Franco and Hitler Interview in Hendaya

We explain what Franco and Hitler's interview was in Hendaya in 1940. In addition, what was his goal and what his consequences.

What was Franco and Hitler's interview in Hendaya?

Hendaya's interview was the meeting held by the head of the Spanish State, Francisco Franco, and the chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler, on October 23, 1940 in the French town of Hendaya, at the border between France and Spain. The interview also participated by the Foreign Ministers of both countries: Ramón Serrano Suñer and Joachim von Ribbentrop.

The objective was to define the entry of Spain into World War II (1939-1945). Although the Spanish government had affinity with the axis powers, the difficult economic situation after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) led to the decision to declare himself neutral.

In June 1940, when France was about to fall before the Nazis, the Spanish government changed its position to “non -belligerent” country, that is, openly in favor of the axis powers but without getting involved in the war.

In this context, it was agreed Franco decided to stay out of war, although he sent a division of volunteers to fight together with the German armed forces against the Soviet Union in 1941.

• See also: World War II alliances

The historical context

Francisco Franco was the leader of the rebel or “national” side who won in the Spanish Civil War on April 1, 1939. During the Civil War, Nazi Germany and fascist Italy collaborated militarily with Franco's side. A few days before the victory, Franco decided the adhesion of Spain to the Antikomintern pact signed by Germany, the empire of Japan and Italy.

When the civil war ended, Franco established a dictatorship and was consolidated as head of the Spanish State. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Franco declared the neutrality of Spain, despite his political affinity with the regimes of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The delicate economic situation of Spain after the civil war and the rejection of Franco to enhanced with the United Kingdom and the United States led him to adopt this position.

While the defeat of France was completed, Hitler raised the taking of Gibraltar (British overseas territory located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula) as an important step in his attempt to defeat the United Kingdom. Franco and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramón Serrano Suñer, considered at that time that the fall of the United Kingdom was imminent.

Thus, despite Franco's desire not to be enmity with the United Kingdom and the United States, The Spanish government established negotiations with Germany for a possible entry from Spain in the war next to the axis powers.

The interview in Hendaya

Before the favorable march of the war for Hitler, Franco abandoned in June 1940 his position of neutrality for a “non -belligerence”with which the Spanish government manifested its sympathies on the axis although it remained outside the war.

In that frame Negotiations began to favor Spain's entry into the conflict. Spain asked Germany with material and military help and the recognition of various territorial demands in Gibraltar (under British domain), in the French Morocco and in other French colonial territories.

Hitler, little interested in Mediterranean issues, was not willing to pay such a high price for the entrance of Spain in the conflict, although He considered that Spanish intervention would help conquer Gibraltar.

Hendaya's interview was the key moment of this negotiation process. It was held in a car installed in a train station in the French town of Hendaya on October 23, 1940. In the interview, Franco, Serrano Suñer, who had been appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain a few days earlier), Hitler and the German Foreign Minister, Joachim Von Ribbentrop participated in the interview.

The lack of understanding in the interview caused an agreement not to be reached. Hitler was not willing to enharge himself with Vichy's regime in France to satisfy Franco's ambitions in the French Morocco and other portions of North Africa, and Franco had no intention of embarking on a war without satisfying his territorial demands.

At the end of the interview, Franco promised to enter the war on a date to determine, but this never happened. On February 12, 1941, Franco met at Bordighera (Italy) with Mussolini but the result was the same.

In June 1941, After the German attack on the Soviet Union, Serrano Suñer promoted the creation of the Blue Division, A body of volunteers who participated in the German military operations of the Eastern Front. However, the progressive change of the war sign for the benefit of the allies definitely moved away the perspective of Spain's entry into the conflict.

Franco multiplied Concord's gestures towards the allies and, In October 1943, abandoned “non -belligerence” to return to strict neutrality.

• See also: Chronology of World War II

Ramón Serrano Suñer (1901-2003)

Ramón Serrano Suñer was a Spanish lawyer and politician who began his career during the Second Republic (1931-1939). He was leader of the youth of Popular Action (Jap) and was deputy for the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right (CEDA) From 1933 to 1936.

He kept friendship with José María Gil Robles, leader of La CEDA, and with José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Spanish Falange. He married Zita Polo, sister of Carmen Polo, Francisco Franco's wife. For this family link, He was known for his critics as the “Cuñadimo” in the early days of the Franco dictatorship.

He was imprisoned by the Republican authorities in Madrid in July 1936, when the civil war broke out, and managed to evade in 1937 towards the national zone. It was a key figure of Franco's Spain during the war and, above all, in the first years of the dictatorship. He was a minister in several areas but stood out in his work as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1940 and 1942.

In this function He deployed a favorable policy to the powers of the axis, which led him to celebrate meetings with Hitler, Mussolini and other hierarchs of the Nazi and fascist regimes. With a famous speech in which he proclaimed that Russia had been guilty of the Spanish Civil War, promoted the shipment of the Blue Division to fight next to the Nazis troops in the Russian front as of June 1941.

When World War II took a turn in favor of the allies, Franco dismissed his brother -in -law of office in 1942. From now on, although it was a procurator in the courts of the dictatorship, Serrano Suñer remained separated from politics. He wrote the books Between Hendaya and Gibraltar (1947) and Between silence and propaganda (1977).

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References

• Payne, SG (2022). Francisco Franco. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Payne, SG (2008). Franco and Hitler. Spain, Germany, World War II and the Holocaust. The sphere of books.
• Preston, P. (2017). Franc. Caudillo of Spain. Debolsillo.stone, N. (2013). Brief history of World War II. Ariel.