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World War II in the Basque Country (a region in northernSpain and southwestern France) refers to the period extending from 1940 to 1945. It affected theFrench Basque Country (a region in southwestFrance), but also bordering areas across thePyrenees on account of the instability following the end of the Spanish Civil War, and the friendly ties between Germany,Vichy France, and the triumphant Spanish military dictatorship.
In June 1937, theNorthern Front of the Spanish Civil War collapsed for the Republicans. Approximately half a million Republicans and civilians fled to France for their lives in Spain, but possibly up to 150,000 of them wereBasques, an extraordinary proportion in the overall account.[1] Some of them, including manygudaris, crossed the border to theLabourd. They were confined next toBayonne, while the French government set about constructing internment camps at the feet of the northern Pyrenees aimed at sheltering the civilians and Republicans fleeing from the Basque front, as well as Catalonia,stranded in Roussillon. Next to Gurs (outer fringes ofSoule, inBearn),an internment camp was established in Mars-April 1939. It lasted up to 1945.
The population's reception to the Spanish refugees, perceived as 'reds', was generally negative, since theBearnese and the Basques stuck to a traditionalist mindset, spearheaded in the Basque area by Ybarnegaray, prominent former sports personality and deputy from Lower Navarre.[2]Jean Ybarnegaray appealed to the instinctively cautious nature of his rural constituency, warning against a consciously Basque political culture, as the one promoted byBasque Nationalist Party.[3] OnlyOloron (bordering on Soule), with a leftist council, showed active support to the exiles from the Spanish Civil War.
In 1940Nazi Germany invaded France. The French army soon succumbed to theBlitzkrieg strategy. TheArmistice of 22 June 1940 established aGerman military administration in occupied France of the French Atlantic, including the French Basque Country, divided at either side of the line extending north to south fromSaint-Palais (Donapaleu) toCambo toSaint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. A 20-km-widezone interdite along the coast behind theAtlantic wall was restricted to non-resident civilians at certain point during the war period.[4]
The occupied zone ran on the German time zone.[5] The rest of the French Basque Country up toBearn (Soule and easternLower Navarre) was part ofVichy France until 1942, when the "free zone" was occupied by Germany. In June 1940, thousands of Allied Polish troops in retreat from theBattle of France, as well as civilian refugees, wereevacuated from Saint-Jean-de-Luz. During the initial Nazi occupation, across the border in Spain,Donostia became a tranquil retreat for German army officers, who would spend generously in the area, impoverished after the civil war.
During wartime, many in France supported the Nazi regime and its persecution of Jews, communists, and foreigners. Others resisted, but were deeply divided.[6] In the French Basque Country, the bulk of the Basques showed an allegiance to theVichy regime.Petain showed a sympathy towards traditional and regional features, which provided fertile grounds to re-launch a Regionalist movement represented by theEskualerristes and the journalAintzina ('forward') magazine, some of whose members defended an overt separatist approach.[7]Jean Ybarnegaray became Minister in a cabinet ofMarshall Petain up to 1940. However, no regionalist measures came to be implemented by theVichy regime.TheBasque Nationalist Party was in disarray after the exile. Personalities likeEugène Goyheneche [eu] explored the possibility of a Basque puppet state after a Nazi victory.Other nationalists, however, gathered intelligence for the Allies.
In the western Pyrenees, especially theLabourd andLower Navarre, resistance took the form of help for the Jews and downed Allied pilots to cross the border south to the theoretically neutral Spain, with the Basque clergy (e.g. Father Pierre Laffite) and themugalariak (local smugglers) standing out in that pursuit.[8]Resistance members and smugglers organized in theComet line to help them cross the border. The Basque version of the FrenchMaquis was centred in Soule, more intense on its highlands, and shaken by Nazi repression (raids, executions).[8]
Petain'sVichy France fell starting November 1942, with the Germans taking over all its former territory. TheMaquis in Soule helped liberateMauleon (Maule in Basque) andTardets (Atharratze).[8] The Nazi occupation of theBasque Country came to an end in 1944, after German troops definitely retreated following the Allied counteroffensive.[9] However, the Germans found time enough to stretch out theirAtlantic Wall up toHendaye, leaving its remains behind, still on-sight today.
The active Basques evacuated on the final stage of thenorthern front in the Spanish Civil War joined the Allied forces and played a critical role in thePointe de Grave battle with theirGernika Battalion (Gironde).De Gaulle commented, "France will never forget the sacrifice of the Basques for theliberation of our land."[9] The long-standing conservative weeklyEskualduna was shut down in 1944,[10] for its support to the Vichy regime and the collaborationist stance shown with the Germans. It was replaced byHerria, conducted byPiarres Lafitte.[10]
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On 7 May 1945, the day ofoccupied Norway's liberation,Josef Terboven, formerReichskommissar of Norway, put the WalloonRexistLéon Degrelle and five other men on aHeinkel He 111 bound forFrancoist Spain and then South America.[11] The next day, the plane crashed on theBeach of La Concha, atSan Sebastián, Spain and Degrelle,[12] who had amongst other injuries sustained a broken leg, was hospitalized and detained.[13]