Due to the very good relations Mussolini had with the Pope – Catholic countries world-wide supported the fascist movement without necessarily becoming directly or formally involved in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) or WWII (1939-1945). Tens of thousands of individual Catholics (encouraged by their Parish Priests) did travel from their home countries in Central and South America – as well as Eire – and joined the “Fascist” forces fighting in these conflicts. In Spain, for instance, thousands of Irish Catholics joined Franco’s troops (with an equal number also joining the “Socialist” forces armed by the USSR). Thousands more travelled to Italy and Nazi Germany to join the far-right forces fighting the West and the USSR. Poland is a Catholic country that elected a far-right government in 1930 – with Polish people taking to the streets when Hitler came to power in 1933! Goebbels paid a State visit to Poland in 1934 – and later that year – Poland opened the first “Concentration Camp” at Bereza in East Poland (designed to “process” all the ethnic Russians out the region).