The Spanish Blue Division on the Eastern Front, 1941–1945

The Spanish Blue Division on the Eastern Front, 1941–1945 addresses the history and memory of the Spanish volunteers that served alongside the German army in the invasion of Russia.

Xosé M. Núñez Seixas is a professor of modern European history at the University of Santiago de Compostela.

"In this thoroughly researched and nuanced work, Núñez Seixas seeks to answer the ‘big’ questions of Spanish participation in the brutal war in Russia, especially that of motivation. He finds that Spanish attitudes reflected a mix of ideological, religious, careerist, and adventurist motivations, but that Spaniards were also less overtly racist, more tolerant of the occupied Soviet population, and less likely to be involved in anti-Jewish actions. An excellent contribution to our understanding of the war in Russia as part of an alleged defensive European crusade against an existential communist (and Jewish) threat."

Adrian Shubert, Professor of History, York University:

"Based on letters, diaries, and unpublished and published memoirs gleaned from private and public archives in Spain, Germany, and Russia, this groundbreaking book tells the fascinating story of the Spaniards sent by dictator Francisco Franco to fight alongside the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front and the ways they have been remembered in Spain. A superb example of the new military history."

Alexander Hill, Professor in Military History, University of Calgary, and author of The Red Army and the Second World War :

"The author and translators have done a major service to the English-language literature on Germany's war on the Eastern Front during the Second World War in providing us with this in-depth history of the Blue Division. This work will undoubtedly become the standard English-language work on the division."