Seventy-five years ago today, waves of Nazi planes devastated the Basque town of Gernika in an atrocity that shocked the world.
The town was was leveled on April 26, 1937, in a blitzkrieg attack by the Condor Legion of the Nazi Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War. Residents, many of them in the town marketplace, were trapped as the planes swooped down and dropped their bombs. Casualty figures have varied over the years. The Basque government has said that more than 1,600 people were killed.
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The savage assault, which involved multiple bombing runs, was a horrific display of wanton disregard for human life. The tragedy prompted Pablo Picasso to create his antiwar masterpiece “Guernica”
In memory of the 75th anniversary, the British Broadcasting Company interviewed Basque children who were transported to England after the bombing and ensuing warfare. Click on the following link to listen to the report.
