April 26, 1937
During the Spanish Civil War, the German military tested its powerful new air force—the Luftwaffe—on the Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain. The German aircraft began their attack at 4:30 p.m., the busiest hour of the market day. For three hours, the German planes poured down a continuous rain of bombs and gunfire on the town and surrounding countryside. One-third of Guernica’s 5,000 inhabitants were killed or wounded, and fires engulfed the city and burned for days. The indiscriminate killing of civilians at Guernica became a symbol of fascist brutality, but by 1942, all major participants in World War II had adopted the bombing innovations developed by the Nazis at Guernica. The painting below is Picasso’s Guernica, a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace.
