The withdrawal or “retreat” was not a new movement in the Spanish Civil War. On July 18, 1936, several military coup d ' état and provoked the war, so many supporters of the Republic had to leave the country because of the steady progress of the Franco regime. In the Basque Country, Irun was the first link of exodus and mass swelling. In early September 1936, the city was deserted because most people fled through Hendaia, fleeing the Francoist claws.

Several months later, in the attack on Bizkaia, thousands of children were saved by sea, travelling to Britain or the Soviet Union. This was the precedent of the subsequent exile of the militiamen and the soldiers: The first Basque “withdrawals” we did when the “North Front” in its entirety was about to fall into the hands of the franchises.

The Franchises Owners of Catalonia

But the most terrible exile happened when the war was over, when the Franco regime took over Catalonia. From Lleida, after the attack by Francoist generals Juan Yagüe and José Solchaga to Tarragona, they headed north and, after taking Barcelona, tried to cross the Girona with the aim of crushing the last border. Without much resistance, the city was welcomed by the Francoists on January 27 in Barcelona, a witness to the most massive exile of recent days. Although the war was not over - Alicante, Valencia and Madrid were still in the hands of the republicans - when the Franco regime took over Barcelona, most of them realised the ultimate defeat of the Republic.

In this capital were the three Governments in favour of the Republic: Spanish – represented by Juan Negrín, President of the Council of Ministers of Spain and Manuel Azaña, President of the Second Republic –, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the representation of the Basque Government, chaired at that time by José Antonio Agirre in Barcelona. All of them left Barcelona together and fled to the border, in the fortress of Figueres (Catalonia), after the last parliamentary session of the Republican Court. With them, the crowd made a kind of courtship to move to Northern Catalonia and France. Because they knew very well what the behavior of the enemy would be with those who remained in the place of origin: although they already dominated, the franchises never stopped squeezing the screw of the most cruel repression.

Ten days after the inauguration of Barcelona, the “Law of Political Responsibilities” entered into force, with the aim of regulating the oppressive policies that had been used since 1936 in all the territories of Spain and especially in Catalonia. Moreover, despite not finding much resistance, fascist aviation continued to bomb Barcelona, as well as Figueres and Puigcerdà, with the aim of spreading terror and destruction. Thousands of people went to the roads and railways with the intention of arriving from Girona to the Pyrenean border. The French State did not want to receive any refugees from the Spanish State.

The French government led by Édouar Daladier radically changed the foreign reception policy from 1938. By means of several laws and decrees promulgated by the Minister of the Interior, Albert Sarraut, foreigners, refugees, the Reds… they were a gentlage for the French administration. And if he came, he could enter the jails or the detention centers, until they were expelled. Therefore, what was a possibility in 1936 and 1937 – to be welcomed in France as a refugee – was impossible when the war was about to end. In this situation, the Spanish Foreign Minister, Julio Álvarez del Vayo, negotiated with his French member, Georges Bonnet: He asked him to allow 150,000 civilians, i.e. the elderly, women and children, to enter France. But the French authorities said no. In addition, they closed and tightened their borders and dispatched all kinds of gendarmes and soldiers to monitor their footsteps.

28 January: women and children first

But there were thousands of people in critical condition and what was happening on the border forced the French authorities to give in. On 28 January, women and children agreed to cross the border. A week later, on 5 February, the doors were opened to political and militia authorities throughout the Spanish state. In the early morning of that day, Negrín, Azaña, the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Lluís Company, and the lehendakari Aguirre himself, exiled themselves from the ports beyond La Vajol, in the Alt Empordá. Not far from Le Perthus, the collado of Ares and the collado of Cerbero, thousands of people also escaped for fear of the Francoists who asked for their heels.

But the triumph of courtesy was brief: on the one hand, because the French authorities intended to return them to Spain as soon as possible; and, on the other, because the reception they had prepared was uncivil. The prefect of the Eastern Pyrenees, Raoul Dukowsky, immediately called for the expulsion of this district. The mayor of Perpinyàn also complained about the wave of refugees: in his appearances in the media, even in the Paris Parliament itself, he began to ask that the “red plebe” be sent to Spain as soon as possible.

The French army was responsible for organizing the crowd that had passed across the border. Despite attempts to bring the largest possible number of individuals back to Spain, women and children had the opportunity to stay in shelters or in houses of families in France. But men were forced into battle. Two months later, the words of dictator Francisco Franco to end the war were put into practice: the militiamen were disarmed and imprisoned.

Riostras and sand

When they crossed the border, the gendarmes disarmed the militiamen and recorded them completely. The three detainees were subsequently transferred to the concentration camps, under the supervision of French military personnel. They created the first Areas of Shame on the beaches: In Argelès-sur-Mer, Sain Cyprien… A little later, in Le Barcarès, almost 200. They received the camp to welcome 000 militiamen and soldiers. In those places, without defense, the sand above and below, the sea to one side and the ravines to the other, you could see only French soldiers on the horizon, who had retired since February 1939.

Under these conditions, the French authorities hoped that they would return quickly along the way they had come, but the hopes faded half. Despite the situation, the majority chose to remain there rather than return to Francoist Spain. However, the problem immediately arose: The Argelès, Saint Cyprien and Le Barcarès camps were overtaken and the military authorities began to dismantle another Fagalde and Menard enclosure. What has been called “France of the camps” is born.

Following the model of Le Barcáres, more camps were built in the area’s departments to house refugees, as if an epidemic were being treated; the old military camps were also used. Despite not having committed any crime in France, they were held in detention until their return to Spain or their transfer to another place. In the beginning, moreover, the people they were detained could not leave the place to work abroad; from 1940 onwards they were given permission to do so.

A camp four kilometers from Euskal Herria

The concentration camps of Bram, Septfonds, Agda, Noé, Rieucros, Gurs, Rivesaltes… were created in a very rapid time, on military initiative. One of them, Gurs, was very close to the Basque Country, just four kilometres from Zuberoa Hospital, where the majority of the Basques, some 6,000 people, were transferred. But also in other camps, like Bram, they took over 1,000 people.

In any case, the Gurs concentration camp is the one that we have most closely related to the history of Basque refugees. On the one hand, the refugee aid policies put in place by the Basque Government and, on the other, the aspirations of the French military to better organise and manage the camp system were added to their backs. In the Perpignan area, the Basque Government Minister of Government, Telesforo Monzón, launched an initiative in favour of refugees with the help of Leonardo Salazar, Andrés Irujo and Ander Bereziartua, which represented a qualitative leap in the creation of Gurs to bring together and support the majority of the Basques.

The aim was to bring refugees back to Euskal Herria and held negotiations with the French authorities to have one of them set up in Iparralde if new cultivation camps were to be created. As you know, it was impossible, as this project was strongly opposed by local politicians. Among them was the Bajonavarra Member Jean Ybarnegaray, who was passionate about Franco and was later a minister of the Vichy Government. But repudiation came not only with the position: Those who left to Gurs with hope and enthusiasm, although they were better than in the Argelès camp, soon realized that the words of the French authorities were no more than euphemisms, and that was not “welcome camp” or “militia camp”, but a field of cruel concentration. The Second World War further worsened the repressive deviation of this type of enclosures, which were united in the chain of “death camps”.

Knowing all this, how is it possible in today’s Europe to pursue a policy similar to that carried out in the “Retuerto” 80 years ago against migrants and refugees?