I just got out of 20th century history and today we talked about the Spanish Civil War as a prelude to the fascist movement in world war 2, of course in Pan's the resistance fighters we see battling the Nationalist, is taking place years after the civil war ended. But the director Del Toro made another movie back in 2001 called "The Devils Backbone", that actually deals with the civil war (which was 36-39). Anyways did you realize that the American Congress (and FDR) and many of the citizenry were for the Nationalist uprising (Franco's rebellion) and denied aid and help to the Republicans who legally won control of Spain through a democratic election! Franco's nationalist armies were also aided by Hitler and Mussolini, Germany used the civil war as a testing ground for new warfare technology, in the end the resistance fighters/loyali  st would be defeated and then systematically executed. A prelude to the terrors of ww2/mass executions. Its sad the fascist Franco regime won, thanks to the American isolationist attitude at the time, we stood by and watched the massacres unfold. (although 3,000 volunteer Leftist-America  ns traveled to Spain to fight for the Republicans/Pop  ular Front, what a side story this is!) Truly fascinating and alarming history... that many choose to forget.