Sixty years ago, Hitler's warplanes bombed this mountain town to rubble. For the first time, Germany atoned for the slaughter in a solemn tribute Saturday to the more than 1,000 civilians who died.
As a bell recovered from a church destroyed in the April 26, 1937, attack tolled for its victims, German Ambassador Henning Wegener sat in the front row of wooden seats in Guernica's cemetery, his head bowed.German President Roman Herzog planned to apologize Sunday for the attack, the first air bombardment of an undefended town in history and immortalized in Pablo Picasso's "Guernica."
Germany's atonement comes after six decades, but it is not too late for survivors who remember the attack as if it happened yesterday.
"We were in a sandbagged shelter when it began," recalled Miren de Gomeza, 76, who along with Wegener placed wreaths at a victims' memorial. "We thought we would die and began to pray together, but we couldn't hear our voices above the bombs."
When de Gomeza and others in the shelter emerged after the three-hour bombardment, "we saw a Dante-esque scene. There was a red cloud over the town, trees and utility poles covered the streets, and all the houses were on fire."
Incendiary devices were among the 100,000 pounds of bombs dropped on Guernica by the German Condor Legion, which fought alongside Gen. Francisco Franco's fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War. It was the first time they were used against an urban target.
German fighter planes strafed civilians trying to flee into the countryside.
"The planes came very low," remembered Itziar de Arzanegi, who was 11 then. "We could even see the goggles on the pilots' faces. One old woman didn't run and instead screamed curses at them. She was hit by bullets."
De Arzanegi and de Gomeza, animatedly recounting the attack that left the streets littered with pieces of bodies, including many children, said an apology from Germany would be welcome. The death toll has never been clarified. Estimates range from 1,000 to 1,650.
Wegener, in an interview, noted Germany's acceptance of blame comes as new information is emerging about World War II, to which the Spanish Civil War was a prelude. The role of Swiss banks in accepting Nazi gold stolen from Jews, and of Franco protecting German spies and saboteurs have recently made headlines.
Historians still differ on whether the attack, in which some Italian pilots reportedly had a minor role, was mounted primarily to destroy a bridge outside Guernica to hamper a retreat by enemy Republican troops or to sow terror among civilians.
But the lack of outcry from Britain, which pursued an appeasement policy with Hitler, emboldened the Nazis and led to their bombing civilian targets in World War II, according to historian Paul Preston.
"Had the British said `No more,' the Germans may have backed down," Preston said from his office at the London School of Economics. "Instead, the Germans and Italians moved from being scared of Britons to believing they were absolute wimps and that they could get away with anything."
During the ceremony, gray-haired survivors dabbed tears from their eyes. A choir of German schoolchildren sang pieces by Bach and others, their voices carried off by wind whipping through pine-studded hills above Guernica and across the graveyard.
"We must have these remembrances," said Mayor Eduardo Vallejo, who survived the attack as an infant and who embraced Wegener during the ceremony. "We want the world to remember so it does not happen again. It is a scream that should never be silenced."