Francoist concentration camps

[5] Added to this is the fact that the rebels did not recognize Republican soldiers as prisoners of war, so that the Geneva Convention of 1929, signed years earlier by King Alfonso XIII on behalf of Spain, did not apply to them.

With regard to the official administration of the camps, widespread corruption, which enabled the enrichment of many military personnel and aggravated the suffering of inmates in their custody, has also been highlighted.

Francisco Franco was immediately informed of this, demonstrating enthusiasm and ordered the opening of more camps to harbor the “disturbing elements” and employ them in public jobs.

On July 20, the future dictator told Coronel Eduardo Sáenz de Buruaga who was in command of the city of Tetuán: “I have been informed that there are several hundred detainees and that the prisons cannot provide for them.

Thus was born the concentration camp of El Mogote, in a suitable location to hide the harshness of its conditions from abroad (on August 20, 52 prisoners would be killed, with Franco well-informed).

Other detention centers opened shortly after the beginning of the war, such as the military prison located in Mount Hacho de Ceuta Castle, have been considered concentration camps, although they have never been officially named.

On the other hand, other facilities, such as the Laredo, Castro Urdiales, Santander and El Dueso, were initially enabled and managed by battalions of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie of Fascist Italy.

On July 5, 1937, the General Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps of Prisoners (ICCP) was created with Colonel Luis Martín Pinillos, an Africanist soldier, at helm.

Its objective was to centralize the management of all the camps, although it would conflict with the different military chiefs of other parts of the country, especially with General Queipo de Llano, responsible for the Army of the South.

[3] Torture and ill-treatment were a normal part of the day in the concentration camps where the inmates – many of them without having been formally charged with any crime– endured deplorable living conditions marked by “shortages, disease, overcrowding, and corruption”.

The inmates were subjected to brutal punishments by those who guarded them (many of them ex-combatants, ex-captives or relatives of victims of repression during the Republican rearguard) or by the cabos de vara that reappeared in the concentration camps and also the prison setting.