179, Vol. 15, p. 2).
72 The Spanish Ambassador, Marqués de Aycinena, was received ‘extremely coldly’ by the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs; see memorandum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 1 September 1939 ([BAR], E 2500 1000/179, Vol. 15, p. 1).
73 Gonzenbach made this accurate statement in 1947 during an investigation into alleged offences committed by him while he was a diplomat in Barcelona. The investigation did not uncover any serious shortcomings, yet nevertheless led to Gonzenbach not being reappointed chargé d'affaires ([BAR], E 2500 1000/179, Vol. 16, pp. 1–3).
74 Gonzenbach figures in a 1943 list of Swiss citizens convicted for practising Freemasonry. See memorandum of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Federal Councillor Pilez-Golaz ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, pp. 1–4).
75 Giacomo Balli (1882–1972) was a member of a Catholic family from Ticino. He studied law and was appointed extraordinary professor in Bern. He joined the civil service in 1906, and in 1933 was posted to Madrid as Secretary to the Swiss Ambassador Karl Egger. In 1935 he caused a diplomatic scandal by writing an article in the Spanish newspaper Ya (inspired by Italian sources) criticizing England and the League of Nations. As a result, he was suspended from his duties. However, he succeeded in being reinstated and in 1939 was appointed General Consul in Barcelona, where he remained until retirement at the end of 1947. He died in Ticino in 1972 ([BAR], E 2500 1000/719, Vol. 1).
76 Edmond Meylan (1892–1974) served an apprenticeship at a bank in Yverdon. He joined the civil service and was posted to the Swiss embassy in Madrid in 1927 as a member of its office staff. After a posting to Paris, he returned to Spain in 1937 and became Consular Secretary in Barcelona in August 1937. In 1944 he was appointed Vice-Consul. He left the diplomatic service at the end of 1957 on account of his age. He remained in Barcelona until his death in 1974, i.e. he lived there practically throughout the whole of the Franco era (Meylan dossier, [BAR], E 2500 1992/120, Vol. 65, [n. p]).
77 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 4.
78 Brunner did not name the person concerned, so his identity remains uncertain. However, suspicion falls on Edmond Meylan or possibly Alfred Bucheli, the ICRC representative charged by the consulate to visit prisoners.
79 Baeschlin in his ‘Kurzbericht über meine “politische Tätigkeit”’ written on 31 October 1947 ([BAR], E 2001 1000/1553, Vol. 148, pp. 1–2).
80 Letter written by Sigg and Storz from Belchite on 31 December 1939 to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 149, pp. 1–2).
81 Letter written by Lina Mettauer on 16 November 1943 to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, pp. 1–2).
82 Letter written by W. Abegglen on 4 September 1945 to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, pp. 1–3).
83 ‘Since August 1939, that is to say, for the past 18 months, all my efforts to be properly informed about how my case is progressing have been in vain. I haven't even had the courtesy of receiving a single word either from our consulate in Barcelona or from our Madrid legation, much less of receiving an official visit’. Letter written on 9 December 1940 to Ernst Risch at the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Brunner Dossier ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, p. 1). He requested Risch to intervene at last with the responsible Spanish authorities in order to obtain his release.
84 The letter which the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote to Broye is not among the available documents.
85 Balli's letter to the Swiss Embassy in Madrid, dated 22 February 1941, Brunner Dossier ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, pp. 1–5).
86 Balli's letter to the Swiss Embassy in Madrid, dated 22 February 1941, Brunner Dossier ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, p. 2).
87 Balli's letter to the Swiss chargé d'affaires in Madrid, Mario Fumasoli, dated 12 August 1941 (Baeschlin Report, in Brunner Dossier, [BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, pp. 1–4).
88 Fumasoli's letter to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 20 August 1941 (Baeschlin Report). Mario Fumasoli (1901–1989) was engaged in 1940 for a short time in the Madrid Embassy. In 1959 he was named Swiss Ambassador to Spain, a post he held until his retirement at the end of 1966. He died in 1989 in Barcelona ([BAR], E 2500 1982/120, Bd. 28).
89 ‘Spezialbericht über die Einstellung der öffentlichen Meinung in Spanien über die nationalistische Bewegung’, dated 16 January 1937 ([BAR], E 2001 [D]/1, Vol. 140, pp. 1–10). Stierlin sent four copies of this report, apparently written of his own accord, to the consular services, as well as to the Swiss Embassy in Lisbon. The report ends with a tribute to Franco: ‘He can count on the blind obedience of the population, who are only too willing to make sacrifices because they know that a defeat would result in the death of all respectable people and the wildest destruction of the whole country’ ([BAR], E 2001 [D]/1, Vol. 140, p. 10). Robert Max Stierlin (1882–1950) was named Honorary Consul for Andalusia in Seville in 1918. He held this post for thirty years. Living since 1911 in Spain, he worked in an executive position with the Sociedad Española de Electricidad Brown Boveri ([BAR], E 2500 1968/87, Vol. 46, [n. p.]).
90 Karl Egger (1881–1950) was Swiss Ambassador in Madrid from 1932 until 1938.
91 Egger's confidential report of 29 October 1937 to the President of the Swiss Confederation, Motta, entitled ‘Zur Lage in Spanien’ ([BAR], E 2300 1000/716, Vol. 259, pp. 1–5).
92 Egger's letter to Motta dated 20 October 1936 ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1551, Vol. 139, p. 2).
93 Broye's confidential letter to Federal Councillor Motta dated 25 May 1939 ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1551, Vol. 139, p. 1).
94 Broye's confidential letter to Motta dated 17 May 1939 ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1551, Vol. 139, p. 2).
95 See also Antonio Manuel Moral Roncal, Diplomacia, humanitarismo y espionaje en la Guerra Civil española (Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2008), 370.
96 Giuseppe Motta (1871–1940) was elected Federal Councillor in 1911. In 1920 he headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1934 he opposed the admittance of the Soviet Union to the League of Nations. After the aggression against Ethiopia he only half-heartedly followed the sanctions against Italy.
97 Broye's letter of 14 March 1943 to the President of the Swiss Confederation, Marcel Pilet-Golaz ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, pp. 1–4).
98 Letter written by the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Broye on 26 March 1943 ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, p. 2).
99 Letter written by the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Broye on 26 March 1943 ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, p. 1).
100 Pilet-Golaz on 20 March to the Department of Foreign Affairs ([BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, p. 1).
101 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 10.
102 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 7.
103 The reasons for the two reductions of Brunner's sentence are unknown. Brunner probably benefited from the ongoing efforts to ease the prisoner problem. After June 1940 several decrees were issued opening up the possibility of release on parole. As a result, most of the prisoners convicted of ‘crimes’ committed during the Civil War had been released by the early 1950s (see Ruiz, Franco's Justice, 116). According to a letter which the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote to Brunner's father on 11 June 1941, Brunner was released under an amnesty declared by Franco (Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 7).
104 This fact emerges from a letter written by the Mayor of Vilafranca to Brunner's wife Teresa Rovira Hill on 3 February 1943 (Brunner's private estate).
105 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 7.
106 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 8.
107 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, p. 8.
108 Brunner confirmed his arrival in Zurich to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a letter written on 5 May 1943 (Brunner Dossier, [BAR], E 2001 [D] 1000/1553, Vol. 148, p. 8).
109 Brunner Dossier, Vol. 148, particularly p. 10.
110 This reply has been lost, but in another letter to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 25 January 1944, Brunner wrote that he would be greatly interested ‘to hear something from you in due course about the matter in question’ (Brunner's private estate).
111 Brunner's private estate.
112 During the Spanish Civil War Otto Brunner (1896–1973) commanded the well-known Tschapajew Battalion of the XIII International Brigade, in which many Swiss served. For the Swiss authorities, this radical trade unionist and defender of public rights was the personification of Spanish Brigadism. Upon his return to Switzerland in December 1938, he was arrested and in May 1939 a military tribunal sentenced him to six months imprisonment for having engaged in foreign military service.
113 Carlos Brunner applied for a job at the Central Office for Remigrant Assistance in Zurich, but he was informed that the post had gone to someone else. See letter of the labour camp head office dated 26 July 1943 (Brunner's private estate).
114 Letter of 9 April 1945 (Brunner's private estate).
115 See Brunner's report of 25 October 1944 entitled ‘Beziehungen Schweiz-Spanien’. One of the main reasons Brunner wanted to inform the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the anti-Franco resistance was because he assumed that the Ministry had not been correctly informed by its own diplomatic missions (Brunner's private estate).
116 The membership card in Brunner's private estate dates already from 1943.
117 This pressure group had close links with the Communist party and, from 1944 onwards, its successor Partei der Arbeit (‘Workers' Party’). It was primarily a lobbying organization publicly pressing for an amnesty for those who had fought in Spain. Later, it spread anti-Franco propaganda.
118 Brunner stuck the membership stamps for 1945 and 1946 bearing the red three-pointed star of the International Brigades onto his membership card for the ‘Gesellschaft freies Spanien’ (‘Society for a Liberated Spain’) (Brunner's private estate).
119 Interview with Marité Fink-Brunner (8 December 2008).