Neighbours of L'Hospitalet deportees to Nazi concentration camps
According to the latest data, 9161 Spanish Republicans were deported to Nazi concentrationcamps between 1940-1945, of which 2,000 were Catalans. L'Hospitalet de Llobregat is thesecond Catalan municipality with the second highest number of residents who were victimsof Nazism, only after Barcelona.This itinerary aims to provide an insight into the historical context and life trajectories ofthe L’Hospitalet deportees and also to pay tribute to those who fought against fascism indefence of the rights and democratic values represented by the 2nd Spanish Republicbetween 1931 and 1939.We will take a look at different Hospitalet scenarios in the history of this episode andprovide multimedia resources for those who want to know more and in a more exhaustiveway.To situate ourselves in the historical period, we will give a little context:The purpose of Nazism was to turn its victims into ashes, making them disappear from history. In the case of the Republicans, Francoism contributed by lengthening their shadow and banishing them to oblivion. For decades, the school curriculum did not include the history of those victims, a fact that helped to silence the drama they suffered. Fortunately, this trend is now being corrected: the memory of the deportation is making its way into the education of the youngest generations, with cross-cutting values such as peace, tolerance and respect.The first time that the victims of the Nazi deportation from L'Hospitalet were studied was back in 2007. Researchers Enric Gil and Josep Ribas brought to light a total of 54 stories, which had lived in absolute silence for more than half a century. Their study, L'Hospitalet als camps nazis. Exili i deportació, is included in the volume L'Hospitalet lloc de memòria, available in our city's public libraries.This list was updated in 2019 with the work of Tania González, as part of the municipal programme "Beques L'Hospitalet 2018", which uncovered the existence of 13 new victims. Of the 67 people from Hospitalet who were deported, two of them resided in the city afterwards. These are the cases of Antonio Cánovas, who ended up in the African camp of Bou Arfa, and Adolfo Hernández Pérez, deported to Mauthausen and Gusen. It is also known that several residents of L'Hospitalet were victims of forced labour for the Third Reich, although they were never transferred to a concentration camp.In 2022, the Museu de l'Hospitalet, as part of the previous documentation tasks for themonographic exhibition on L’Hospitalet deportees, established the census of 66 residents,correcting some errors and locating new deportees. The appearance of new informationcannot be ruled out as archives are digitized and new documents are made available.The 66 deportees from L'Hospitalet were men: there is no woman linked to L'Hospitalet who was imprisoned in a Nazi camp. Nevertheless, the presence of 12 women (wives and sisters of the deportees), who experienced both the exile and the French refugee camps, has been confirmed. These are, for example, the cases of the mothers of Manuel Gutiérrez Souza and Félix Quesada Herrerías, who were part of the convoy from Angoulême to Mauthausen. However, while the men on this train ended up in the Austrian camp, the women and young children were returned to Spain.Although one of the main features of the origin, life and caseload of the deportees from L'Hospitalet is their diversity, they also share common features. The general prototype of the deportee from L'Hospitalet was a young adult (between 20-35 years of age), resident in the Collblanc - La Torrassa neighbourhood, although his origins were distant. The most common occupations were related to the factories in their immediate surroundings and the predominant political ideology was anarchist, given the strength of the CNT-FAI in the city. They tended to go into exile individually: this was because they were either unmarried or did not want to drag their family with them. In case you are interested, you can look up the conference where the new findings were explained (available below), or the full study at the following link: http://www.museul-h.cat/detallCataleg.aspx?1Zg4tH1DxOUpIGJkEe0n3grkqazCzFFg8Cj8zqazCTxVDhtspIqazB Following both studies, the city's public institutions wanted to dignify and pay homage to all L’Hospitalet victims of Nazism, under the commitment to the construction of a democratic memory. This historical itinerary and the installation of commemorative plaques (stolpersteine) in memory of all victims, as well as the temporary exhibition to be held at the Museum of L'Hospitalet in their honour, are the result of this premise.These projects follow in the wake of the local tradition of reclaiming and dignifying historical memory. It is too late to echo the history of the victims of Nazism in a direct way. They have all passed away and, unfortunately, many of them did so without seeing with their own eyes how society remembers and honours them. So, as long as their memories and their flame are never extinguished, let's keep their memory alive.Shall we begin?
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