Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War
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For those who died in Spain, or left their hearts there; and for Tom
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraphs
Maps
Chronology
Principal Characters
A Note on Spelling
Author’s Note
Prologue
Part I: “They are here for their lives”
July 1936: Madrid
July 1936: London/Paris
July 1936: Paris
July 1936: Brno
July 1936: Key West
August 1936: Paris/Barcelona/Madrid
September 1936: Paris
September 1936: Madrid
September 1936: Córdoba Front
September 1936: Toledo/Madrid
September 1936: L Bar T Ranch, Wyoming
October 1936: Madrid/Cartagena/Moscow
November 1936: New York
November 1936: Madrid
November 1936: Paris/Madrid
November 1936: Key West
November 1936: Naples
December 1936: Madrid
December 1936: New York
December 1936: Valencia
December 1936: Key West
Part II: “You never hear the one that hits you”
January 1937: Madrid
January 1937: Valencia
January 1937: New York
February 1937: Málaga Front
February 1937: Madrid
February–March 1937: New York
March 1937: Paris/Pyrenees
March 1937: Madrid/Valencia/Madrid
March 1937: Barcelona/Valencia/Madrid
April 1937: Madrid
April 1937: Moscow
April 1937: Madrid
May 1937: Paris
May 1937: Barcelona
May 1937: Paris
May 1937: Bilbao
May 1937: Madrid
May 1937: Valencia
June 1937: New York
June 1937: Segovia Front/Madrid
June 1937: Córdoba Front
July 1937: New York/Washington/Los Angeles
July 1937: Valencia/Madrid
July 1937: Paris
July 1937: Valencia/Madrid
July 1937: Paris
August 1937: Madrid/Valencia
August 1937: New York
September 1937: Paris
September 1937: Madrid
September 1937: Aragon/Valencia/Teruel Front
September 1937: New York
October–November 1937: Madrid
December 1937: Playa de San Juan
December 1937: The North Atlantic
December 1937: Teruel
December 1937: Barcelona
December 1937: Teruel
December 1937: Barcelona
December 1937: Moscow
Part III: “La Despedida”
January 1938: Teruel
January–February 1938: Key West
January–February 1938: Post Agency lecture circuit, United States
January–February 1938: Barcelona
March 1938: The North Atlantic
March 1938: Paris
April 1938: Barcelona
May 1938: Madrid
May 1938: Paris
June–July 1938: Key West
June–July 1938: Paris
July 1938: Hankow
September 1938: Prague
September 1938: Paris
October 1938: Barcelona
October 1938: Paris
November 1938: Barcelona
December 1938: Moscow
January 1939: New York
January 1939: Paris
January 1939: Barcelona
February–March 1939: Paris
February–March 1939: Key West/Havana
Epilogue
Notes
Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Illustration Credits
Also by Amanda Vaill
A Note About the Author
Copyright
You could learn as much at the Hotel Florida in those years as you could learn anywhere in the world.
—Ernest Hemingway
Cómo se pasa la vida,
Cómo se viene la muerte.
Tan callando:
Cuán presto se va el placer,
Cómo, después de acordado,
Da dolor,
Cómo, a nuestro parecer,
Cualquier tiempo pasado
Fué mejor.
—Jorge Manrique
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
—Matthew 16:26
CHRONOLOGY
1931 King Alfonso XIII leaves Spain, ushering in the Second Republic, a coalition of Socialists and liberal middle-class Republicans; the new government gives women the vote, legalizes divorce, cuts the size of the army
1932 General José Sanjurjo attempts a right-wing coup against the Spanish Republic; Anarchist uprisings take place in Andalusia, Aragon, the Basque country, and Madrid
Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected president of the United States; U.S. unemployment at 25 percent
1933 Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany; all political parties except National Socialists (Nazis) are banned; the first Nazi concentration camp is opened at Dachau
Spanish right-wing parties win a majority in the Cortes
1934 General Francisco Franco leads suppression of miners’ rebellion in Asturias
Austrian Civil War causes street fighting in Vienna and other cities; conservative premier Dolfuss outlaws the Social Democrats and Austria becomes a proto-fascist state
1935 Andrés Nin and Joaquin Maurin form the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) in Catalonia
Prime Minister Benito Mussolini sends Italian troops to invade Abyssinia
Stalin initiates the first purge of what will be called the Great Terror
1936 February Newly formed Popular Front coalition of Socialists, Communists, and Republicans narrowly wins Spanish general elections; the new government relieves Francisco Franco of his command and posts him to Canary Islands
March Hitler reoccupies the Rhineland
May Popular Front wins general election in France; Léon Blum narrowly escapes assassination by fascist militia, becomes premier
July Concerted military uprisings take place all over Spain; Franco flies from Canary Islands to Morocco to take charge of the Army of Africa and invade the Spanish mainland; the government arms civilians to combat the mutiny
August European nations, joined by the United States, declare a Non-Intervention Agreement for Spain; Nationalist (rebel) army, aided by secret gifts of war materiel from Germany and Italy, advances steadily; Socialist leader Francisco Largo Caballero becomes premier of Spain
September Spanish rebels take Toledo and San Sebastian; Franco is appointed supreme political and military commander of the rebels
October Spanish gold reserves transported to Russia; first International Brigades arrive in Spain
November Nationalist forces advance to outskirts of Madrid, but are halted;
government relocates to Valencia; Germany and Italy recognize Franco
1937 January Moscow trials of Old Bolsheviks and current army officers begin; U.S. Congress forbids all arms sales to Spain
February Nationalists take Málaga, begin offensive in Jarama Valley
March Government forces push back Nationalists at Guadalajara
April German Luftwaffe bombs Guernica
May May Days in Barcelona; Juan Negrin replaces Largo Caballero as premier
June Bilbao falls to Nationalists
July Battle of Brunete; USSR enters Sino-Japanese War
August Fighting begins on Aragon Front
October Government forces take Belchite in Aragon; Nationalists win control of north; government moves from Valencia to Barcelona
December Teruel offensive begins. In China, Japanese besiege and take Nanking
1938 January Government forces take Teruel
February Nationalists retake Teruel
March Nationalists retake Belchite, start drive to Mediterranean; Italian planes begin bombing Barcelona; France reopens border with Spain; Germany annexes Austria in the Anschluss
April Nationalists take Lérida, then Vinaroz, cutting the Republican zone in two; Franco privately signs the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, Italy, and Germany
June Léon Blum resigns as French premier and is succeeded by Édouard Daladier; French border with Spain closed
July Spanish government begins counteroffensive along the Ebro
September Munich conference among France, Britain, Germany, and Italy permits Hitler’s annexation of Czech Sudetenland
October Spanish government agrees to withdrawal of all foreign volunteers; International Brigades have farewell parade in Barcelona; in China, Hankow falls to Japanese
November Rio Segre offensive; Battle of the Ebro ends in government defeat and retreat back across river; in Germany, Kristallnacht results in destruction of 7,500 Jewish shops and 400 synagogues
December Franco begins offensive on Catalonia
1939 January Nationalist troops take Barcelona
February Fall of Catalonia; Britain and France recognize Franco
March Franco marches into Madrid; Germany annexes all of Czechoslovakia, demands the free city of Danzig in Poland
April Franco announces the end of military hostilities, makes public his agreement to the German/Italian/Japanese Anti-Comintern Pact
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
THE SPANISH
For the government (also known as Republicans, Loyalists)
Julio Álvarez del Vayo, foreign minister of the Spanish Republic, September 1936–May 1937 and April 1938–March 1939
Arturo Barea Ogazón, patent engineer, press censor, would-be writer
Luís Companys, president of the Generalitat (autonomous government) of Catalonia
Francisco Largo Caballero, Socialist leader, prime minister of the Spanish Republic, September 1936–May 1937
Enrique Líster, Soviet-trained commander of the 11th Division of the Popular Army, later of the 5th Army Corps
José Miaja, Loyalist general and chief of the Defense Junta of Madrid
Colonel Juan Modesto, Communist commander of the Fifth Army Corps, later of the Army of the Ebro
Constancia de la Mora y Maura, aristocrat, Communist, deputy (from May 1937) and then propaganda chief of the Spanish Republic, October 1937–February 1939
Dr. Juan Negrín, Socialist leader, finance minister, and later prime minister of Spain, May 1937–March 1939
Andrés Nin, anti-Stalinist Catalan communist, founder of the POUM
Indalecio Prieto, socialist leader, rival of Largo Caballero, Spanish minister of defense, May 1937–March 1938
José Robles Pazos, Spanish translator of John Dos Passos
Luis Rubio Hidalgo, propaganda minister of the Spanish Republic, September 1936–October 1937
José (Pepe) Quintanilla, chief of Madrid’s secret police, brother of the artist Luis Quintanilla
For the rebels (also known as the Nationalists)
Luis Bolín, right-wing conspirator, later Nationalist propaganda chief
Francisco Franco Bahamonde, youngest general in the Spanish Army, later leader of the Nationalist rebellion
THE AMERICANS
Virginia (Ginny) Cowles, Hearst newspaper syndicate correspondent
John Dos Passos, novelist and journalist
Sidney Franklin, American matador, friend and factotum to Ernest Hemingway
Martha Gellhorn, novelist and journalist
Ernest Hemingway, novelist and journalist
Josephine (Josie) Herbst, American novelist and leftist journalist, friend of Hemingway and Dos Passos
James Lardner, American journalist, correspondent for the Paris bureau of the Herald-Tribune, son of the American novelist Ring Lardner
Archibald MacLeish, American poet and magazine editor, friend of Hemingway and Dos Passos
Herbert L. Matthews, Madrid correspondent for The New York Times
Robert Hale Merriman, American professor of economics, commander of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, later chief of staff of the Fifteenth International Brigade
Maxwell Perkins, Hemingway’s editor at Charles Scribner’s Sons
Liston Oak, American Communist working for the Spanish Republican Propaganda Ministry; secretary of the League of American Writers
Franklin Roosevelt, president of the United States of America, 1933–1945
Eleanor Roosevelt, his wife, journalist and activist
Vincent (Jimmy) Sheean, foreign correspondent of the Herald-Tribune
THE BRITISH
Eric Blair, a.k.a. George Orwell, English investigative journalist and POUM militiaman
Claud Cockburn, Spanish correspondent for The Daily Worker, editor and correspondent for The Week
Sefton (Tom) Delmer, Madrid correspondent for The Daily Express
Diana (Dinah) Forbes-Robertson, a writer, married to Vincent Sheean
THE RUSSIANS
Vladimir Gorev, special military attaché of the Soviet Union and Madrid station chief of the GRU (Soviet military intelligence)
General Emilio Kléber, a.k.a. Manfred (or Lazar) Stern, commander of the Eleventh International Brigade, November 1936
Mikhail Koltsov, Russian journalist, Spanish correspondent for Pravda
Alexander Orlov, NKVD station chief in Madrid (later Valencia), 1936–1938
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, general secretary of the Communist Party, 1922–1952
Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, people’s commissar for defense, USSR
THE OTHERS
Ted Allan, leftist Canadian journalist
André (Endre) Friedmann, a.k.a. Robert Capa, Hungarian photographer
Carlos Contreras, a.k.a. Vittorio Vidali, Trieste-born NKVD agent and founder of the Loyalist Fifth Regiment
Louis Delaprée, Madrid correspondent for Paris-Soir
John Ferno, a.k.a. Fernhout, Dutch Communist cinematographer
Joris Ivens, Dutch Communist film director
Colonel Hans Kahle, exiled Prussian Communist, after 1936 commander of the Eleventh International Brigade, later divisional commander in the Republican Popular Army
Alfred Kantorowicz, Polish émigré journalist, information officer of the Chapaiev Battalion of the Thirteenth International Brigade
Geza Korvin Karpathi, Hungarian photographer and filmmaker, boyhood friend of Endre Friedmann (Robert Capa)
Otto Katz, a.k.a. André Simone, refugee German Communist, propagandist, founder of the Agence Espagne
Ilse (later Ilsa) Kulcsar, née Pollak, Austrian journalist, socialist activist, and translator
Leopold (Poldi) Kulcsar, Austrian journalist and clandestine political operative
General Pavol Lukács, a.k.a. Maté Zalka, Hungarian-born, Moscow-trained commander of the Twelfth International Brigade
André Malraux, French novelist, art theorist, founder of the Escuadrilla España
&nb
sp; Randalfo Pacciardi, Italian antifascist, commander of the Garibaldi Battalion of the Twelfth International Brigade
Gustav Regler, German Communist refugee, political commissar of the Twelfth International Brigade
Kajsa Rothman, Swedish guide and interpreter employed by the Loyalist propaganda department
Karol Swierczewski, a.k.a. Colonel [sometimes General] Walter, Polish-born, Soviet-trained commander of the Fourteenth International Brigade
Gerta Pohorylle, a.k.a. Gerda Taro, Polish-born German photographer
A NOTE ON SPELLING
Although current usage calls for Catalan or Basque spelling for proper and place names in those regions, I have followed contemporary (1930s) practice in rendering them in Castilian Spanish—or, in a few cases where contemporary sources did likewise, in anglicized orthography. Thus today’s Lleida becomes Lérida; Gernika becomes Guernica; Andreu Nin becomes Andrés Nin; but the Catalan Catalunya becomes the anglicized Catalonia (not the Castilian Cataluña), and the Castilian Zaragoza becomes Saragossa. However, the state government of Catalonia is referred to as the Generalitat (not Generalidad), since that is the how both Arturo Barea and John Dos Passos refer to it. Also, when writing of Robert Capa’s assignment in China, I’ve given his location as Hankow (as it was spelled at the time).
AUTHOR’S NOTE
“It is very dangerous to write the truth in war,” said Ernest Hemingway, “and the truth is very dangerous to come by.” Hotel Florida is about that danger, and how it is faced by three couples—Hemingway and his fellow writer Martha Gellhorn, the photographers Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, and the press officers Arturo Barea and Ilsa Kulcsar—whose paths cross in Madrid while they are covering the Spanish Civil War; it is also about whether, for each of them, living the truth becomes just as important as telling it, to the world, to each other, and to themselves.
From its beginning in 1936, when right-wing, conservative rebels staged a military mutiny against the elected left-wing government, the Spanish Civil War became a kind of historical flash point: as one of its most passionate propagandists, the British journalist Claud Cockburn, wrote in his autobiography, almost no one can “agree with any generalization anyone makes about Spain. I personally disagree with about half the generalizations I made about it at the time.” A war that seemed to start as a struggle between the haves and the have-nots, it reflected—and quickly became subsumed in—the worldwide clash of ideologies that would culminate, only months after hostilities ceased in Spain, in World War II. In such an atmosphere, the shadow line between truth and falsehood sometimes became faint indeed: your friend could be your enemy, and honesty could get you (or someone else) killed.