Máximo Facho

🇪🇸 Everyone remembers the French SS of the Charlemagne Division who defended Berlin and the Führer’s bunker. Almost no one remembers the Spaniards who fought alongside them in the final days of the Third Reich. Their story began in 1941, when Franco's Spain allowed thousands of volunteers to join Hitler's war against the Soviet Union. Known as the Blue Division (División Azul), they fought in the German Army as the 250th Infantry Division around Leningrad. But as Germany's fortunes collapsed, Franco began distancing Spain from Hitler. The Blue Division was withdrawn in 1943, followed by the smaller Blue Legion in 1944. For most Spaniards, the war was over. For a handful of diehards, it wasn't. Some remained in Germany, joining the Wehrmacht or Waffen-SS. Among them was Miguel Ezquerra Sánchez, a former Blue Division volunteer and committed Falangist from Canfranc, a small village in the Spanish Pyrenees. By April 1945, Ezquerra had gathered a small force of 90 Spaniards in Berlin, known as SS-Einheit Ezquerra. As Soviet forces closed in, they reportedly fought around Moritzplatz and the Reich Air Ministry, near the heart of Hitler's collapsing regime. Armed with automatic rifles, machine guns, and Panzerfaust antitank weapons, they joined German troops and other foreign Waffen-SS volunteers in a desperate defense of Berlin. On May 2, 1945, the garrison surrendered. The Third Reich was finished. But what happened to the Spaniards? Some died in the fighting. Others were captured by the Soviets or Western Allies. A few escaped, sometimes disguised as civilian workers, eventually making their way back to Spain. Ezquerra survived. He later claimed to have escaped Soviet captivity, although his account remains difficult to verify. For others, captivity lasted years. In April 1954, nine years after the war, the ship Semíramis arrived in Barcelona carrying Spanish prisoners released by the Soviets. Among them were 21 former Waffen-SS members. An extraordinary, controversial chapter of the Third Reich's final days. If you want more overlooked stories like this, follow @Vanguard_WW2 Artwork: (c) A. Pinto.