Spanish Republican exiles
The phrase Spanish Republican exiles refers to all the citizens of the Second Spanish Republic who, during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939 and the immediate post-war period, were forced to leave their homeland and move to other countries. This was either for political and ideological reasons or for fear of retaliation by the winning side and the authoritarian political regime established in Spain. Thus, they remained abroad until circumstances had changed in the country, which allowed them to return gradually. However, many became integrated into the societies that had given them refuge and thus they contributed to their development in some cases.
A large proportion of the first wave of refugees—up to 440,000 in France according to an official report dated March 1939—initially faced harsh living conditions, which worsened because of the outbreak of World War II. Although many of them managed to return in the 1940s, the "permanent" Republican exile consisted of around 220,000 people, many of whom were former combatants, politicians, or civil servants directly committed to the Republican cause. Also among them were thousands of relatives and civilians, along with a significant number of children, intellectuals, artists, scientists, teachers, and skilled professionals, which was a further determining factor in the process of rebuilding the country as a consequence of the conflict.
The main destination countries were, in particular, France, Mexico, Argentina, and the Soviet Union, but large groups were also granted asylum in other countries such as Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Peru, the Dominican Republic, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Over the years, the internal political evolution in Spain and the gradual process of reconciliation, which culminated in the period of the Spanish Transition and the establishment of democracy, slowly allowed for the return of the exiles. However, there were also many who, due to their degree of integration, decided to remain in the countries that had granted them asylum and where they later met other Spaniards who had arrived either as emigrants for economic reasons since the 1950s or who were part of a new wave of exiles: those persecuted by the dictatorship until 1975.
Population displacements during the war
The first displacements of refugees and exiles took place during the first months of the war—especially in the period from August to December 1936—marked by episodes of systematic violence against the civilian population, both because of ideologically motivated repression by the rebel forces and by the supporters of the social revolution, as well as the advance of military operations. These displacements were mainly to France and were characterized by their still provisional nature. Thus the groups were made up of people from the border regions of Aragon, Catalonia, and the Basque Country, either because of their proximity to the rebel faction, in the case of the first two, or because they were supporters of the government who were fleeing the advance of the Irún front, in the latter case, or they were simply "neutral" people who felt threatened by the climate of hostility and violence.As the conflict developed, the provisional nature became more permanent in the case of those displaced persons who were close to the Republican faction, to the point that, although there were still people fleeing en masse, actions were being taken by the Republican government to put some order into the evacuations, especially those involving minors. The Central Office for Evacuation and Refugee Assistance was set up in October 1936, on the eve of the siege of Madrid, in anticipation of mass evacuations to the Mediterranean coast, while France's General Confederation of Labour created the Comité d'accueil aux enfants d'Espagne in Paris in November.
File:Women at the Siege of the Alcázar in Toledo - Google Art Project.jpg|left|thumb|Republican militiawomen in the Siege of the Alcázar in Toledo during the Civil War.
The first evacuations of children took place from Madrid and Valencia, when 100 minors were sent to the USSR in February 1937, and from the Basque Country, where 450 people were evacuated to the French island of Oléron, at the vacation colony. Pirmin Treku, who arrived in Britain among the Basque child evacuees, later became a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet. Later, around 300 of them were taken to Paris while the rest were granted asylum in Oostduinkerke, Belgium. A total of 456 minors arrived in Mexico in June 1937. From that moment on, they would be known by the collective name. The arrangements for their transfer were made possible thanks to the.
According to Bartolomé Bennassar, around 10,000 Basque citizens fled by road to France. Many refugees left Catalonia by sea, headed to Marseille and Genoa, and on foot through the Pyrenees, trying to avoid being seen by militiamen and border guards. Overall, it is estimated that between 30,000 and 35,000 refugees from Catalonia arrived in France and Italy between July 1936 and late 1938.
The military operations carried out on the Northern front, which saw Francoist units advance from Biscay towards Santander in the spring of 1937, brought about a new wave of thousands of exiles, a significant number of whom were children, this time exclusively republicans, to Bordeaux, La Rochelle, and Lorient. Following the indiscriminate bombing of Guernica, the United Kingdom reluctantly agreed to take in Republican children. Thus, on 21 May 1937, nearly 4,000 Basque children left Santurtzi on board the steamship , bound for the English port of Southampton. Months later, Arthur Hinsley, cardinal and archbishop-prelate of Westminster, demonstrated the pro-Franco attitude of the English Catholic hierarchy when he publicly supported the deportation of Basque refugee children back to Spain. In 1938, after the battle of Bielsa pocket and the withdrawal of the of the People's Army, there was a new displacement of people in Aragon, who took refuge directly on the other side of the border. In late 1938, it is estimated that 40,000 emigrants remained on French soil, although they were considered to be in a situation of temporary displacement.
The biggest wave took place after the fall of Barcelona. At that time, more than half a million people fled to France. Especially in the early stages, a large number of them were interned in camps set up by the French government under Daladier. Conditions in such camps were appalling, such as in the case of the Gurs internment camp. In those first few months, about half of those who had initially taken refuge in France returned to Spain.
A few weeks before the end of the war, the Valière report, carried out at the request of the French government, estimated that by 9 March 1939 there were about 440,000 refugees in France, of whom 170,000 were women, children, and elderly persons, 220,000 soldiers and militiamen, 40,000 invalids, and 10,000 wounded.
The 1939 Republican exodus to France
''La Retirada'' (January–February 1939)
Emigration to France sped up significantly during the course of the Battle of the Ebro and the following months. The exodus of citizens from Catalonia was massive after the fall of Barcelona on 26 January 1939. The government of Édouard Daladier decided to open the France–Spain border on 27 January. Refugees fled across the Pyrenees via La Jonquera, Portbou, Le Perthus, Cerbère, and Bourg-Madame. According to an official report dated March 1939, the number of Spanish refugees in France was estimated at 440,000. Moreover, historians have estimated the number of exiles after the fall of Catalonia at 465,000, of whom 170,000 were civilians.Reception of refugees
The southwestern French departments, close to Spain, were the ones that received the largest number of refugees, with heavy Spanish immigration in the cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse, where there were Spaniards already living. Other departments in the Atlantic coast region, especially Loire-Atlantique, also received refugees, as well as the Massif Central region, Bouches-du-Rhône, and Paris.The exiles were received differently from one place to another. Some were welcomed and shown solidarity, while others were viewed with distrust and even hostility with hints of xenophobia.
French concentration camps
Main internment camps
These camps evolved over time. French authorities were overwhelmed by the mascaret humain—in the words of Interior Minister Albert Sarraut—of La Retirada and thus regrouped the refugees in "control" or "sorting" camps at the border. Later, they placed them in concentration camps located at the foothills of the Pyrenees and, especially, on the Mediterranean beaches closest to the border. Around 270,000 men, most of them former combatants of the Republican Army, would be interned there. These consisted of a sandy area enclosed by barbed-wire fences, without even a roof to take shelter under, and surrounded by Senegalese soldiers armed with machine guns and rifles. At the beginning, they were located in the Pyrénées-Orientales department, as in the case of the, the Argelers concentration camp, or the on the beaches. These specialized internment camps—which mainly held Basques, former members of the International Brigades, Catalonians, elderly people, and the Durruti Division —were created in February 1939 in the neighboring departments of Roussillon province, to make up for the growth of the coastal structures and the deteriorated health conditions.When mentioning the numbers of Spanish exiles, records often overlook those who disembarked in North Africa, who totaled around 10,000. Historian Anne Charaudeau explains in detail how these exiles were treated after their arrival. At first held in the various camps because of the potential danger they represented, they quickly became an essential labor force in wartime. In French Algeria, exiles who were recaptured were employed in the quarries for the construction of the Trans-Saharan Railway starting in 1939. According to historian Peter Gaida, the living conditions of forced laborers in the railway works after 1940 were as follows:
Ideological clashes arising from the Spanish Civil War were reproduced in the camps among the prisoners and exploited by the French authorities. For instance, authorities took advantage of tensions between anarchists and communists to control the latter, as in the case of Camp Vernet, which would become a disciplinary camp for political prisoners under the Vichy regime.