Trial by Fire: The Bombing of Guernica
To what extent does the bombing Guernica still influence the modern psyche on civilian involvement in warfare
Through various representations of the bombing of Guernica (or Gernika), discourse concerning the involvement of civilians in war remains relevant within the modern psyche. The bombing was an attack upon the Basque village on the 26th of April 1937. The bombing, conducted by the German Luftwaffe’s elite Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria under the request of General Francisco Franco and the Nationalists, remains as one of the most controversial and symbolically charged acts of modern warfare. The attack resulted in the near-total destruction of the Basque town and the deaths of hundreds of civilians. The destruction was both immediate and shocking, to the point that it has maintained relevancy through continuous discussions concerning the role of civilian attacks within warfare. The event of 1937 has been likened to current affairs including the bombings of Hiroshima and Dresden by the Allied powers in World War II, the Siege of Aleppo of the Syrian Civil War and the Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon by journalists and bureaucrats [1]. The bombing of Guernica remains relevant through its consistent influence upon the modern psyche, particularly within historical narratives, human rights discourses, politics, media and psychology and trauma studies.
It is evident that the bombing of Guernica continues to shape the modern psyche through five key channels: the reshaping of historical narratives about civilian suffering; the development of international human rights discourses; the enduring political and artistic legacy of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica [2]; the role of media and visual culture in disseminating the moral critique of targeting non-combatants; and the psychological legacy of Guernica within collective trauma studies. Together, these reflect a profound and continuing impact on how warfare is conceptualised in relation to civilian populations.
The attack upon Guernica helped crystallise a shift in historical consciousness concerning the legitimacy of targeting civilians in conflict. Whilst civilians have long suffered in warfare, the intentional and systematic destruction of Guernica by modern aerial bombardment weaponised this suffering as a deliberate strategy. As Xabier Irujo notes, the raid was designed not only to break Basque resistance, but to test the efficacy of terror bombing — an innovation in military doctrine later employed extensively in WWII [3]. This shift marked a possible change in military strategy: civilians were no longer accidental victims but intended targets. This awareness of civilian vulnerability — and the mechanisms by which that vulnerability was rendered visible — profoundly shaped subsequent historiography. Paul Preston’s work explicitly links Guernica with the long-term moral erosion of just war theory. He argues that Guernica serves as the first clear instance in modern history where “civilians were systematically targeted for maximum psychological impact” [4]. He positions Guernica as a moral precursor to the attacks of Dresden — an attack that was justified by the Allies as Dresden was deemed to be a major rail transport and communications hub, however, not all military targets nor barracks were hit[5] — and the Bombing of Tokyo — a series of air raids upon Tokyo with the goal of “damage[ing] the Japanese morale and [to] spur the end of the war” [6] and is largely considered to be one of the most destructive attacks upon civilians to date, “more than 100,000 people were killed, a million were maimed and another million were made homeless”[7]. In this sense, the memory of Guernica not only affects how we understand the Spanish Civil War but has retroactively reshaped the historical narratives of 20th-century total war. Even amongst military historians, Guernica retains symbolic weight. As Ryan Patrick Hopkins observes in his historiographical survey of strategic bombing in WWII, “Guernica is invoked almost ritualistically, a harbinger of what was to come” [8]. Thus, Guernica’s influence persists in shaping how historians contextualise and problematise the emergence of strategic bombing and through that, our understanding of modern warfare’s ethical landscape.
In a broader moral and legal context, Guernica did not necessarily drive the development of international human rights frameworks and norms of humanitarian law in a direct or systemic way. However, it did mark a pivotal movement in galvanising public outrage against the targeting of civilians. The bombing occurred a full decade before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and whilst Guernica’s legacy informed moral discourse around civilian suffering, the legal codification of protections emerged primarily in response to the broader horrors of the WWII. As Peter N. Carroll contends, “Guernica remains one of the earliest modern examples of moral outrage being channelled into international human rights discourse”[9], yet the institutional response took shape only after further atrocities. The atrocity was widely condemned at the time, initially by George Steer’s report that exposed the attack to British audiences[10] and then throughout other Western nations, such as France, the U.S. and Australia. These reports prompted efforts to define and protect non-combatant rights in wartime amongst their readers, efforts that would only be amplified after the atrocities of WWII. While the Geneva Conventions had existed in some form since the 19th century, it wasn’t until after the WWII in 1945 — and under the shadow of attacks such as those of Guernica, Warsaw Hiroshima and Dresden — that civilian protections were codified with urgency and specificity. Irujo, Angel Viñas and Preston argue that Guernica, though initially shrouded in denial and propaganda, eventually became a symbol of the very idea that war crimes can be committed against civilians[11]. Importantly, this influence has transcended purely legal discourse. Guernica is often invoked in modern humanitarian contexts to portray a perceived unjust attack. Within a contemporary context, both the Russian attack upon Ukraine’s Mariupol [12] and Israeli attacks upon Palestine [13] have been likened to Guernica, with the historic offensive being used as a symbol to depict unjust attacks against civilians and evoke outrage. The use of Guernica as a symbol within these contexts draws upon a genealogy of moral critique that includes Guernica as a foundational episode, with it now functioning internationally as a shorthand for unjust suffering, exemplifying the psychological depth of this influence. As Anne Colacomosca suggests, “Guernica did not simply foreshadow the future — it shaped the emotional and political vocabulary with which we respond to that future”[14].
One of the most powerful and enduring influences of the bombing of Guernica is artistic. Picasso’s mural Guernica, produced in the immediate aftermath of the event, has become one of the most recognisable anti-war images in modern history. Through its stark monochrome palette and contorted human forms, Picasso’s painting channels collective anguish into a semiotic field of resistance. As Philip McCouat argues in The Shocking Birth and Amazing Career of Guernica, “the painting has far outlived the conflict that inspired it, becoming a roving ambassador for peace and human dignity” [15]. This influence is not merely aesthetic but deeply political. During the Vietnam War, reproductions of Guernica were displayed in anti-war rallies. In 2003, a tapestry replicate hanging at the United Nations headquarters was famously shrouded during a press conference in which U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the case for the invasion of Iraq. The choice to cover the artwork — particularly given that Powell’s arguments were intended to justify military action — was widely interpreted as an implicit admission of the painting’s power to delegitimise war. As David Cohen observed, the tapestry “remind[s] us that modern art is poor in images glorifying just military action, though rich in images of the horrors and injustices of war” [16]. The placement at the UN was a deliberate act of “memory politics”. Lent by Nelson Rockefeller in 1985, it has served as a visual conscience in the heart of international governance. The artwork’s presence in the Security Council corridor — where ambassadors, heads of state and diplomats pass before entering deliberations — injects civilian suffering directly into the architecture of institutional power. As art historian Jonathan Petropoulos (1999) has noted, “it is a constant visual reminder that war does not spare the innocent and that atrocity is not an abstraction”[17]. Moreover, the political drama surrounding the shrouding of the Guernica tapestry reaffirms how art functions as a kind of counter-sovereign authority — unofficial but influential. The painting’s capacity to indict state violence without a single word demonstrates its resonance across ideological and temporal boundaries. François-Xavier Trancart describes Guernica as “a visual grammar of atrocity,” able to evoke moral condemnation without relying on language or context[18].
The modern psyche’s response to civilian involvement in warfare is inseparable from the media environments in which such suffering is presented. Guernica marked one of the earliest instances in which international journalism played a key role in shaping global public opinion about civilian casualties. Steer’s front-page report in The Times was instrumental in framing the attack as a deliberate atrocity. His vivid description of bombed-out buildings and the “charred remains of women and children” transformed the event from a regional skirmish into a global symbol[19]. This journalistic legacy persists in the present. As Lincoln Riddle notes, “modern coverage of civilian bombings — from Fallujah to Gaza — often draws direct parallels to Guernica, establishing a kind of moral lineage”[20]. These comparisons were part of an evolving media tradition that traces the ethics of modern warfare back to Guernica as a psychological touchstone. Visual and digital media now extend this tradition. The photographic archive of Guernica has been digitised and used widely various projects, while Picasso’s mural is endlessly reproduced in memes, protest banners and installation art. The transformation of Guernica into a “media event,” as theorised by Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz, means it continues to operate in the realm of public consciousness as a reference point for injustice, even as the nature of media shifts[21]. As such, Guernica’s psychological hold over the collective imagination is anchored both its historical specificity and radically mobile across time.
Beyond merely documenting conflict, media serves as a moral lens through which the public interprets civilian suffering. In the case of Guernica, the role of Western international correspondents in 1937 — particularly George Steer — exemplifies how journalistic framing can transform local atrocities into global ethical ruptures. As Susan Sontag explores in Regarding the Pain of Others, images and reportage of civilian trauma do not merely inform; they moralise, teaching viewers how to feel about distant suffering[22]. The Guernica narrative, retold across newspapers, radio broadcasts and photographic reproductions, helped inaugurate a media tradition in which atrocities were not only reported, but symbolically judged. In this way, Guernica foreshadowed the emergence of what media theorist Lilie Chouliaraki calls the “spectatorship of suffering” — a dynamic in which audiences are not only informed but positioned ethically[23].The concept of Guernica and its visual depiction are consistently used by journalists as a shorthand for unjust warfare, reinforcing its continuing resonance to the modern psyche. The attack’s legacy has been utilised to highlight human suffering in contemporary events such as the bombings of Aleppo[24] and Ukraine[25] by Russia, the Vietnam War[26] and the pain associated with Guernica has been likened to pain of the peoples of the Warsaw Ghetto and Palestine[27]. Thus, it is evident that media operates not merely as a conduit of information, but as a vehicle of moral calibration, extending Guernica’s legacy into the emotional grammar of global citizenship.
A further dimension of Guernica’s influence lies in its integration into cultural memory and rituals of collective mourning. The continued commemoration of Guernica — both in the Basque region and internationally — demonstrates the long afterlife of civilian trauma. Each year, on the 26th of April, memorial services, exhibitions and peace walks are held in Gernika-Lumo. These acts are not solely commemorative but also pedagogical, as they evoke an ethic of anti-violence across generations. Paulina Raento and Cameron Watson, in their geographical study of memory, argue that “Guernica exists as a landscape of mourning and resistance, where civilian loss is not abstract but embodied in streets, names and monuments”[28]. This spatial dimension of cultural memory underscores the psychological endurance of Guernica. Civilian suffering, rather than being relegated to the past, is inscribed into public life — through murals, markets, museums and oral histories. This approach to memory stands in sharp contrast with other war commemorations that focus on military victory or heroism. Guernica represents a different paradigm: one where the commemoration of remembrance shifts from the soldier to the civilian. As Ian Patterson argues in Guernica and Total War, this shift has redetermined how societies interpret the ethics of conflict and by extension, how they imagine future warfare[29]. In this way, Guernica helps sustain a civic vocabulary of mourning that prioritises empathy, not militarism.
The bombing itself has indelibly influenced the modern psyche about the role and rights of civilians in warfare. More than a historical footnote in the Spanish Civil War, it has become a symbolic and structural reference point in how societies conceptualise the ethics of war. Through the development of critical historiography, international human rights law, artistic expression, media representation and collective psychological memory, Guernica continues to function as a metonym for unjust civilian suffering. Its presence is visible not only in the institutions of memory and justice, but in the imaginations of protestors, educators, artists and policymakers. From the ruins of 1937 rises a moral imperative that continues to resonate civilians are not collateral — they are central. As modern conflicts continue to devastate non-combatant populations, Guernica remains not a relic, but a warning.
Footnotes
[1] Jones, Jonathan. “As Aleppo burns in this age of lies, Picasso’s Guernica still screams the truth about war.” The Guardian. 20 October 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2016/oct/12/picasso-guernica-aleppo-syria; Rusbridger, Alan. “Don’t fall into the trap of ‘picking sides’ over Gaza.” The Independent. 27 October 2023. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/gaza-israel-baby-political-polarisation-bombing-b2436634.html; von Hoffman, Nicholas. “Guernica, Again.” The Nation. 20 July 2006. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/guernica-again/.
[2] Picasso, Pablo. 1937. Guernica. Oil on canvas. Madrid, Spain. Museo Reina Sofía. https://www.museoreinasofia.es/coleccion/obra/guernica.
[3] Irujo, Xabier. 2013. “Special Feature: The Nature and Rationale of the Gernika Bombing.” The Volunteer. December 19, 2013. https://albavolunteer.org/2013/12/the-nature-and-military-rationale-of-the-bombing-of-gernika/#ftn1.
[4] Preston, Paul. 2012. The Destruction of Guernica. HarperCollins UK.
[5] McKee, Alexander. (1982) 2012. Dresden 1945: The Devil’s Tinderbox. London, England: Souvenir Press.
[6] Haynes, Will. 2025. WWII 80: The Tokyo Fire Raids. Truman Library Institute. March 9, 2025. https://www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/wwii-80-tokyo-fire-raids/.
[7] Carney, Matthew. 2015. “Tokyo Firebombing: Deadliest Raid in History Remembered 70 Years On.” ABC News. March 9, 2015. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-09/tokyo-wwii-firebombing-remembered-70-years-on/6287486.
[8] Hopkins, Ryan Patrick. 2008. “The Historiography of the Allied Bombing Campaign of Germany.” Electronic Theses and Dissertations. https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3355&context=etd.
[9] Carroll, Peter N. 2015. “From Guernica to Human Rights: The Shifting Paradigms of the Spanish Civil War.” The Volunteer. March 13, 2015. https://albavolunteer.org/2015/03/from-guernica-to-human-rights/.
[10] Steer, George. 1937. “The Tragedy of Guernica.” The Times, April 27, 1937. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_tragedy_of_Guernica_(George_Steer).jpg.
[11] Irujo, Xabier, Preston, Paul, and Viñas, Angel. 2022. “On the 85 Anniversary of the Bombing of Gernika.” University of Nevada, Reno. April 26, 2022. https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2022/gernika-criteria-of-truth.
[12] Newsroom Infobae. 2022. “Mariupol, the New Guernica: Putin’s Grisly Strategy to Capture the Ukrainian City.” Infobae. March 22, 2022. https://www.infobae.com/en/2022/03/22/mariupol-the-new-guernica-putins-grisly-strategy-to-capture-the-ukrainian-city/.
[13] Halaby, Raouf. 2024. “From Guernica to Gaza.” Janata Weekly. February 4, 2024. https://janataweekly.org/from-guernica-to-gaza/.
[14] Colacomosca, Anne. 2022. “Guernica Was a Dress Rehearsal for the Nazi War That Followed.” Jacobin. April 26, 2022. https://jacobin.com/2022/04/spanish-civil-war-guernica-franco-nazis-steer/.
[15] McCouat, Philip. n.d. “The Shocking Birth and Amazing Career of Guernica.” Journal of Art in Society. https://www.artinsociety.com/the-shocking-birth-and-amazing-career-of-guernica.html.
[16] Cohen, David. 2003. “What’s behind the U.N. Cover-up of Picasso’s Guernica?” Slate Magazine. February 6, 2003. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/02/what-s-behind-the-u-n-cover-up-of-picasso-s-guernica.html.
[17] Petropoulos, Jonathan. 1996. Art as Politics in the Third Reich. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University Of North Carolina Press.
[18] Trancart, François-Xavier. 2022. “How Guernica Changed Our Vision of War.” Artsper Magazine. July 25, 2022. https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/how-guernica-changed-our-vision-of-war/.
[19] Steer. The Tragedy of Guernica.
[20] Riddle, Lincoln. 2013. Review of The Luftwaffe’s Trial Run — 1937 Bombing of Guernica. War History Online. June 13, 2013. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/the-1937-bombing-of-guernica-spain-b.html.
[21] Dayan, Daniel, and Katz, Elihu. 1992. Media Events the Live Broadcasting of History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[22] Sontag, Susan. 2004. Regarding the Pain of Others. London: Penguin.
[23] Chouliaraki, Lilie. 2006. The Spectatorship of Suffering. London: Sage Publications.
[24] Gardner, David. 2016. “Russia Aims to Turn Aleppo into Another Grozny.” Financial Times. September 28, 2016. https://www.ft.com/content/5f59f6ee-84a4-11e6-8897-2359a58ac7a5.
[25] Sandford, Alasdair. 2022. “Ukraine: Zelenskyy Compares War to Nazi Bombing of Guernica.” Euronews. Euronews.com. April 5, 2022. https://www.euronews.com/2022/04/05/ukraine-war-satellite-photos-appear-to-contradict-russian-denials-over-bucha-atrocities.
[26] Meyerson, Harold. 2022. “Our Neo-Guernica Moment.” The American Prospect. March 15, 2022. https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/our-neo-guernica-moment/.
[27] Goodman, Melvin. 2024. “Unmitigated Horror: Guernica, the Warsaw Ghetto, and Now Gaza.” CounterPunch.org. CounterPunch. 2024. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/01/01/unmitigated-horror-guernica-the-warsaw-ghetto-and-now-gaza/.
[28] Raento, Paulina, and Cameron J. Watson. 2000. “Gernika, Guernica, Guernica?” Political Geography 19 (6): 707–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0962-6298(00)00002-0.
[29] Patterson, Ian. 2007. Guernica and Total War. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Bibliography
Akiba, Dr. Tadatoshi. 2007. “Opening Speech.” In-Person. Presented at the 70th Anniversary of the Bombing of Gernika, April 26. https://web.archive.org/web/20080723184013/http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/speech/Gernika.html.
Best, Kenneth. 2015. “Benton Exhibit Remembers the Vietnam War.” UConn Today. May 29, 2015. https://today.uconn.edu/2015/05/benton-exhibit-remembers-the-vietnam-war/.
By The Newsroom. 2017. “Guernica — Birth of the Blitzkrieg That Rained Death on a Quiet Town.” Yorkshire Post. April 26, 2017. https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/guernica-birth-of-the-blitzkrieg-that-rained-death-on-a-quiet-town-1778185.
Carney, Matthew. 2015. “Tokyo Firebombing: Deadliest Raid in History Remembered 70 Years On.” ABC News. March 9, 2015. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-09/tokyo-wwii-firebombing-remembered-70-years-on/6287486.
Carroll, Peter N. 2015. “From Guernica to Human Rights: The Shifting Paradigms of the Spanish Civil War.” The Volunteer. March 13, 2015. https://albavolunteer.org/2015/03/from-guernica-to-human-rights/.
Chouliaraki, Lilie. 2006. The Spectatorship of Suffering. London: Sage Publications.
Cohen, David. 2003. “What’s behind the U.N. Cover-up of Picasso’s Guernica?” Slate Magazine. February 6, 2003. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/02/what-s-behind-the-u-n-cover-up-of-picasso-s-guernica.html.
Colacomosca, Anne. 2022. “Guernica Was a Dress Rehearsal for the Nazi War That Followed.” Jacobin.com. 2022. https://jacobin.com/2022/04/spanish-civil-war-guernica-franco-nazis-steer/.
Get Seth’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Cunningham, Valentine. 2010. “The Spanish Civil War.” In The Cambridge Companion to War Writing, 185–96. Cambridge University Press. https://www-cambridge-org.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-war-writing/spanish-civil-war/F6935916F73F8B0B4242AA0E4A65B031.
Dayan, Daniel, and Elihu Katz. 1992. Media Events the Live Broadcasting of History. Cambridge Massachusetts London Harvard University Press.
Diehl, Jörg. 2007. “Hitler’s Destruction of Guernica: Practicing Blitzkrieg in Basque Country — DER SPIEGEL — International.” Www.spiegel.de. April 26, 2007. https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/hitler-s-destruction-of-guernica-practicing-blitzkrieg-in-basque-country-a-479675.html.
Editorial Staff. 2025. “THE CONGRESS: Dodd’s Dictator.” Time.com. 2025. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0.
Eisenman, Stephen F. 2022. “Guernica and Bucha.” CounterPunch.org. CounterPunch. June 3, 2022. https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/06/03/guernica-and-bucha/.
“Fake News 1937: Germany Disputes the Bombing of Guernica — DHM-Blog | Deutsches Historisches Museum.” 2017. Www.dhm.de. 2017. https://www.dhm.de/blog/2017/04/26/fake-news-1937/.
“From Guernica to Human Rights: The Shifting Paradigms of the Spanish Civil War.” 2015. The Volunteer. March 13, 2015. https://albavolunteer.org/2015/03/from-guernica-to-human-rights/.
Gannon, P. J. 1938. “The Latest Phase in the Spanish Civil War.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 27 (106): 314–18. https://doi.org/10.2307/30097549.
Gardner, David. 2016. “Russia Aims to Turn Aleppo into Another Grozny.” Financial Times. Financial Times. September 28, 2016. https://www.ft.com/content/5f59f6ee-84a4-11e6-8897-2359a58ac7a5.
German Federal Archives. 1937. “Condor Legion Military Logs and After-Action Reports.” Freidburg, Germany: Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv.
Goodman, Melvin. 2024. “Unmitigated Horror: Guernica, the Warsaw Ghetto, and Now Gaza.” CounterPunch.org. CounterPunch. January 1, 2024. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/01/01/unmitigated-horror-guernica-the-warsaw-ghetto-and-now-gaza/.
Halaby, Raouf. 2024. “From Guernica to Gaza.” Janata Weekly. February 4, 2024. https://janataweekly.org/from-guernica-to-gaza/.
Haynes, Will. 2025. “WWII 80: The Tokyo Fire Raids.” Truman Library Institute. March 9, 2025. https://www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/wwii-80-tokyo-fire-raids/.
Hickman, Kennedy. 2017. “Spanish Civil War: Bombing of Guernica.” ThoughtCo. May 13, 2017. https://www.thoughtco.com/spanish-civil-war-bombing-of-guernica-2360536.
Hoffman, Nicholas von. 2006. “Guernica, Again.” The Nation. July 20, 2006. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/guernica-again/.
Hopkins, Ryan Patrick. 2008. “The Historiography of the Allied Bombing Campaign of Germany.” Graduate School: East Tennessee State University. https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3355&context=etd.
Irujo, Xabier. 2013. “Special Feature: The Nature and Rationale of the Gernika Bombing.” The Volunteer. December 19, 2013. https://albavolunteer.org/2013/12/the-nature-and-military-rationale-of-the-bombing-of-gernika/#ftn1.
— — — . 2021a. The Bombing of Gernika. Ekin. https://scholarwolf.unr.edu/items/39340a0a-c8a4-418f-9e34-c5ad07fa1ca0.
— — — . 2021b. “The Lie | University Libraries.” University of Nevada, Reno. 2021. https://library.unr.edu/places/knowledge-center/basque-library/projects/gernika/the-bombing-of-gernika/the-lie.
Irujo, Xabier, Paul Preston, and Angel Viñas. 2022. “On the 85 Anniversary of the Bombing of Gernika.” University of Nevada, Reno. April 26, 2022. https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2022/gernika-criteria-of-truth.
Jacob, John. 2023. “Raids on Guernica.” EBSCO Information Services. 2023. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/military-history-and-science/raids-guernica.
Jones, Jonathan. 2016. “As Aleppo Burns in This Age of Lies, Picasso’s Guernica Still Screams the Truth about War.” The Guardian. October 12, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2016/oct/12/picasso-guernica-aleppo-syria.
Jones, Sam. 2017. “Guernica Massacre: Madrid Removes Facade That Glorified Nazi Role.” The Guardian. The Guardian. April 26, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/26/guernica-massacre-madrid-removes-facade-that-glorified-nazi-role.
Lesser, Casey. 2017. “What Makes Guernica Picasso’s Most Influential Painting.” Artsy. June 12, 2017. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-guernica-picassos-influential-painting.
Lorie, Jonathan. 2017. “Guernica: The Town That Became a Symbol for Peace.” The Guardian. April 5, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/apr/05/guernica-anniversary-basque-country-picasso-painting-peace.
McCouat, Philip. n.d. “The Shocking Birth and Amazing Career of Guernica.” Journal of ART in SOCIETY. https://www.artinsociety.com/the-shocking-birth-and-amazing-career-of-guernica.html.
McKee, Alexander. (1982) 2012. Dresden 1945: The Devil’s Tinderbox. London, England: Souvenir Press.
Meyerson, Harold. 2022. “Our Neo-Guernica Moment.” The American Prospect. March 15, 2022. https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/our-neo-guernica-moment/.
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. n.d. “Repensar Guernica.” Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. https://guernica.museoreinasofia.es/en/story/guernica-political-symbol.
Newsroom InfoBAE. 2022. “Mariupol, the New Guernica: Putin’s Grisly Strategy to Capture the Ukrainian City.” InfoBAE. March 22, 2022. https://www.infobae.com/en/2022/03/22/mariupol-the-new-guernica-putins-grisly-strategy-to-capture-the-ukrainian-city/.
Nicholson, Sarah. 1987. “50 Years after Historic Attack in Spain: Witnesses Recall Bombing Raid by Luftwaffe on Town of Guernica.” Los Angeles Times. May 3, 1987. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-03-mn-8423-story.html.
Onaindía, Alberto de. 1942. “Canon Onaindia’s Evidence.” Catholic Herald, December 4, 1942. https://wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/scw/id/5024/.
Patterson, Ian. 2008. Guernica and Total War. London: Harvard University Press. https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1XA7fwLoMkIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=guernica&ots=0CrcbrJeg5&sig=aeeKc_comnq_QIX8JR32aMV_gOI&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=guernica&f=false.
Petropoulos, Jonathan. 1996. Art as Politics in the Third Reich. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Picasso, Pablo. 1937. Guernica. Oil on canvas. Madrid, Spain. Museo Reina Sofía.
Preston, Paul. 2012. The Destruction of Guernica. HarperCollins UK.
— — — . 2017. “The Bombing of Guernica: Who Was Responsible?” BBC History Magazine, May 2017. https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/guernica-bombing-basque-who-responsible/.
Raento, Paulina, and Cameron J. Watson. 2000. “Gernika, Guernica, Guernica?: Contested Meanings of a Basque Place.” Political Geography 19 (6): 707–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0962-6298(00)00002-0.
Riddle, Lincoln. 2013a. “The Luftwaffe’s Trial Run — 1937 Bombing of Guernica.” War History Online. June 13, 2013. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/the-1937-bombing-of-guernica-spain-b.html.
— — — . 2013b. “The Luftwaffe’s Trial Run — 1937 Bombing of Guernica.” War History Online. June 13, 2013. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/the-1937-bombing-of-guernica-spain-b.html.
Rusbridger, Alan. 2023. “Don’t Fall into the Trap of ‘Picking Sides’ over Gaza.” The Independent. October 27, 2023. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/gaza-israel-baby-political-polarisation-bombing-b2436634.html.
Sandford, Alasdair. 2022. “Ukraine: Zelenskyy Compares War to Nazi Bombing of Guernica.” Euronews. Euronews.com. April 5, 2022. https://www.euronews.com/2022/04/05/ukraine-war-satellite-photos-appear-to-contradict-russian-denials-over-bucha-atrocities.
Sontag, Susan. 2003. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Picador.
Steer, George. 1937. “The Tragedy of Guernica.” The Times, April 27, 1937. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_tragedy_of_Guernica_(George_Steer).jpg.
Tharoor, Ishaan. 2017. “80 Years Later, the Nazi War Crime at Guernica Still Matters.” Washington Post, April 26, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/04/26/80-years-later-the-nazi-war-crime-at-guernica-still-matters/.
Thomas, Gordon, and Max Morgan-Witts. 2014. Guernica. Open Road Media. https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wpG4AwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT7&dq=guernica+nazis&ots=5dKLme526T&sig=in5uP6z_znSwfYbtPKJzEaSVs38&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=guernica%20nazis&f=false.
Trancart, François-Xavier. 2022. “How Guernica Changed Our Vision of War.” Artsper Magazine. July 25, 2022. https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/how-guernica-changed-our-vision-of-war/.
Turismo Gernika. 2022. “The Gernika Market.” Gernikainfo. Web Official De Turismo Gernika. April 13, 2022. https://gernikainfo.eus/en/what-to-see/the-gernika-market/.
UN Gifts. n.d. “Guernica (Tapestry after ‘Guernica’ by Pablo Picasso) | United Nations Gifts.” Www.un.org. https://www.un.org/ungifts/guernica-tapestry-after-guernica-pablo-picasso.
Walsh, David. 2003. “UN Conceals Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ for Powell’s Presentation.” Www.wsws.org. February 8, 2003. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/02/guer-f08.html.
Wilson, Sir Arnold T. 1938. Guernica: Being the Official Report of a Commission Appointed by the Spanish National Government to Investigate the Causes of the Destruction of Guernica on April 26–28, 1937. Eyre & Spottiswoode London. Wilson, Arnold T. (Arnold Talbot), Sir, 1884–1940. 1938, Guernica: being the official report of a commission appointed by the Spanish National Government to investigate the causes of the destruction of Guernica on April 26–28, 1937. Eyre & Spottiswoode London http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-38070614.
Zwack, Peter. 2016. “In Aleppo, Echoes of Guernica and Global Disorder.” Defense One. October 23, 2016. https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/10/aleppo-echoes-guernica-and-global-threat/132558/.
