Α)Germany Still Paying Pensions For WWII Spanish Volunteers Who Went To War For Hitler
In 1962 Germany came to an agreement with the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco, that Germany would support volunteers that signed up to fight for Hitler, and against Russia, in the years between 1941 and 1943. Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Fascist Italy had helped Franco to win the Spanish Civil War in 1939 and at the end of the war Franco did not bring Spain into the war but he did permit volunteers to sign up to Hitler’s forces, provided they fought only against Russia.
In
1941, 47,000 volunteers enlisted in the División Española de
Voluntarios, or Blue Division, and fought for Nazi Germany on the
eastern front against Russia. German estimates of the casualties
suffered by the Blue Division were 22,000 killed, wounded or declared
missing in action during the war – numbers that are contested by other
sources, who put Spanish casualties at 5,000.
In 1962 Germany came to an agreement with the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco, that Germany would support volunteers that signed up to fight for Hitler, and against Russia, in the years between 1941 and 1943. Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Fascist Italy had helped Franco to win the Spanish Civil War in 1939 and at the end of the war Franco did not bring Spain into the war but he did permit volunteers to sign up to Hitler’s forces, provided they fought only against Russia.