Hitler the socialist: the fallacy that keeps dividing Spain's left

Hitler, the socialist who shot socialists

Calling Hitler a socialist requires ignoring a list of corpses far too long. The German National Socialist Workers' Party adopted the term in its name to scratch up working-class votes, but as soon as it came to power it banned trade unions, imprisoned and executed social democrats and communists. The word 'socialist' was bait, not a programme.

That old trick has resurfaced in a debate that mixes the past of Spain's PSOE (the Socialist Party) with the Falange. It has been repeated that the parents of Bono, Óscar Puente and Pilar Alegría had Falangist ties. As so often, the accusation travels without any documentation to support it and serves as a counterweight to those who recall that Hitler wiped out the left.

The label that never was one

Historians have spent decades dismantling the national socialism–socialism equivalence. Nancy is short for national socialist, but its real fight was against Marxism, which is why it struck deals with industrialists and conservatives. Saying 'Hitler was a socialist' because of the party's name is like calling a wolf a sheep because a shepherd dressed it in sheepskin.

The controversy also brings out the other side: in Spain, the Falange has been used to smear today's right, ignoring the fact that Francoism ended up swallowing up the early Falangists. Historical memory should not be reduced to a war of surnames, but Spanish politics rarely demands subtlety.

Meanwhile, what gets little discussion is what lies underneath: economic problems. Why does the conversation drift towards Hitler and ministers' grandparents? Perhaps because twisting history is more profitable than explaining the budget. The question remains: how much longer will we keep paying that bill?