This book centres on the bombing of Getafe, a small town south of Madrid shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Sections of the international press reported that forty or more children had been killed by bombs dropped in the Nationalist cause, a tragedy encapsulated in a poster issued by the Ministry of Propaganda. Accompanied by the words "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next", the poster linked Hitler and Nazi Germany with Franco's ruthless determination to overcome resistance and destroy the Republic. In the eyes of millions outside Spain, the poster helped to explain Madrid's heroic resistance to "International Fascism". The book establishes the central importance of the Getafe incident and goes on to analyse "collateral damage" inflicted by air-forces on both sides during the war, and aims to question what Prof. Stradling considers to be the continuing pro-Republican bias of historical writing on the war. It also discusses reactions in the UK and other European countries. Using the iconic poster as a focus, the book also covers other types of propaganda, including examples in art (Picasso's Guernica), literature, music, photography and film. The book will be unique in that it will be the first to analyse the Getafe incident in detail.
