World War II in the Basque Country Spain, Donostia became a tranquil retreat for German army officers. During wartime, many in France supported the Nazi regime and its persecution of Jews, communists, and foreigners. Others resisted, but were deeply divided. In the French Basque Country, the bulk of the Basques showed an allegiance to the Vichy regime. Petain showed a sympathy towards traditional and regional features, which provided fertile grounds to re-launch a Regionalist movement represented by the "Eskualerristes" and the journal "Aitzina" ('forward') magazine, some of whose members defended an overt separatist approach. Jean Ybarnegaray became Minister in a cabinet of Marshall Petain up to 1940.
The Country of the Blind The Country of the Blind "The Country of the Blind" is a short story written by H. G. Wells. It was first published in the April 1904 issue of "The Strand Magazine" and included in a 1911 collection of Wells's short stories, "The Country of the Blind and Other Stories". It is one of Wells's best known short stories, and features prominently in literature dealing with blindness. Wells later revised the story, with the expanded version first published by an English private printer, Golden Cockerel Press, in 1939. While attempting to climb the unconquered crest of Parascotopetl (a fictitious mountain