He fought in the Spanish Civil War, on the side of the nationalists, and later wore the uniform of the Blue Division, fighting on the Eastern Front alongside the German forces.

Jaime Graça is one of the Portuguese who wore the German uniform to fight communism and was one of the few who told his story to a Portuguese newspaper. His adventures and misadventures were published in June 1992 in the magazine of the newspaper “O Independente” when he was already 79 years old.

Jaime Graça never learned to read and had been an upholsterer since he was nine years old, but work was scarce. He had left the army in 1936 and had already done everything for very little money: he sold newspapers, shined shoes, ran errands, sold water in a cinema, dug holes to plant the trees that today make up the Monsanto forest park.

Shortly after leaving the army, he was in Rossio Square with friends when they were approached by two men who asked them if they wanted to “go and work in Spain”. The fact that they received one hundred escudos just for signing up was a big help. They were put in a truck and fed sandwiches until they reached Badajoz, where they were selected to wear the uniform of the Tércio, the Spanish Legion.

Jaime Graça joined Generalissimo Franco’s ranks in the civil war that swept Spain between 1939 and 1949. He served on the battlefields of Toledo, Madrid and Ebro.

He was wounded, but survived the war. As soon as the civil war ended, he was sent to North Africa with the Spanish Legion, but he didn’t stay there long. According to what he said after being tricked in Rossio, he was forced to join the Blue Division that Francisco Franco created in 1941 to join the Germans fighting the Russians.

Jaime Graça during the interview and with comrades from the Spanish Tércio.
(Jornal "O Independente")

Corporal Jaime Graça was on the Russian front between June 1942 and January 1943.

In the interview he complained about the quality of the food, the cold and the war during the period in which he travelled through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine.

He ended his journey as a divisional member at the gates of Leningrad, where he was wounded in the leg. He later fell ill with an eye problem and ended up being sent home.

Graça highlights in his statements the German organization in all areas and considers that the Russian soldiers were “poor things”. On the other hand the women from all places he visited deserve his greatest praise…

The 40 degrees below zero took their toll and the problem with his eyes got worse, which led to his discharge from the army. He returned to Spain and withdrew a few thousand pesetas that he had deposited in his account as payment for his collaboration with the German army.

He blew his small fortune while still in Spain with “gambling, women and wine”.

He returned to Portugal almost as he had left, giving his mother a big scare: “I had lost the tag that soldiers weared on the wrist (…), and someone sent it to the Spanish Embassy in Lisbon, ​​here on Salitre Street. My mother went there to know about me and they told her that I had died”.

Carlos Guerreiro