La Retirada

La Retirada (English: the withdrawal or the retreat) was the exodus to France from Spain between 28 January 1939 and 15 February 1939 of nearly 500,000 Republican soldiers and civilians near the end of the Spanish Civil War.

The exodus was caused by the conquest of Catalonia, including the city of Barcelona, by the right-leaning Nationalist army of Francisco Franco.

Catalonia and the city of Barcelona as a stronghold of the leftist Republicans received many internally displaced persons (IDPs) from other regions of Spain.

Along the way refugee columns were attacked by air forces of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany who were aiding the Nationalists.

The French right-wing press, however, characterized them as "fugitives, deserters, and murderers" and the government called them "human hordes."

France, facing the imminent threat of Nazi Germany, had no wish to alienate the Franco government of Spain by encouraging the refugees to continue their fight against the Nationalists.

[11] The French had 50,000 police and gendarmes along a 150 km (93 miles) section of the border with Spain,[8] but they were poorly prepared for a large influx of refugees.

[12] [7] On arrival in France, authorities separated men of military age from women, children, and elderly and confiscated most of the possessions, including weapons, which the refugees carried with them.

The men of military age and some women and children were placed in hastily created concentration camps near the border with Spain.

A bitterly cold wind from the mountains has produced a raging sandstorm...There is a great deal of dysentery probably from lack of good water and absence of sanitary arrangements.

[16] The refugees returning to Spain were not stripped of their citizenship by the Franco government, but remained for many years outside the mainstream of Spanish society and many barely subsisted, depending in part on assistance from international aid organizations.

[18] The refugees remaining in France included many employed in work projects, seasonal labor, or enlisted in the French Foreign Legion.

In April 1940, fifty-five thousand men were placed in paramilitary labor groups which worked on fortifications and other military-related projects.

[19] The presence of the refugees in France became more acceptable to the French public with the beginning of World War II in September 1939.