Metadata: Files of foreign prisoners
Collection
- Country:
- Spain
- Holding institution:
- Alt Empordà County Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Arxiu Comarcal de l'Alt Empordà
- Postal address:
- Plaça de l’Escorxador Vell. 17600 - Figueres
- Phone number:
- +34 972 670 178
- Web address:
- http://cultura.gencat.cat/arxius/acae
- Reference number:
- ACAE110-59
- Title:
- Files of foreign prisoners
- Title (official language):
- Fitxes d’interns estrangers
- Creator/accumulator:
- Figueres Prison
- Date(s):
- 1940/1945
- Language:
- Spanish; Castilian
- Extent:
- 4,426 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the Figueres Prison that is preserved in the Alt Empordà County Archive (ACAE) contains 31.5 linear meters dated between 1908 and 1999. The fonds is classified in the following sections: general administration, accounting, food supply, administrative board, prisoner management, fingerprint files, and foreign prisoner files.
Apart from the 15,564 files of people who passed through the Figueres prison from 1937 to 1975, 4,426 files of foreign prisoners constituted an independent section. Among these, 227 files correspond to Jews sent to prison for crossing the border illegally (149 men and 78 women).
The registers give each prisoner's personal data (name, age, marital status, family, religion, profession, background, fingerprints), cause of imprisonment, circumstances of arrest (including when and where) and related documentation, with the document indicating whether the person was released or not. A small photograph may be included.
Some files provide very interesting complementary information, such as the case of Gilbert O'Badaschon, whose file contains a list of 151 foreign detainees (many Jews) who were transferred to the Girona Provincial Prison from Figueres (1943, ACAE110-59-T2-9250). Two of the Jewish prisoner files have been digitized. These are the files of the Belgian Ernest Simons, from Antwerp (ACAE110-59-T2-8503) and the Romanian Marcus Leon Sylvio Weyser, from Oberpertestiv (ACAE110-59-T2-8369).
These files are a rich source for research into the study of the flight of Jews from Europe during the Second World War through the Pyrenees.
- Archival history:
- The fonds of the Figueres Prison was transferred to the ACAE in 1996 and another small addition, administrative and personnel management documentation, in September 2008. In January 2009 the dactyloscopic and decadactyl files were incorporated.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The first references to a prison in Figueres date back to 1572, but by the middle of the nineteenth century the building was considered to have safety and health problems. It was not until 1904 that a decree was promulgated ordering the construction of a new penitentiary in the outskirts of Figueres, which for more than a hundred years of existence accumulated thousands of files. In 2014, a new prison was inaugurated to replace the ancient Figueres and Girona prisons.
Documentation from the former prison, including the records of Jewish prisoners, was transferred to the ACAE. The archive is included in the Regional Archives Network of the Generalitat de Catalunya. It was inaugurated in 1991 and holds numerous fonds of institutions and associations, notarial protocols of the nineteenth century, judicial fonds, some companies’ fonds, and heritage fonds.
- Subject terms:
- Internment
- Migration
- Personal records
- Photographs
- Prisoners
- Refugees
- World War II
- System of arrangement:
- Chronological and alphabetical ordering.
- Access, restrictions:
- Restricted access. Documents containing personal data that may affect the security, honour, privacy or image of individuals remains out of consultation for a period of 50 years from the creation of the document, in accordance with current legislation.
- Finding aids:
- Data on the collection are available at the website of the National Archive of Catalonia and the County Archives.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://arxiusenlinia.cultura.gencat.cat/ArxiusEnLinia/
- Yerusha Network member:
- Spanish National Research Council
- Author of the description:
- Irene Llop Jordana; UVIC-UCC; April 2021
