{"id":2675,"date":"2024-03-19T12:03:35","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T12:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aski.gr\/wire\/?page_id=2675"},"modified":"2024-05-22T18:08:46","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T17:08:46","slug":"spain","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aski.gr\/wire\/spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Pilar Ponz\u00e1n Vidal<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Women in the anti-totalitarian resistance<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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When resistance is discussed, it is always invariably associated with the movements that emerged in Nazi-occupied Europe during the years of World War II (1939-1945). A resistance that materialized in multiple forms, modalities and degrees of involvement and in which women took an active part. A participation that, despite the invisibility that women have historically endured, is being increasingly studied and valued.<\/p>

Women who were part of the French resistance are a good example of its nature. The life courses of many Spanish women who settled in France, be it for personal, family or political reasons, was marked both by the uniqueness of the country they settled in and by the outbreak of World War II. At that time, they all got involved to face the Nazis. Both their actions and their commitment illustrate the role \u2013largely unknown and silenced during many years\u2013 that women played in the fight against Nazism in France. The fact that, in most cases, they were not French citizens, and the widespread lack of knowledge concerning their struggle in Spain, caused the importance and recognition of their role to be significantly underestimated.<\/p>

In spring 1940, the Allied defeat in the Battle of France caused France to be divided into two zones: one occupied by the Nazis and the other controlled by the government of Marshal P\u00e9tain. As a result of General De Gaulle’s call for French young men to join the Resistance that was being organized from Great Britain, thousands of young people took the path to North Africa. At the same time, the Resistance began to be organized in France with the creation of the first clandestine struggle groups. The main activities of Resistance networks involved aiding prisoners of war and taking part in information, evasion and sabotage actions. Their actions became an indispensable help to the allies. The networks recruited secret agents, men and women, mostly civilians, that operated under code names and used to report on German activities, ensure the rescue of those who wanted to flee Europe, organize clandestine air and sea operations, communicate by radio, carry out sabotage, etc.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\"Detail
Detail of commemorative plaque on the monument to the maquis in Santa Cruz de Moya (Cuenca) \u00a9 Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
\"Photo
Photo of the identity card of the National Liberation Movement, H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Berthaud \u00a9 Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
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Photograph of maquis graffiti in Sallent (Barcelona). \u00a9 Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>
\"Memorial
Memorial plaque, 11 avenue Paul-Adam, Paris, 17th arrondissement. Louise Petron, 1889-1945, member of the Resistance, caretaker of this building and second lieutenant in the French Combat Forces, was arrested here on 17 July 1944. She was deported to Ravensbr\u00fcck, where she disappeared on 19 January 1945. \u00a9 Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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The setting up of these networks was the result of civil and military resistance. They were supported by the social fabric of the country they were in and depended on the coordinated action of many people who had started to be engaged on an individual basis. In most cases, both their origins and organization were of great magnitude, since they consisted of a worldwide movement connecting very distant places and countries. In some ways, the history of resistance networks is the history of the underground war against the Nazis.<\/p>

Resistance networks can be classified into three categories: action, information and evasion. They were mostly promoted by the intelligence services of the allied countries and by the so-called Free France movement (followers of De Gaulle). For their part, the so-called evasion networks were clandestine organizations that indistinctly brought people and documentation from anywhere in Europe to Spain and\/or Portugal. These organizations became the only way to fight the invader.<\/p>

These networks included a large group of agents who covered, in a coordinated and hierarchical manner, the different functions of the machinery that made them operational: mail, transport, accommodation, smuggling, etc. It was a wide and complex chain that needed to work seamlessly to be able to successfully accomplish its missions. Guides were an essential part of it, but as a matter of fact, the structure of the networks was also made up of links and couriers as well as by the owners of the houses where the resistance fighters took refuge. Amidst this complex machinery, women played a key role. They were leading players, especially in support, mail and information missions, and their activity was also equally risky. In their missions they faced the greatest of dangers, for an arrest usually meant the shooting or deportation of the agent.<\/p>

An indisputable proof of the importance of resistance networks can be found in the fact that in France, from 1945 on, and after the establishment of a National Approval Commission, the Forces Fran\u00e7aises Combattantes<\/em> (FFC) approved a total of 268 networks of which thousands of people had been part, including hundreds of women.<\/p>

\"Memorial<\/a>
Memorial to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris<\/figcaption><\/figure>

It might come as a surprise that in the 1940s, amidst a world war, a woman would become involved in a structure as complex and dangerous as that of a resistance network. Despite the dangers women faced in these organizations, their presence was certainly significant and played a rather prominent role. Research on the subject has uncovered for example the unique story of Pilar Ponz\u00e1n (Huesca, 1906\u2013 Zaragoza, 1999), sister of the anarchist leader Francisco Ponz\u00e1n, who was at the head of a very active group that cooperated with several networks, including the British Pat O’Leary network or that of Alfonsina Bueno Vela (Moros, 1915\u2013 Toulouse, 1979) who cooperated also with the Ponz\u00e1n group and ended up being deported to the Ravensbr\u00fcck and Mauthausen camps.<\/p>

\"Andr\u00e9e<\/a>
Andr\u00e9e de Jongh after visiting Buckingham Palace to receive the George Medal in February 1946 \u00a9 Imperial War Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>

In a more universal context, the history of the Com\u00e8te<\/em> network, founded by the Belgian citizen Andr\u00e9e Eug\u00e9nie Adrienne de Jongh, should also be highlighted. De Jong facilitated the escape and rescue of numerous airmen of the Allied Air Force through the escape routes that led to Spain on the Atlantic side. New research has also uncovered the\u00a0 life story of Carme Gardell Garcia (Setcases, 1891\u2013 Ravensbr\u00fcck, 1945) who was at the service of the Darius<\/em> network; and that of Generosa Cortina Roig (Son, 1910\u2013 Toulouse, 1987) as an important part of the Belgian Jean<\/em> network and later of the so-called Fran\u00e7oise<\/em> network. Likewise, Roser F\u00e0bregas Vil\u00e0, married Fluvi\u00e0 (Prats de Llu\u00e7an\u00e8s, 1900\u2013 Perpignan, 1983), Carmen Aguilera P\u00e9rez, married Zapater (Almeria, 1912) and Braulia C\u00e1novas Mulero (Alhama de Murcia, 1920\u2013 Barcelona,\u00a0 1993) also took an active part in the Alibi<\/em> network. And many others. Most of them were arrested and deported to the Ravensbr\u00fcck concentration camp. Their lives were marked by a strong ethical and ideological commitment.<\/p>

As further research based on the approval records concerning the membership to the Resistance networks makes progress, the participation of a significant number of Spanish women in them is exposed, as is the remarkable work they carried out both in\u00a0 cities and in missions aimed at distributing propaganda and\/or welcoming resistance fighters, as in the case of Felicitat Gasa (El Pont de Suert, 1905\u2013 Landon, 2000) in Bordeaux; or in support of the Maquis, as in the case of Herminia Puigsech (Matar\u00f3, 1926\u2013 Verhnola, 2013), Conxita Grang\u00e9 (Espui, 1925\u2013 Toulouse, 2019), Elvira Ibarz (Mequinenza, 1891 \u2013 Toulouse, 1953) and Maria Castell\u00f3 (Mequinenza, 1914\u2013 Paris, 1945), who served as links with the Maquis in the French department of Ari\u00e8ge; and finally also as couriers, in the custody of documentation or at the direct service of the evasion networks in the towns around the Pyrenees area. The fact that those who survived deportation did not return to Spain has heightened their invisibility despite the acknowledgments they received in France.<\/p>

For its part, in Spain, the resistance to the Franco regime also had an obvious female component, although in a numerically less significant dimension than the one prevailing in Nazi-occupied Europe. The repression that the Franco regime imposed against its republican enemies was relentless, with thousands murdered, imprisoned or used as forced labour. During the 1940s, Spain was an immense prison where the population lived in total fear.<\/p>

While World War II shifted in favor of the allies, in Spain, although silenced, women continued fighting against the Franco regime by taking part in the armed resistance. This is the case, among others, of Manuela D\u00edaz Cabezas (Villanueva de C\u00f3rdoba, 1920\u20132006), Esperanza Mart\u00ednez Garc\u00eda (Vilar del Saz de Arcas, 1927), Enriqueta Otero Blanco (Castroverde, 1910\u2013 Lugo, 1988) and Cristina Zalba Rodis (Barcelona,\u00a0 1909\u2013 Castellfollit de la Roca, 2001). All the women above \u2013and many others\u2013\u00a0 endured a harsh repression against their relatives and suffered the direct brutality of the Civil Guard, the security force in charge of suppressing resistance in rural areas. Franco tried to strip this resistance movement \u2013the guerrilla\u2013 of its political character by placing it in the realm of common crime.<\/p>

The course of their lives has never been given the recognition granted to the women who played a leading role in the French Resistance. In all cases, giving a proper value to their actions and biographies and paying tribute to their memory is a task yet to be accomplished.<\/p>

Josep Calvet
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Bibliography and video reference<\/u><\/p>