Naval War College Review Volume 68 Article 17 Number 3 Summer

2015 Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the , by Amanda Vaill Jeffrey M. Shaw

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Recommended Citation Shaw, Jeffrey M. (2015) "Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War, by Amanda Vaill," Naval War College Review: Vol. 68 : No. 3 , Article 17. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol68/iss3/17

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 160 NAVAL WARShaw: COLLEGE Hotel Florida: REVIEW Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War, b

attempting to neutralize anti-Semitic and the United States did not act against agitation. All of this effort was shattered this impending threat. While the Span- by the National Socialists after Kristall- ish Civil War began as an internal do- nacht (1938) and the anti-Semitism mestic matter between the newly elected experienced during the First World Spanish Republic and reactionary War culminated in the anti-Semitic Nationalist forces led by General Franco, tragedies of the Second World War. the conflict would draw in Germany and The present volume is Appelbaum’s Italy in support of Franco, and the Soviet second book addressing the Jewish Union in support of the Republic. The military experience of the era. The conflict pitted forces of Europe’s far left earlier work, Loyalty Betrayed: Jewish and right against each other, eventually Chaplains in the German Army during overshadowing the Spanish Republic’s the First World War (2013), received attempt to maintain power. Against this significant attention and acclaim and backdrop, Amanda Vaill follows the lives Loyal Sons is deserving of the same. and fates of three couples. She weaves their lives and fates into the larger fate Appelbaum delves deeply into pub- of as Europe’s only stand against lished and unpublished diaries, letters, fascism collapses under the weight of and memoirs of those who served. For Franco’s forces in early 1939. In do- the first time, widespread personal and ing so, she provides the reader with an archival materials are gathered and overview of the political and military analyzed in a single source. The work events of the Spanish Civil War, as well is meticulously researched, well writ- as minibiographies of six eyewitnesses ten, and enjoyable to read. The author to the war in an eminently readable has produced a volume that bridges the and gripping account of the savage war chasm between studies for academic that ended with the fall of . specialists and works for general readers. It is a welcome addition to the military Vaill’s characters are presented in pairs. history bookshelf that is lively, engag- They are couples, romantically and ing, and thorough. The appendixes and professionally. The first to appear is numerous photographs are interest- the chief of the Spanish government’s ing and enhance the work. Loyal Sons foreign press office in Madrid, Arturo deserves a wide readership and will not Barea, and his future wife, Ilsa Kulcsar, disappoint even the most casual reader. an Austrian radical who has come to Spain after the war begins. Spain’s tragic TIMOTHY J. DEMY fate is most explicitly illustrated through Barea’s slow descent from moderately prominent government official to ordi- nary refugee, finally settling in with Ilsa. His observations on the Spain Vaill, Amanda. Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and of his youth contrast with the savagery of Death in the Spanish Civil War. New York: Farrar, the conflict between Republican and Na- Straus, Giroux, 2014. 436pp. $30 tionalist forces that takes place through- Spain was the only nation to take up out the book. Following Barea and arms against fascism in the years im- Kulcsar, Vaill presents the Hungarian- mediately preceding the outbreak of the born André Friedmann, who would Second World War. England, France, come to be known as ,

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one of the greatest war photographers cooked over a fire. In fact Hotel Florida of all time. His relationship with the itself reads like a novel, and it is no similarly gifted and prominent photog- irony that the book concludes with the rapher Gerda Taro (Gerta Pohorylle) first sentence of For Whom the Bell Tolls forms much of the central narrative as Hemingway begins to type the first of the book. Finally, American novel- page, transferring his Spanish experi- ists, journalists, and war correspon- ence into his greatest literary work. dents and Martha This book offers something for not Gellhorn are the third couple, rounding only the student of European history, out the book’s six main characters. military history, or literature. It is a Hotel Florida is much more than just an first-rate account of the political and account of the Spanish Civil War—or military events of the Spanish Civil the story of the six main characters War. It is also a deeply philosophical during those years. It is as much a story examination of the relationship among about the nature of truth and reality in war, truth, and propaganda. It asks hard wartime as it is a gripping narrative of questions that are immediately relevant the seminal conflict of the interwar years today even as the media landscape has in Europe. Vaill’s characters become who changed dramatically; the fundamentals they are through their interaction with of human nature have remained such the war, and they create themselves— that any of the main characters of this and the meaning of their own lives—as book could sympathize with reporters, much as they create accounts of the war’s photographers, and journalists today. I events, whether through the written highly recommend this brilliant book word or the photograph. Their stories to scholars and general readers alike. and pictures are in many cases used for JEFFREY M. SHAW propaganda purposes, and the charac- ters know this. However, the fine line between truth and propaganda largely disappears, if it is ever distinguishable in the first place. With the exception of Bayles, Martha. Through a Screen Darkly: Popu- Barea and Kulcsar, the characters want lar Culture, Public Diplomacy, and America’s Im- to be close to the fighting, to see the age Abroad. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, troops and the refugees and the destruc- 2014. 336pp. $30 tion caused by the war, so that they can This is a wonderful, wonderful book. capture its meaning and portray the It is very much more than even its tragedy to the world, which does not title and subtitle suggest. And it’s a seem to understand the importance great read even though it deals with of defeating fascism. A host of minor subjects and policy debates about characters appear, many of whom are which most of us would rather not fighters in the various International Bri- think because they’re either upset- gades (to include the famous Abraham ting, or too complicated, or both. Lincoln Battalion of American volun- teers). These characters might as well The first half of the book is devoted have walked right out of a Hemingway to the image of America that our low novel—tough whiskey drinkers hunting (and getting lower all the time) popu- fascists and eating trout and vegetables lar culture projects worldwide. When

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