Working for Nazi Germany: Salvador Merino and Spanish Labor in the Third Reich

This book examines the leadership of Gerardo Salvador Merino, the chief director of the Sindicatos, fascist-controlled unions under the Franco Regime, and his plan to send 100,000 volunteer Spanish workers to Nazi Germany.

Despite a degree of charisma and organizational effectiveness, the ambitions of Salvador Merino failed to transform Spain or lift the working classes, and his career ended with the discovery of ties to Freemasonry. Workers who volunteered for Germany to improve their workplace skills, aid the New Order, and support their families instead endured air raids, Nazi racism, and wartime miseries. These failures highlight the Franco Regime’s misplaced hope to be on the winning side of World War II through low-cost affiliation with Nazi Germany. In the end, Spain derived few benefits from its enthusiasm for Hitler, and after the war endured isolation for its earlier aims. Through new sources on both Salvador Merino and the Spaniards in the Third Reich, this book reveals the story of unsuccessful revolutionary intentions, failed collaboration, and the suffering experienced by Spanish workers, including Republican exiles.

This volume will be useful to historians and general readers interested in the history of World War II, modern Spain, fascism, and the use of foreign labor in wartime.

Wayne H. Bowen is Professor of History at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of Spain and the Protestant Reformation (2023), Truman, Franco’s Spain, and the Cold War (2017), Spain during World War II (2006), and Spaniards and Nazi Germany (2000).