On April 26, 1937, a massive aerial attack by German and Italian forces reduced the Basque city of Gernika to rubble and left more than sixteen hundred people dead. Although the assault was initiated as part of a terror bombing campaign by Francoists against Basque Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War, its main intent was to test the effectiveness of the rising German Luftwaffe’s new equipment and strategies. To produce this detailed analysis of the political and military background of the attack and its subsequent international impact, Xabier Irujo examined archives and official government documents in several countries and conducted numerous interviews with Basques who survived. His account of the assault itself, based on eyewitness reports from both victims and attackers, vividly recalls the horror of that first example of the blitz bombing that served the Germans during the first years of World War II. He reveals the US and British governments’ reaction to the bombing and also discusses efforts to prosecute the perpetrators for war crimes. Irujo relates the ways in which the massacre has been remembered and commemorated in Gernika and throughout the worldwide Basque diaspora. Gernika, 1937: The Market Day Massacre is an important contribution to the history of the Spanish Civil War and to our understanding of the military strategies and decisions that shaped this war and would later be employed by the Nazis during World War II.

This year marks the eightieth anniversary of the bombing of the Basque town of Gernika in Spain. Pablo Picasso created his iconic, anti-fascist painting, Guernica (1937), in protest against that attack and others targeted at civilian populations. This book, published alongside the exhibition, Guernica Remakings, explores the ongoing power of Picasso?s Guernica through a series of contemporary reworkings that continue to locate the iconic image within political protest. The featured artworks demonstrate the longevity and versatility of the original as it morphed from Picasso?s canvas, painted in 1937, to a tapestry in 1955, a textile artwork in 2010, a theatrical production in 2011-12 and a protest banner in 2012-14. Guernica?s humanitarian message is still relevant; it calls for solidarity and compassion across borders. Traversing geographical boundaries with each remaking it connects Spain and France, to the USA, UK, South Africa, Canada and India. The voices of those involved in creating the artworks are heard alongside the curator and maker, Dr Nicola Ashmore. 00Exhibition: University of Brighton, Gallery, UK (28.07.-23.08.2017).

The episode of Guernica, with all that it represents both in the military and the moral order, seems destined to pass into History as a symbol. A symbol of many things, but chiefly of that capacity for falsehood possessed by the new Machiavellism which threatens destruction to all the ethical hypotheses of civilization. A clear example of the use which can be made of untruth to degrade the minds of those whom one wishes to convince.(Foreign Wings over the Basque Country, 1937)Just after 4 p.m. aeroplanes threw nine bombs in the centre of the town. We were looking after the wounded when more aeroplanes appeared, which began to drop all kinds of bombs, incendiary and explosive. The wild beasts who piloted those aeroplanes, whenever they saw in the streets or outside the town a human figure, turned their machine-guns on it, sowing terror and death and killing not a few, among whom were women children, and old people. Such was the tragedy of Guernica, the truth of which I, Mayor of Guernica, affirm be-fore the whole world.Guernica has been burnt, but Guernica will not die. The tree will put out new green leaves every spring; her sons will return to her once more; once more her houses will be rebuilt, her churches hear again their hymns and prayers, and happy life abound in her streets. Guernica, the symbol of our national liberties, and the symbol too of the ferocity of international Fascism, cannot die for Euzkadi will not die."(Jose Labauria, Mayor of Gernika)

The remarkable story of the famous painting by Picasso and its diverse meanings from its conception to the present day 'Enthralling ... This is high-action drama, told like the rest within a huge frame of reference, theme interlocked with theme ... A painting which began its life within a particular political context has emerged as a universal statement on the ever-present horror and suffering of war. Van Hensbergen has treated an extraordinary subject admirably' Evening Standard Of all the great paintings in the world, Picasso's Guernica has had a more direct impact on our consciousness than perhaps any other. In this absorbing and revealing book, Gijs van Hensbergen tells the story of this masterpiece. Starting with its origin in the destruction of the Basque town of Gernika in the Spanish Civil War, the painting is then used as a weapon in the propaganda battle against Fascism. Later it becomes the nucleus of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the detonator for the Big Bang of Abstract Expressionism in the late 1940s. This tale of passion and politics shows the transformation of this work of art into an icon of many meanings, up to its long contested but eventually triumphant return to Spain in 1981.

The Tree of Gernika: a Field Study of Modern War was published in 1938. It is G. L. Steer's masterpiece. Martha Gellhorn famously wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt: 'You must read a book by a man names Steer: it is called The Tree of Gernika. It is about the fight of the Basques - he's the London Times man - and no better book has come out of the war and he says well all the things I have tried to say to you the times I saw you, after Spain. It is beautifully written and true, and few books are like that, and fewer still deal with war. Pleas get it.' As Paul Preston says in his We Saw Spain Die, 'Martha Gellhorn's judgement has more than stood the test of time.' In his introduction, Nick Rankin writes.' The Tree of Gernika tells how Euzkadi, the democratic republic that the Basques created in their green homeland by the Bay of Biscay, fought for freedom and decency in an atrocious civil war. After a year of struggle, blockaded by sea, bombed from the air, fighting against overwhelming odds in their own hill, the Basques in the end lost to Franco's forces - but they lost honourably, without resorting to murder, torture and treachery.' It was Steer who alerted the world to the destruction of Gernika (Basque spelling), Guernica (Spanish spelling). It was the most important dispatch of his life, run by both The Times and The New York Times. Nick Rankin rightly describes The Tree of Gernika as 'a masterpiece of narrative history and eyewitness reporting by someone close to the key events . . .'

A brilliant, concise account of the painting often described as the most important work of art produced in the twentieth century, as part of the stunning Landmark Library series. Pablo Picasso had already accepted a commission to create a work for the Spanish Republican Pavilion in 1937 when news arrived of the bombing of the undefended Basque town of Gernika. James Attlee offers an illuminating account of the genesis, creation and complex afterlife of Picasso's Guernica. He explores the historical and cultural context from which the painting sprang and the meanings it accrued during its travels across Europe and the Americas, as well as its influence on artists both living and dead. Finally, he argues for its continuing importance as a warning of what happens when the forces of darkness go unchallenged. Praise for Guernica: 'Helps you appreciate Guernica's daring and resonance' Literary Review 'An impressive overview of the painting's conception and execution, and its subsequent life as an exhibit and a symbol... Attlee's book succeeds in showing how influential Guernica has been' Sunday Times 'Attlee digs up rich examples of the debate and devotion that invariably attended the painting... Guernica literature abounds; but this book is a worthwhile addition' Spectator