Francesc Sabaté Llopart
Francesc Sabaté Llopart (born March 30, 1915 in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat , Catalonia , † January 5, 1960 in Sant Celoni ) called El Quico , was a Spanish anarchist and resistance fighter during the Franco dictatorship .
Life
youth
Francesc Sabaté Llopart was born the second son of a Catalan working-class family. At the age of ten, Sabaté fled his Catholic school and began an apprenticeship as a plumber. In 1931 he became a member of the CNT and later part of the group Els Novell the FAI , his older brother Josep was a member of the. After the peasants' strikes in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Sabaté and a fellow activist stole money for the local strike committee.
After anarchist uprisings broke out in various parts of Spain (mainly in Aragon and La Rioja ) on December 8, 1933 , Sabaté also took part in the actions of the CNT / FAI groups in his hometown. The revolutionaries took control of the city, but the uprising was put down on December 14th. Francesc Sabaté and his brother Josep managed to escape. In 1934, Sabaté was arrested while trying to distribute a public statement on the general strike . However, the charges were dropped after three days. At the age of 20, Sabaté refused military service and was considered a deserter . He later participated in a bank robbery that was used to fund a support committee for political prisoners.
Spanish Civil War
After the military coup on July 18, 1936 and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , Quico Sabaté joined the local defense group and the Hospitalet revolutionary committee. After the suppression of the military uprising in Catalonia, he moved with the Durruti column to the Aragon front. After the rise of the Communist Party of Spain and the incorporation of all units into the Republican army, he fought in the regular army. Quico Sabaté blamed the communist officers for liquidating revolutionary trade unionists by sending them into hopeless skirmishes. When Sabaté's company had lost 80% of its combat strength after a battle, he killed his officer and had to flee. He was later caught by the police and given to the Communist Servicio Informacion Militar . Sabaté was tortured in prison and finally escaped. In the last battles he fought with the Durruti column for Catalonia and after the defeat went into exile in France.
Second World War
In France he was sent to the Le Vernet internment camp and was employed in a gunpowder factory in Angoulême when the Second World War broke out . During the occupation of France , Sabaté took part in the French resistance of the Maquis with acts of sabotage . He moved with his wife and daughter to Perpignan near the Spanish border and brought French refugees to Spain via the Pyrenees .
Resistance to the Franco regime
After the end of the war, the Spanish anarchists in French exile coordinated the resistance against the Franco dictatorship. As a delegate of the Movimiento Libertario Español , Sabaté went back to Spain to organize the resistance in the region around Baix Llobregat . He organized bases of operations and provided a powerful apparatus for the production and distribution of propaganda. To finance the activities, Sabaté stole the money from rich landowners and fascist politicians. Sabaté left the message to the victims:
“We are not robbers, we are fighters of the libertarian resistance. What we have just taken with us will help a little to give food to the orphaned and miserable children of those anti-fascists who shot you and the likes of you. We are people who have never begged for and will never beg for what is ours. "
Sabaté became a legend among the population and was celebrated by many as the modern Robin Hood . After the release of two captured anarchists who faced the death penalty, he was intensely searched for.
When the wrong car was attacked in an attempt to assassinate Police Commissioner Quintela and all of the inmates died, Quico Sabaté fled to France. There he was imprisoned in June 1949 for illegally possessing weapons. He lost his two brothers while in custody: On October 17, Josep was shot dead by the Guardia Civil in Barcelona after they had been informed of a planned meeting by a captured guerrilla. His younger brother Manolo was arrested on his first trip from France to Spain and shortly afterwards executed on February 24, 1950 in the Campo de la Bota castle in Barcelona. The proceedings against Quico Sabaté were dropped in July 1950 due to deficiencies in the evidence.
By order of the authorities, Sabaté was not allowed to leave Dijon and was arrested again in February 1951. His name was given by a witness in connection with a robbery and he was tortured and forced to confess. During an interrogation, Quico Sabaté tried to kill himself by jumping through the window, but was only slightly injured. The proceedings dragged on until the examining magistrate finally declared the forced confessions to be invalid. Sabaté was released in November 1952.
Resumption of guerrilla activities
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Until 1955 Sabaté was forced to stay in Dijon and therefore could not travel to Spain. In the meantime there were conflicts between him and members of the exile organization MLE / CNT, which lasted until his death. The exile organization publicly distanced itself from Quico Sabaté and made him and his actions in Spain responsible for the repression and arrest of many members of the CNT in Spain. Quico Sabaté, on the other hand, condemned the exile organization for its inaction and the lack of support for the resistance fighters in the underground.
At the end of April 1955, Sabaté returned to Barcelona with lots of magazines and brochures. With four comrades he distributed them all over the city and tried to organize the resistance in Catalonia. During Francisco Franco's visit to Barcelona on September 28, he used a self-made mortar to spread propaganda material in the city. In 1956, Sabaté went to Barcelona again, accompanied by Josep Lluís Facerías . Sabaté had to flee the country in February 1957 after a prisoner comrade of the Guardia Civil revealed the whereabouts and hiding places of the guerrillas. Sabaté, who was declared the Spanish public enemy No. 1 and was considered a simple bandit in the media, was unsuccessfully hunted down by the Guardia Civil with a large contingent.
In France, Quico Sabaté came before a court again because the French police had dug up an arms store at the border. Sabaté resisted the subsequent travel ban and tried to get to Spain with four other colleagues. The Spanish police had been informed of the trip and guarded the border with a large number. The five guerrillas were surprised during a rest and surrounded by the Guardia Civil. When night fell, they tried to flee and were involved in a firefight. Quico Sabaté was the only one to survive, but was hit by several bullets and seriously injured. He was able to free himself through a ruse and tried to get to Barcelona by train.
In Sant Celoni he was expected by search parties and finally shot by Abel Rocha Sanz , a member of the Catalan Somatén . Francesc Sabaté Llopart died at the age of 44. On the day of his death, January 4th, a commemoration is regularly held in Sant Celoni.
The life of Quico Sabaté became the subject of Emeric Pressburger's novel Killing a Mouse on Sunday (English: Don't come to Pamplona ) . The novel in turn became the template for the film Behold a Pale Horse by Fred Zinnemann .
literature
- Pilar Eyre: Quico Sabaté, el Último Guerrillero . Peninsula, Barcelona 2000, ISBN 84-8307-236-X
- Eduard Pons Prades: Guerrillas Españolas 1936-1960 . Editorial Planeta, Barcelona 1977.
- Ferran Sánchez Agustí: El Maquis anarquista. De Toulouse a Barcelona por los Pirineos . Milenio, Lleida 2005, ISBN 84-9743-174-X
- Antonjo Tellez: Sabaté. Urban guerrilla in Spain after the civil war 1945-1960 . Munich 1974, ISBN 3-920385-67-5
- Antonio Téllez Solá: Sabaté. An extraordinary guerrilla . bahoe books, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-903022-06-5 .
- Oliver Steinke : Foxes of the Ramblas . Edition AV Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-936049-46-7
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tellez 1974: 32
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sabaté Llopart, Francesc |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | El Quico |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish anarchist and resistance fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 30, 1915 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | L'Hospitalet de Llobregat |
| DATE OF DEATH | 5th January 1960 |
| Place of death | Sant Celoni |