On August 23, 1938, commander and Antonio Vallejo Nagera psychiatrist received a telegram signed by Franco himself. Since that day, I had the green light to carry out their psychiatric experiments with thousands of prisoners who were beginning to fill the concentration camps and English prisons. With the creation of the Office of Psychological Research, Vallejo will have a unique opportunity to confirm his thesis: Marxism was a disease. And the regime, in turn, would have a scientific excuse to crush without mercy to the vanquished.
In his madness and war. Biopsychic characteristics of international Marxists, Vallejo Nagera clearly set out the purpose of the investigation: "we now have a unique opportunity to verify experimentally that the simplicity of Marxist ideology that advocates social equality promotes their uptake by the mentally deficient." The psychiatrist Carlos Castilla del Pino, who was a teacher, is very clear what was the purpose of these experiments: "The only way to justify, without feelings of guilt and in order to a higher ideal, all were committed tropelerías is to mount an ideological edifice that explains it. To Vallejo Nagera, the 'red' is a degenerate and a man who, when multiplied, the Hispanic race is degenerating. Therefore must be exterminated. "
After Franco's victory, ideas such as Vallejo Nagera found an excellent breeding ground in a regime that does not conform to overcome, but wants to crush the enemy. Spain is filled with camps that are closed only after transporting prisoners in cattle trains to new detention centers. In the prisons are shot daily. Repression affects not only people who made the "mistake" to defend the legitimate Government of the Republic. Behind bars there are also thousands of women, single, pregnant or with young children. Hundreds of children died in the prisons of Franco of hunger or disease. Innocent victims whose only crime is to be children of the red. They will become one of the objectives of the scheme, molding material for the construction of the "new Spain." And for this we have contributions like these characters of the fabric of the regime.
Children of "Red" scheme aims
Maria Topete Fernández was the director of the Nursing Mothers' Prison Madrid. Your goal here is to minimize contact between mothers and children, "prevent children will nurse milk communist", says Victoria Carrasco. "I had the kids all day in the yard, whether it was cold as if it was warm, and mothers would not let us catch the children while they were hungry, they were dirty or cry. It was horrible, you saw your son crying and could not do anything, "says Petra Cuevas, whose daughter died of bronchitis after the name Topete-like dams," he prevented the visit the doctor.
Many of the women prisoners with children in prison were sentenced to death. Feared for his life, but they still grieved over what would happen to their children. What would happen to them if they had family out of jail? Julia Manzanal was sentenced to death for being a member of the Communist Party and was awaiting execution of the death penalty with his daughter months in jail Madrid Sales: "Imagine what that means, think they're going to remove the child . What will they do with that girl? What will they do with our children? When we talked about this, we said that we preferred to kill the girl with us before giving it to them. " Gumersindo
Estella, a Capuchin friar intended Torrero prison in Zaragoza, is responsible for providing spiritual care to prisoners sentenced to death. Was witness to many executions, some women with children. His diary is now a unique document: "'What will they do with the two children?" I asked. Someone told me that they had been called two sisters to have them taken to the maternity home. But take away the daughters to death row were not as easy as supposed. Cries of 'My daughter! Out of compassion, not steal from me! That killed me '. The guards tried to boot to force the creatures of the chest and arms of mothers and poor mothers defending their treasures to arm match. " Pan
exchange for indoctrination
The prison regulations at the time said that the children had to leave the prison before they were three years old. This created a very distressing situation for many mothers, who had no one with whom to leave out the children. This meant that the child would go to a nursing home and between the dams was a rumor that if the child was going to a nursing home, it lost forever, and if not, they were certain that children would be educated against ideas of their parents. Teresa Moran remembers clearly, as if an afterthought, what happened to his companion in prison. When stopped, took their children to a nursing home and she spent many years without knowing anything about them. One day I say he has seen: "Go down and go to the eldest son dressed as a priest. The woman went mad and started screaming: 'But how can it be, dear? A traitor to your father! Can not you see that these are the ones who killed your father? ". Nursing homes are like jails because they taught little children to hate their parents, said they were red, they were ill and had made many crimes. "
The homes where they end the children of the prisoners belong, in many cases, charitable network of Social Aid. This charity was created Mercedes Sanz Bachiller, widow of the Phalange leader Onesimus Redondo, shortly after the war began. Inspired by the Winter-Hilfe in Nazi Germany and its goal is to serve the most vulnerable. And those who most need help are the losers. But charity is not free. The children of the defeated get bread in exchange for indoctrination. They are educated against the ideas of their parents and in the spirit of "Glorious Uprising." All those who supported the Republic were "red", ie carriers of evil. The Board of Our Lady of Mercy was the agency responsible for the children of prisoners. In 1942, the agency was under his tutelage about nine thousand children. Year below this figure has already reached twelve thousand. There were twelve thousand children with parents in jail or shot.
The Board had distributed the Social Aid centers and religious schools or orphanages. The children were treated and a similar education in the two institutions. Francisca Aguirre A father and shot him at a young age she was hospitalized with her sisters in a religious hospice, "the nuns gathered us all girls and told us clearly that we were scum, who were daughters of horrible red, murderers, atheists, criminals , we did not deserve anything and we were there out of pure charity. We did not understand well what we were guilty. "
Robberies and kidnappings of children
But the regime was not content to re-educate the children of prisoners and shot. Had to make sure that the "red plague" never again stain the new Spain. And because of the impunity they had on the conquered, there were cases of robbery and kidnapping of children, especially in rural Spain. The combination of fear, old hatreds and accusations made life miserable for people who have someone designated as red. That was the case of Emilia Girón, sister of the famous guerrilla Manuel Girón, popularly known as The Lion of Bierzo. Since his brother enlisted in the guerrilla, the Civil Guard made them life miserable for her and her family. Almost every day they were taken to police station, they were often tortured. On one occasion, Emilia was taken to jail a half hour after the birth of their first child, with blood running down his legs. They beat the sequels still in the spine.
After that, he was banished to Salamanca, where he had to live in charity with his newborn son. There, becomes pregnant and the baby is born in the provincial hospital: "I had happy delivery. He was a child. I wanted to be called Jesus. To take me to baptize removed and no longer see him again. I asked and I said I was wrong. I suppose a married couple had no children it was. And with that anguish I am all my life, because I know I gave birth and brought him over me nine months and not even know him. The anxiety will last me until the other world. " Emilia's son was not a trace. It was inscribed, at least with the names of their parents, and at that time could go some people claim that was marked as "red."
Emilia's case was not unique. We have located a document of the Casa Cuna de Sevilla. It is a letter from the pastor about prospective adoptive parents. The priest acknowledged that the birth mother looking for her daughter and advised patience: "the could see them passing you a hard time, I decided not to touch the matter in the Provincial and when you were not even remember that this woman had gone to demand anything. " The priest ends the letter with a recommendation to disable the original birth of the child and be replaced by another. All with the utmost discretion. There was also
child abductions. Jose Murillo, known as Comandante Ríos was one of the most wanted guerrillas Andalusian Civil Guard. Her sister was kidnapped sixteen years with twelve other girls of the village by nuns. They were taken to a car to a cloistered convent at Barcelona. They did not ask permission from parents and the child does not returned to the village. Still lives in the convent. Child returnees
But the Franco regime was not content just with the children of the "red" in English territory. During the civil war, many parents had to make the difficult decision to entrust their children to the Republic for the evacuation abroad. They hoped that their children after the war, could return to a liberated Spain from fascism. But Franco won the war and decides that all these children have to return to Spain, with or without parental consent. The system converts the repatriation of children in a big propaganda operation. "Franco returns to mothers Spain's the joy and love of one day, by order of the Marxist Government, were uprooted from their homeland and turned over to the custody of the most anti-English international institutions, "the narrator of a propaganda film of the time. In many cases, however, the child was not released to their families and would go directly to a nursing home. A 1940 law stipulated that custody of the children who were on Social Assistance centers automatically passed to the institution. This created a great risk that the parents lost track of the child forever. * Montse Armengou
and Ricard Belis are Televisió de Catalunya journalists and authors Book The Lost Children of Franco (Plaza y Janes, 2002) and The graves of silence (Plaza y Janes, 2004). This article was originally published in the print edition of People Magazine No. 12, Special Human Rights, Summer 2004. Http://www.revistapueblos.org/spip.php?article1311
