"He was inevitably dubbed a fascist for accepting aid from the German and Italian dictators during the Civil War and for making Spain's version of a fascist party – the Falange – the core of his "Movement". But he was never particularly fascist, just as he had never been particularly monarchist or republican. Although he accepted help from Hitler, he gave refuge to thousands of Hitler's Jewish victims during the Second World War and revived citizenship rights for the Sephardic Jewish community of Salonika, to save it from Nazi persecution. Above all, Franco was a professional soldier, dedicated to the maintenance of discipline and order, with a minimal interest in constitutional forms and a paternalistic conception of his patriotic duty. Supporters of the "monster" myth would call him an opportunist; to upholders of the "hero" myth in its mildest form, he is simply a pragmatist."