Franco, Francisco

Dictator of Spain from 1939, when he led Spanish nationalist forces in a military coup against the democratically elected Spanish Republic during the extremely violent Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Franco remained in power until 1973.

Franco had enjoyed the support of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany during the civil war, but in World War II he maintained Spain's neutrality while remaining sympathetic to the Axis. However, as an Allied victory became more likely from 1943 on, Franco's regime distanced itself from the Axis powers.

Although Franco's position regarding the Jews was ambivalent, as many as 30,000 Jews fleeing Europe were allowed to transit through Spain en route to other destinations.

Franco's attempts to distance Spain from the Axis in the later years of the war did not help him to gain favor with the Allies and his regime was ostracized by the United Nations in the immediate postwar period as the last surviving fascist regime. Worsening relations between the West and the Soviet bloc from the late 1940s and 1950s led to Franco's rehabilitation as an anticommunist statesman.