Margarita Nelken and forgetfulness

In Congress, there are mural decorations, called tondos, which display portraits of serious nineteenth-century noblemen. Recently, a portrait of Manuel Azaña and another of Adolfo Suárez have been added. President Armengol wanted a tondo dedicated to the memory of some illustrious parliamentarian, and there was a general consensus to approve a tondo in homage to Representative Clara Campoamor , who inspires widespread admiration for many reasons, including the fact that she has no blood on her hands and has not encouraged the Civil War.

On Tuesday, in its final session of the season, Congress approved a tondo for Margarita Nelken and other former parliamentarians, with the sole votes of the PSOE and Sumar. Yet another decision with slim majorities and no consensus, a characteristic of this term.

No one seems to be concerned that there are already streets or cultural centers named after Margarita Nelken. It might seem logical, given that she was a brilliant, precocious, and multifaceted individual; her intense activity as an artist, art critic, feminist, writer, and politician was widely appreciated and even earned her recognition in the Espasa Encyclopedia, which, in 1932, dedicated half a page to her. She was only 36 years old! She was the only female deputy elected in the three Republican legislatures, always for the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) ; even so, she did nothing to ensure that Spanish women could vote.

But whatever her merits and contributions to our heritage, there is something we cannot ignore about Margarita Nelken: the Civil War awakened in her a bloodthirsty fever, equivalent on the Republican side to the radio atrocities of Queipo de Llano or the sinister proclamations of the Caudillo.

Thus, in the newspaper Claridad, belonging to Largo Caballero's PSOE faction, Nelken paid heartfelt tribute to Fernando Condés, the murderer of Calvo Sotelo. He also proposed exterminating women identified with the Nationalist faction. See his highly femicidal article "Las hembras de los caballerositos" (The Females of the Young Gentlemen), in Claridad (August 28, 1936, pp. 4 and 5).

The ladies of the young gentlemen: "There you have them, in the Sevillian evenings, strolling merrily down Tetuán Street with their holy cards of the Sacred Heart and their two-colored ribbons on their chests. They call themselves Catholic and monarchists. They cheer Spain and Christ the King, and in its highest representation, the former general Queipo de Llano. Because the highest representation of their Spain and their religion is a traitorous, sadistic, and drunken officer. [...]

There you have them. Without a doubt, we could name them one by one, as the people of Seville, the true people of Seville, enumerate them in that list engraved in their memory, the account for which must be inexorably settled. It's not long now. When the time comes, there will surely be no shortage of simple people, still liberal people, to implore mercy for women. On that day, the distinction—absolute, insurmountable—will have to be established between women and women; between the companions and mothers of men and the cheerleaders of young gentlemen. And so that no one is deceived, so that no one can then speak of useless cruelties, it will be good to stamp in indelible letters, in front of that list of ladies of young gentlemen—the worthy ladies of the hunters of workers and peasants—the name of the martyr of the wife of Dr. Ariza [Antonio Ariza Camacho], whom the Sevillian gentlemen shot, with her little child inside her womb, right on the Remedios Bridge, for the fact of being the partner of a communist.

Revenge? Retaliation? Don't say absurd things, comrade [who] is still a liberal. Vermin are crushed for that reason: because they are vermin. And the beasts harmful to man, the conscious man must suppress for the safeguard of humanity. There you have them, comrades. There you will find them.

Nelken's concept of war is that of a total war, a bloodbath , very much in line with Franco himself and his followers. So two weeks later, Nelken also published 'Of the Frivolous and the Neutral' in the same newspaper (10.09.36).

Of the frivolous and the neutral: «[...] We are at war. Lukewarmness toward the enemy, lack of intransigence in war is not called neutrality, but something else. And this other way, under no pretext, neither that of friendship nor that of family ties, can be tolerated or excused.»

A month later, the deputy published, again, in Claridad another incendiary article, 'Death penalty for the ambushed enemy!' (October 9, 1936), in which we see that the obsession against those who spread hoaxes is not a thing of today.

Death penalty for the enemy in hiding: "Spread hoaxes, something will remain; it's a true testament. Something will remain among people of good faith, of course, while among the rest, the entire hoax remains, to continue circulating in those worlds of fascists in hiding or disguised as 'apolitical'. [...] Because in the face of a hoax, there is no other response, discussion, or reaction than this: order the hoaxer to be arrested immediately, without any consideration of any kind. [...] Dear reader, believe me, there are many weapons to defend against fascism, just as fascism employs all kinds of weapons to try to win. To repel its attacks, whatever their kind, do not hesitate: use the most decisive weapon, the most inexorable. Anyone who spreads hoaxes, no matter how innocent or well-intentioned they may seem, without consideration, order their arrest. Let the hoaxer's political affiliation prior to February 16 be investigated; And if it so happens—which happens almost always—that this good-natured gentleman or lady had right-wing activities or family ties to declared enemies of the regime, well, now you know, reader. Don't let your conscience bother you, because, thanks to you, one of the enemy's weapons will be rendered useless.

That we are at war, and disabling as many of them as possible is the duty of every combatant, vanguard or rearguard.

Finally, another of his articles, 'Gora Euzkadi', appeared under a striking two-page headline: " All fascists must be exterminated; those who have rebelled and those who have not ."

Let us emphasize that Nelken's murderous rhetoric is identical to that of the rival faction's comrades: to justify the murder of a person, they are first subjected to verbal degradation . The rebels used the term "red." Thus, to justify the murder of Spaniards in the extermination camps of Franco's Nazi allies, they resorted to the explanation that "the reds are not Spanish." Nelken, for her part, uses the phrase "female" or "vermin" to demean right-wing women, or "fascist" to encompass all those who are, according to her, active enemies of the Republic. Those who are "neutral," "apolitical," or "liberal," due to their passivity, are also deserving of the death penalty for being "enemies in ambush."

I published these examples back in 2007, in the now-defunct Asturias Liberal, and they are taken from the Claridad microfilms held by the National Library, where they are available to everyone. The usual plagiarists reproduce them without acknowledging my authorship as the compiler.

In any case, does Margarita Nelken deserve a tribute? And, more importantly, are we aware of the abysses to which polarization strategies lead us?