The Judeo-Masonic Enemy in Francoist Propaganda (1936-1945) Javier Domínguez Arribas* 1. INTRODUCTION Between the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and the end of the Second World War, Francoist propaganda depicted Jews and Freemasons as two closely linked forces that conspired tirelessly against Spain. They were considered responsible for all the evils that afflicted the country, together with the leftists. While the “Reds” were an obvious and significant enemy for the nationalist forces, there were no more than about 5,000 Spanish Freemasons in 1936, and their influence in Spanish public affairs was limited, at least as an organization (although the individual influence of some Freemasons is another issue). However, their fate was the same as that of the “Communists”: relentless repres- sion.1 The case of the Jews is even more surprising. The antisemitic propaganda of the early days of the Franco regime took place in a country where almost no Jews had lived since their expulsion by the Catholic monarchs in 1492. Furthermore, most members of the tiny Jewish community in the Iberian Peninsula in 1936 had arrived just a short time previously, coming mostly from Hitler’s Germany. Their number, although impossible to establish precisely, has been estimated at close to 6,000.2 In spite of the violent rhetoric against Jews, the regime did not systematically implement discriminatory policies against them. Above all, the Franco government did not facilitate Nazi antisemitic persecution during the Second World War, while some Spanish diplomats in fact pro- tected Jews in danger.3 Why, then, were two groups that were so small, so different, and so differently treated by the regime, presented together by official propaganda as the powerful Judeo-Masonic enemy to be fought? This, among other aspects, is the focus of the research presented in this paper.4 * Associate Professor, University of Paris XIII—CRESC. 1 See José Antonio Ferrer Benimeli, “Franco y la masonería,” in Josep Fontana, España bajo el franquismo, Barcelona, Crítica, 1986, pp. 246-268 at p. 268. I would like to thank my colleague Susan Pickford for having corrected my English. A preliminary Spanish version of this paper may be consulted in VII Encuentro de Investigadores sobre el franquismo, Santiago de Compostela, Fundación 10 de Marzo, 2011 (CD-ROM). 2 Haim Avni, Spain, the Jews, and Franco, Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society of Ameri- ca, 1982, p. 45. 3 See Bernd Rother, Franco y el Holocausto, Madrid, Marcial Pons, 2005 (German orig. ed. 2001). 4 This research was conducted at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris) and culminated in a PhD thesis entitled “L’ennemi 257 © Javier Domínguez Arribas, 2013 | doi 10.1163/9789004265561_024 Javier Domínguez Arribas - 9789004265561 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NCDownloaded 4.0 license. from Brill.com09/27/2021 12:51:05PM via free access 258 JAVIER DOMÍNGUEZ ARRIBAS This research is devoted to antisemitic and anti-Masonic propaganda during the first period of the Franco regime (1936-1945). In order to respect the internal logic of Fran- coist discourse, it has been necessary to make a joint analysis of the representations of Jews and Freemasons, because antisemitic and anti-Masonic references were very often intertwined in the regime’s propaganda. Taking this as my starting point, my research has been essentially based on a cross-analysis of two kinds of primary sources: first, the printed sources that made the dissemination of antisemitic and anti-Masonic propagan- da possible, in particular the press and books that denounced the intrigues of Jews and Freemasons; and, second, several archival sources that reveal the precise nature of the links between the organization of Francoist propaganda and the creation of an anti- Judeo-Masonic discourse.5 The resultant research work, published in Spanish under the title of El enemigo judeo- masónico en la propaganda franquista (1936-1945),6 is divided in four parts, each consisting of two chapters. The first part studies two preliminary issues essential for a thorough understanding of the topic: the antisemitic and anti-Masonic tradition that later inspired Franco’s propaganda (Chapter I) and Franco’s personal attitudes toward Jews and Masons (Chapter II). The second and the third parts follow a chronological pattern, focusing on the Span- ish Civil War and the Second World War respectively. The situation of the Jews and the Freemasons is briefly presented at the beginning of each part, which share a common structure based on the propaganda means under analysis. Thus, in each of these two parts, one chapter focuses on the role of the press in the transmission of antisemitic and anti-Masonic ideas (Chapters III and V), while the other focuses on the most important official and unofficial publishing houses involved in disseminating these ideas in books and pamphlets in each period (Chapters IV and VI). Finally, the fourth and final part moves beyond the chronological pattern to apply an interpretative scheme based on the following questions: what was the purpose of Fran- co’s propaganda about Jews and Masons, and what were its functions? Two of the functions of antisemitic and anti-Masonic propaganda are analyzed in detail: first, the use of anti-Masonic discourse within the Francoist coalition as a political weapon (Chap- ter VII); and, second, the invocation of a common Judeo-Masonic enemy as a means of cohesion, uniting the different factions of the coalition (Chapter VIII). 2. THE JUDEO-MASONIC ENEMY Among other results of this research, it appears that the new Francoist regime led an unprecedented propaganda effort to present the imaginary Judeo-Masonic consortium as judéo-maçonnique dans la propagande franquiste (1936-1945),” defended on 6 January 2006 in front of a jury consisting of Michel Ralle, Marie-Claude Chaput, Gonzalo Álvarez Chillida, Jordi Canal, and Bernard Vincent (research director). This thesis was awarded a distinction. 5 The four main archives consulted are the General Administration Archive (AGA) in Alcalá de Henares, the General Military Archive (AGM) in Ávila, the Francisco Franco Foundation Archive (AFF) in Madrid, and the General Archive of the Spanish Civil War, currently the Historical Memory Documentary Centre (CDMH) in Salamanca. 6 Javier Domínguez Arribas, El enemigo judeo-masónico en la propaganda franquista (1936-1945), Madrid, Marcial Pons, 2009. Javier Domínguez Arribas - 9789004265561 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 12:51:05PM via free access THE JUDEO-MASONIC ENEMY IN FRANCOIST PROPAGANDA 259 one of the major enemies of the regime and, by extension, Spain. But the antisemitic and anti-Masonic themes were not new at all. In some cases, they came from a centuries-old tradition, although the modern configuration of the Judeo-Masonic myth mainly emerged in the second half of the 19th century, due principally to a small group of French Catholic authors who acquired a strong influence in Spain. During the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936), the anti-liberal radicalization of the right wing reinforced this myth.7 One of the few new aspects of Francoism regarding the transmission of anti-Judeo-Masonic theories is the fact that they were disseminated by the authorities for the first time. It has also been demonstrated that the Judeo-Masonic enemy proved especially use- ful as a “substitute enemy” in cases where anti-Communist propaganda may have been counterproductive. This refers in particular to leaflets dropped behind the Republican lines during the Civil War, a means of persuasion in which anti-Communist arguments were useless, as well as to the context of the German-Soviet Pact (from August 1939 to June 1941), when Francoist propaganda had to tone down its anti-Bolshevik attacks.8 3. INFLUENCES Several influences of a very different nature made their mark on Franco’s propagandists. First of all, they were the heirs of the long reactionary tradition that had given rise to the Judeo-Masonic myth. Coming from this ideological background, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion exerted a decisive influence in Spain, as did the work of French Catholic authors Ernest Jouin and Léon de Poncins.9 Nazi Germany’s influence is also apparent in the antisemitic propaganda produced in Spain. The Third Reich bribed journalists and financed the publication of works of propaganda during both the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War.10 However, the significance of Nazi influence should not be exaggerated, as has often been the case, in particular in discussions that hold it to be the sole form of antisemitic (and even anti- Masonic) propaganda spread in Spain, especially through the Falange, the Spanish fascist party. An analysis of Francoist propaganda regarding Jews and Freemasons shows that the anti-Judeo-Masonism of the early years of the regime did not emerge ex novo and that the Falangists were not its sole distributors, as has sometimes been sug- gested. It is true that Nazi antisemitic propaganda was available in Spain (sometimes transmitted through the Falange), but it came into a field that was already fertile. In fact, external factors did have some influence on the varying pace of anti-Judeo-Masonic propaganda prior to 1945, but they did not determine it. 7 See Jacques Lemaire, L’antimaçonnisme. Aspects généraux (1738-1998), Paris, Éditions Maçon- niques de France, 1998; and Gonzalo Álvarez Chillida, El Antisemitismo en España. La imagen del judío (1812-2002), Madrid, Marcial Pons, 2002. 8 On the impact of the German-Soviet Pact on Francoist propaganda, see Benito Bermejo, “L’Espagne,” in La propagande sous Vichy 1940-1944, Nanterre, BDIC, 1990, pp. 263-271 at p. 268; and Gabriel Jackson, Aproximación a la España contemporánea 1898-1975, Barcelona, Grijalbo, 1981, p.