Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Guernica survivors meet bombers' descendants 80 years on

Published 26/04/2017, 18:28
Updated 26/04/2017, 18:30
© Reuters. Relatives of Condor Legion commander and pilot talk to aerial bombing survivor Luis Iriondo on the 80th anniversary of the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica

© Reuters. Relatives of Condor Legion commander and pilot talk to aerial bombing survivor Luis Iriondo on the 80th anniversary of the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica

By Vincent West

GUERNICA, Spain (Reuters) - Elderly survivors of a savage air raid that destroyed the Spanish town of Guernica in 1937 met relatives of the attacking German soldiers on Wednesday in a gesture of peace and reconciliation.

Exactly 80 years ago, German supporters of Francisco Franco's nationalist forces struck the market town, killing as many as 1,600 people in one of the first targeted attacks on civilians in modern history.

Luis Iriondo, who was a teenager at the time and now aged 94, said he now forgave Adolf Hitler's forces and compared Guernica's victims to those killed by Allied bombs at Dresden in World War Two.

"We need to forget the enmity there was at that time and seek peace," Iriondo told Reuters. "But I was fourteen then and if I had had a gun I would have shot them!"

As part of anniversary celebrations in the northern Basque town, Iriondo met the descendants of two German soldiers who had served in the Condor Legion which attacked Guernica.

Dieprand von Richthofen, a distant cousin of the legion's leader Wolfram von Richthofen, and Karl Benedikt von Moreau, whose uncle was a pilot, chatted with Iriondo in French.

© Reuters. Relatives of Condor Legion commander and pilot talk to aerial bombing survivor Luis Iriondo on the 80th anniversary of the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica

"We are just horrified by what happened here," von Moreau told Reuters. "The consequence of what happened should be that we take responsibility and we say no more of these catastrophes, no more war, no more violence."

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.