The Catalan Pyrenees between two wars

The Pyrenees were a critical hotspot in the decade between the 1930s and 1940s, as a result of two major conflicts: the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Apparently insurmountable, the mountain range that separates Catalonia from the Principality of Andorra and France was the escape route of those who fled from these two wars that affected both sides of the Pyrenees. Thousands of people from Spain crossed them during the Spanish Civil War and the post-war period that immediately followed it, while thousands of Europeans were leaving the war-stricken continent, seeking refuge in Francoist Spain.

This constant traffic across the borders would lead to the area’s strict surveillance by the states of Spain and France. At the same time, during these years, the intelligence services of the republican forces, the Franco regime, the Allied forces and the Nazis would centre their operations in the vicinity of these five hundred kilometres of terrain where a secret war was waged for control over who and what passed through here.

For centuries, the area’s inhabitants had crossed over from one country to another as though the borders were not there. In this sense, the Pyrenees were understood as a space of inter-territorial relations between the two sides. Yet at times of war, they became a place of escape, a place of hope, safety and refuge. It was the line that separated people from death. Crossing over to the other side was synonymous with reaching a safe haven. In the 20th century, during World War I, many French youths and people from other European countries sought shelter in Spain. Years later, just after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the Pyrenees Mountains bore witness to the clandestine northbound escape of young men who sought to avoid the fighting, others who wished to join the Francoist army in the Basque Country and Navarre, families of right-wing ideology and members of religious orders. This was the start of a long period during which the mountain passes across the border became paths to freedom for thousands of people.

Most of the refugees were apprehended and imprisoned. Those detained were taken to the judicial district prisons (Vielha, Sort, La Seu d’Urgell, Puigcerdà and Figueres, among others), as well as to the provincial prisons and makeshift holds, such as the one that operated in the Seminari Vell de Lleida. Men of military age –between the ages of 18 and 40– were held in the concentration camp of Miranda de Ebro (Burgos), the last concentration camp to close, among those set up during the Spanish Civil War.

According to the surviving log books, approximately 2,600 of those refugees passed through the prison of the judicial district of Sort. The rediscovery of the traumatic experiences of so many people in that tumultuous Europe of the first half of the 20th century reminds us, the Europeans of the 21st century, of the long struggle and countless sacrifices involved in building a democratic society that has set its sights on a culture of peace and coexistence that has yet to be fully achieved. Moreover, that awareness brings us face to face with our own history today, when so many are still trying to secure peace on the other side of a border.

Escapees groups

During World War II, an estimated 80,000 people pursued freedom by means of the Iberian Peninsula. This transit of people lasted until the 1950s. It was ironic that those who fled the Nazis sought refuge in two countries precisely governed by fascists, Spain and Portugal, which were ideologically very similar to the Nazis. Those escapees can be categorized into different groups:

Allured by General De Gaulle’s call to resist the Germans, and, starting in the spring of 1943, to evade the Compulsory Labour Service (STO) that would force them to work in the German war industry, many young Frenchmen fled to North Africa to join the Allied army. This was the largest group of escapees.

The Jews –in many cases, families made up of grandparents, parents, and children– who had escaped Nazi persecution in Germany in 1933, only to flee again from the countries that were annexed by the Third Reich from 1938 onwards. Approximately 15,000 of them managed to evade the Holocaust by way of the Iberian Peninsula, preferentially seeking refuge in the Americas and Palestine.

The politicians of Nazi-occupied countries, including Poland, the Netherlands, and Belgium, who intended to set up their respective governments in exile in Great Britain.

Demobilized soldiers from England, Poland, Belgium and France, following the defeat of their armies by German troops in the initial battles of the war. They sought to join the Allied army.

Allied British and North American aviators who, after being shot down on the war front, wished to return to England to re-join the cause. Aviation played an essential role in the unfolding of World War II. Given the remarkable advances in aircraft technology, pilots had become a vital commodity to be rescued so that they could return to combat.

German and Nazi soldiers. As of August 1944, coinciding with the liberation of southern France, it was the Germans who attempted to enter the Iberian Peninsula, to escape the Allied forces and receive protection from the Franco regime.