Francoist concentration camps
In
People such as Republican ex-combatants of the
As in many other
There is consensus among historians to confirm, according to testimonies of survivors, witnesses, and the Franco Reports themselves, that the conditions of internment “were, in general, atrocious”.
History
According to Javier Rodrigo, about half a million prisoners passed through the concentration camps between 1936 and 1942.[5] In 2019, Carlos Hernández de Miguel identified about 300 confirmed camps, estimating that between 700,000 and 1 million people would have passed through them.
The first concentration camp was created by the rebel military on July 19, 1936, hours after the
The next region in which the rebels established concentration camps was the Canary Islands. Specifically, it was on the military grounds of La Isleta peninsula, in Gran Canaria, operating until the end of July 1936. An undetermined number of prisoners from the Canarian camps ended up being thrown into the sea or into volcanic wells. As in North Africa, the nationalist press concealed the harshness and crimes committed in the camps, offering them an idyllic image far removed from reality. Other detention centers opened shortly after the beginning of the war, such as the military prison located in Mount Hacho de Ceuta Castle, have been considered concentration camps, although they have never been officially named.
Some historians have pointed to Nazi officials of the
On July 5, 1937, the General Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps of Prisoners (ICCP) was created with Coronel Luis Martín Pinillos, an Africanist soldier, at helm. Its objective was to centralize the management of all the camps, although it would conflict with the different military viceroys of other parts of the country, especially with General Queipo de Llano, esponsible for the Army of the South. The Andalusian camps operated outside the ICCP until mid-1938, and those of the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands or the Protectorate of Morocco retained almost total autonomy until the end of the war.
In 1938, Franco’s concentration camps housed more than 170,000 prisoners. After the end of the war, in 1939 the prison population ranged from 367,000 to 500,000. Since 1940 the supervisor of all these camps has been General Camilo Alonso Vega. The main function of the camps was to retain as many republican prisoners of war as possible, and all those who were described as “unrecoverable” were automatically executed. Many of those in charge of those in charge of administration in the camps had been victims in the Republican zone, and therefore stood out for demonstrating a will of fury and revenge with the defeated. Nor did high-ranking officials show much opposition to this climate of repression and revenge: The Director-General of Prisoners, Máximo Cuervo Radigales, and the head of the Military Legal Corps, Lorenzo Martínez Fuset, contributed in no small way to this repressive environment.
In 1946, ten years after the start of the Civil War, 137 labor camps and 3 concentration camps, in which 30,000 political prisoners were being held, were still operational. The last concentration camp to close was Miranda de Ebro, which closed in January 1947.
The treatment of inmates
Torture and ill-treatment were a normal part of the day in the concentration camps where the inmates – many of them without having been formally charged with any crime– endured deplorable living conditions marked by “shortages, disease, overcrowding, and corruption”. It was not uncommon for those who beat prisoners to be Falangists or relatives of victims, who were allowed into the establishment. The inmates were subjected to brutal punishments by those who guarded them (many of them ex-combatants, ex-captives or relatives of victims of repression during the Republican rearguard) or by the cabos de vara that reappeared in the concentration camps and also the prison setting. Concentration camp prisoners described as “disaffected” were also forced to perform forced labor in battalions formed for that purpose.
Deportation of Spanish exiles and Civil War brigades to Nazi camps
Apart from the concentration camps in Spain, it is alleged that in the exile of Republicans to
On the other hand, the Franco authorities also collaborated with their Nazi allies by handing over Czech, Belgian, or German prisoners to be shot or held in prisons and concentration camps of the
In the San Pedro camp, the international brigade members were also exchanged for prisoners that were held in the hands of the Republican authorities. Although, a small number of these barters of soldiers are known, some soldiers of
See also
- Francoist repression
References
- El País. Madrid. Archivedfrom the original on 18 January 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
- from the original on 27 November 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
- ^ SL, POMBAPRESS. "Levantando el manto de silencio sobre los 11 campos de concentración franquistas en Galicia". Galiciapress (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
- ISBN 978-84-9006-243-2.
- from the original on 2019-05-11.
- ^ Hoffmann, Gerhard; Pascual, Pedro (February 2002). "Campos de concentración en España". Historia 16 Magazine (310).
- ^ Rodrigo, Javier (2005). Cautivos. Campos de concentración en la España franquista, 1936-1947. Crítica.
Fuente: Archivo del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores - Archivo de Burgos, L1051, E25
- ^ Hernández de Miguel 2019, p. 245.
Bibliography
- ISBN 9780143037651.
- Benz, Wolfgang; Graml, Hermman (1986). Europa después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial 1945-1982.
- ISBN 978-84-9892-791-7.
- ISBN 978-84-9892-063-5.
- Egido León, María de los Ángeles (2005). Los Campos de Concentración Franquistas en el Contexto Europeo. Marcial Pons Ediciones de Historia.
- Graham, Helen (2005). The Spanish Civil War. A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
- Gutiérrez Casalá, J. L. (2003). Colonias penitenciarias militarizadas de Montijo: represión franquista en el partido judicial de Mérida. Mérida: Editora Regional de Extremadura.
- ISBN 978-84-666-6478-3.
- ISBN 84-8460-070-X.
- Lorenzo Rubio, César (2020). "La máquina represiva: la tortura en el franquismo". In Pedro Oliver Olmo (ed.). La tortura en la España contemporánea. Madrid: Los Libros de la Catarata. pp. 131–198. ISBN 978-84-1352-077-3.
- Molinero, C.; Sala, M.; Sobrequés i Callicó, J. (2003). Una inmensa prisión: los campos de concentración y las prisiones durante la guerra civil y el franquismo. Crítica contrastes. Barcelona: Crítica.
- Núñez Díaz-Balart, M. (2004). Los años del terror: la estrategia de dominio y represión del general Franco (1 ed.). Madrid: Esfera de los Libros.
- Oviedo Silva, Daniel (2020). "Violencia masiva y tortura en la guerra civil". In Pedro Oliver Olmo (ed.). La tortura en la España contemporánea. Madrid: Los Libros de la Catarata. pp. 85–130. ISBN 978-84-1352-077-3.
- Preston, Paul (2006). The Spanish Civil War. Reaction, revolution & revenge. London: Harper Perennial.
- Rodríguez González, Javier; Berzal de la Rosa, Enrique; Pablo Lobo, Carlos de; Sierra Gómez, Carlos de la; Delgado Cruz, Severiano; Vega Sombría, Santiago; Revilla Casado, Javier (2011). Cárceles y Campos de Concentración en Castilla y León. León: Fundación 27 de marzo. ISBN 978-84-615-5410-2.
- Rodrigo, Javier (2003). Los campos de concentración franquistas: entre la historia y la memoria. Madrid: Siete Mares.
- Rodrigo, J. (2005). Cautivos: campos de concentración en la España franquista, 1936-1947. Barcelona: Crítica.
- Rodrigo, J. (2006). "Internamiento y trabajo forzoso: los campos de concentración de franco" (PDF). Hispania Nova, Revista de historia contemporánea. 6, Separata.
- Rodrigo, J. (2008). Hasta la raíz: violencia durante la Guerra Civil y la dictadura franquista. Alianza Editorial.
- Thomas, Hugh (1993) [1976]. Historia de la Guerra Civil Española.
External links
- Campos de Concentración y Unidades Disciplinarias de Trabajadores de la España de Franco (Catalán)
- El dolor como terapia. Artículo en línea de M. Núñez Díaz-Balart, con bibliografía.
- Esclavos del Franquismo
- Registro de Afectados por la Guerra Civil y el Franquismo en Aragón
- Testimonios orales del Campo de Albatera y la Cárcel de Orihuela