Hendaya

The Third Reich dominates the whole part of Europe and most of the Spanish general staff believes in its final victory, Spain must change the perception of non-belligerence by taking side. Spain, the France of Vichi and Italy must find its place in the new Europe, each one has to gain quote and power against Germany. On the other hand, Spain survives thanks to the charity of what history has called the “Navi send“ of the Allies, which basically means not to sink merchant ships loaded with grain from Canada and Argentina. If Spain signs any agreement with Germany, allies will not let pass any more supplies, Germany will have to feed the new ally. Both Spanish and German headquarters have moved several times between Germany, Spain and Italy, Himler and Serrano Suñer have never manage to reach any agreement, Serrano Suñer always ends up rejecting them.

The interview of Hendaye started with Hitler arriving on time and Franco arriving late. The meeting took 7 hours, between Hitler, Franco, Ribbentrop, Serrano Suñeer, Cavero baron de las torres and Schidmt (the last two were translators). Franco and Hitler sat in collaborative position.
It is known that Franco had a strong charge with Morocco. It has always been "the Man of Africa" par excellence, not only for commanding the troops of Africa in the 36, but for his foreign policy on defence of the presence in Morocco (see the discrepancies with the dictator Primo de Rivera), in fact we could say that all his personal career was defined from this area and many people do say so, indeed he used to link Spanish future with those territories. Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania and half of the city of Oman, as corrections on the French border were the requirements settled in the negotiation. On the other hand, Franco knew that it would be very difficult to justify the entrance on the war up to the Spanish.

Hitler, was under the halo of victory and pride, he was not going to take a No as an answer. According to Serrrano Suner: "Hitler is a very first speaker, very authoritarian and in possession of the truth. Although polite and gentle, when he abandons himself he loses education and forms". Franco was not dialectic, after all he was military. It seems that there was a lack of empathy between both. Franco demanded everything from the very beginning, he knew that Mussolini asked Hitler for part of those territories, and he had to deny those claims but Spain from Franco´s point of view, had more rights over the protectorate and he started to explain all sort of details about the historic cause. Hitler was not interested, it appears that he yawn more than 15 times, he just wanted to talk about Gibraltar, and he could not afford to give those territories, Vichy would rise against him if he did. After a block. According to Serrano: Hitler started a triumphant speech and he persuaded Franco to join the axis, in fact they did, but they didn’t sign any agreement, as Hitler did not give any response to Franco´s claims until 2 months later, answering with a cutting No.