Planting seeds of peace

 The children of the Spanish civil war is a term used to describe the plight of families who had no alternative but to send their children to the safety of countries such as Britain, Mexico and Russia where they awaited the end of the atrocious war. However, the elected government of Spain’s second republic was replaced by a dictatorship that lasted forty years and there was no return.

Franco passed power on to King Juan Carlos who allowed a referendum where the Spanish people chose democratic rule.

Spain now has a constitutional monarchy with King Philip VI as head of state.

This period is known as the transition and has been exemplary for other nations emerging from dictatorships.

When President Zelensky of Ukraine addressed the Spanish Parliament yesterday  5^th April 2022 he invoked the memory of the bombing of Guernica in 1937 when the children of the Spanish civil war were shipped to freedom from similar horrifying scenes in the Basque country as in the Ukraine today.

An ancient oak tree in Guernica survived the bombing and its acorns have been collected and are given as gifts to symbolise the desire for peace. The current tree standing in its place in the town of Guernica has grown from one of these acorns and is only fourteen years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gernikako_Arbola