Concentration camp in Francoist Spain

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Camp map of the Miranda de Ebro concentration camp near Burgos

In the early days of the Franco dictatorship from 1936 to 1947 there were up to 190 (estimated) concentration camps ( Spanish : Campo de concentración ) in which almost half a million republican fighters of the Spanish Civil War , refugees and opponents of the regime were imprisoned.

organization

The camps were under the military organization Servicio de Colonias Penitenciaría Militarizadas (SCPM). Some of these concentration camps were temporary, others permanent. In addition to forces loyal to the republic ( combatants ), such as members of the Spanish People's Army, homosexuals and common criminals were also interned in the camps. The prisoners were classified into different groups so that ordinary criminals (people who were not imprisoned for their political or ideological beliefs) were better off. The camp administration used this prisoner category to supervise the other prisoners (Kapo system) . Camp life for the prisoners was characterized by hunger and the exploitation of their labor.

crime

According to the historian Javier Rodrigo Sanchez (2006), half a million people were interned in Spanish concentration camps between 1936 and 1942. By 1944 the number of internees had risen into the hundreds of thousands. For example, they and their relatives were systematically disadvantaged in the distribution of food stamps, had to accept constant humiliation and, even after their release from prison, always lived in fear of being arrested again. The children of Republicans were often separated from their families and placed in the care of the Catholic Church. Current research speaks of 30,000 such politically motivated child abduction cases.

→ see Franquism # The "Blue Period"

About 192,000 prisoners were shot dead during the Spanish Civil War and in the years following the conflict. In the period from 1939 to 1940, hundreds of prisoners were executed each day. Several mass graves were discovered on the site of concentration camps. The arduous excavation and identification of the victims has now begun, for example in Burgos. A total of 30,000 bodies are said to be in mass graves. From 1938 onwards, interned interbrigadists - with National Socialist support - were carried out on racially ideologically motivated medical experiments that were supposed to research the alleged physical and psychological deformations that occurred in supporters of " Marxism ".

German participation

Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler with Karl Wolff at a meeting with Francisco Franco in Spain (October 25, 1940).

In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the putschists set up a German-style concentration camp in Miranda de Ebro . The camp was run by SS and Gestapo member Paul Winzer . According to a Gestapo report from August 1939, there were other Gestapo officers in Spain who interrogated prisoners. After the police agreement of July 31, 1938 between Heinrich Himmler and Severiano Martínez Anido , SS-Sturmbannführer Winzer set up an SD network in Spain in addition to the existing defense network. Numerous SD employees were employed by German companies in Spain. The cooperation also included the mutual extradition of "political criminals". In 1940 Heinrich Himmler also visited Spain with Karl Wolff . The meeting had two main aims: to get hold of German prisoners of war and potential Allied spies in Spain. Heinrich Himmler also visited the Miranda de Ebro concentration camp near Burgos .

Internment of international refugees after the Spanish Civil War

After the Spanish Civil War, many international refugees who fled to Spain via the Pyrenees after the occupation of France by German troops were interned in the Miranda de Ebro concentration camp. The number of Polish refugees alone is estimated at 1200–2000 people. In Miranda de Ebro, for example, the Pole Antoni Kępiński was interned, who fled to Spain with a group of Poles after the occupation of France via the Pyrenees.

Incomplete list of Spanish concentration camps

The exact number of concentration camps in Spain is still uncertain. According to various sources, the number is between 104 and 190.

Purpose of the concentration camp

The prisoners were organized in " battalions " and subjected to forced labor under a brutal regime . The aim was to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed by the Spanish Civil War . Prisoners were used, among other things, for the following work:

Memorials, memorials and exhibitions

Dealing with the memory of the aftermath of state terror puts the Spanish nation to the acid test , even after Francisco Franco's death in 1975. The processing of the crimes committed is still blocked in Spain. The National Foundation Francisco Franco (“Fundación Nacional Francisco Franco”) should also be mentioned here. She owns extensive archive material from Franco's official residence, which after the dictator's death were not handed over to public archives, but became the property of the private foundation. Unpleasant historians have been refused entry time and again.

Internees (selection)

  • Artur Becker (1905–1938), functionary of the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD), member of the Reichstag and fighter in the Spanish Civil War

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See for example: Antony Beevor : The Spanish Civil War. Munich 2006, review in: Die Welt, July 15, 2006; see. z. B. also (research status 2004): http://www.3sat.de/kulturzeit/themen/72582/index.html ( Memento from July 20, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) ( picture from a warehouse near Barcelona - Prisioneros republicanos en un campo de concentración cerca de Barcelona ).
  2. ↑ Angela Cenarro: Zaragoza . In: Carme Molinero, Margarida Sala, Jaume Sobrequés (eds.): Una inmensa prisión. Los campos de concentración y las prisiones durante la guerra civil y el franquismo . Crítica, Barcelona 2003.
  3. ↑ Source: Rodrigo, Javier. (2006). Internamiento y trabajo forzoso: los campos de concentración de franco. Hispania Nova, Revista de historia contemporánea, vol. 6, separata.
  4. ↑ Javier Bandrés, Rafael Llavona: La psicología en los campos de concentración de Franco. In: Psicothema ISSN  0214-9915 , Vol. 8, Nº. 1, 1996, pp. 1-11.
  5. ↑ Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation 1933-1945. Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1991, ISBN 3-7700-5162-9 , p. 109.
  6. ↑ Birgit Aschmann : Treue Freunde , p. 410 on Google books .
  7. ^ Foreign freedom . In: Die Zeit , No. 20/1992.
  8. ↑ Differences resulting from the use of forged foreign passports.
  9. ^ Periódico Levante (Spanish).
  10. ^ Campo de concentración de Castellón. In: Los Campos de Concentración de Franco. Retrieved June 6, 2020 (Spanish).