Civil Defense during the Spanish Civil War

About this episode

The horrors of the bombing of civilians during the Spanish Civil War were made known to the world by Picasso's famous painting Guernica, but Nationalist forces bombed cities throughout Republican Spain through the whole course of the war. In this episode, David Messenger, author of Civilian Bombing and Civil Defence in the Spanish Civil War, discusses the untold story of Republican efforts to protect their citizens from these bombings by building bomb shelters and even training for a gas attack. He also examines efforts in recent years to open some of these shelters to the public as sites for preserving the historical memory of the war.