Resumen de Good Invaders?: the occupation policy of the Spanish Blue Division in Northwestern Russia, 1941–1944
Between 1941 and 1944, the Spanish Division of Volunteers took part in the Russian campaign as a unit integrated in the German Wehrmacht. Post-1945 war memoirs and even some historians have suggested that the ‘Blue’ Division was exceptional for their benign treatment of civilians and prisoners, distanced from the German War of Extermination. This image has not been subjected to critical enquiry. To what degree were the Spanish troops different from other Wehrmacht troops? Was the collective behaviour of the Spanish soldiers determined by the circumstances they encountered at the front, or was it related to their prior political socialization?
