Metadata: Collection of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Spanish Civil War
Collection
- Country:
- Spain
- Holding institution:
- Historical Memory Documentary Centre
- Holding institution (official language):
- Centro documental de la memoria historica
- Postal address:
- Calle Gibraltar 2. 37008 - Salamanca
- Phone number:
- +34 923 212 845
- Email:
- cdmh@cultura.gob.es
- Reference number:
- ES.37274.CDMH/-2.66
- Title:
- Collection of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Spanish Civil War
- Title (official language):
- Fondos documentales del Comite Internacional de la Cruz Roja sobre la Guerra Civil Española
- Creator/accumulator:
- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
- Date(s):
- 1936/1982
- Language:
- Spanish; Castilian
- Extent:
- 101,216 digital documents; 145 GB
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains: reports concerning Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939); correspondence between the Spanish Republican government and Nationalist authorities; lists of war prisoners; reports and photos of missing children; reports on missions and visits of the ICRC delegates; correspondence between the ICRC and belligerent parties and the Spanish Red Cross Committees (Republican and Nationalist); files regarding the resumption of contact among relatives separated as result of the war.
It preserves four documentary fonds:
Spanish Civil War (1936-1940) [ACICR, C ESCI]. It contains documents on the Spanish Service organization; correspondence between different delegations; files on Spanish refugees in France; children’s colonies (lists and personal files); lists of Republican and Nationalist civil and military prisoners.
Iberian Service (1939-1982) [C G2 IB]. The Iberian Service continued the activities carried out by the Spanish Service during World War II and afterwards. It contains documents related to Spain, Portugal, and South American countries. Specifically, there is a list, sent by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), of Sephardic Jews from Salonika deported to Bergen-Belsen.
General Archives (1951-1965) [ACICR, B AG]. It contains prisoner documents, according to the Geneva Convention; reports on authorizations to visit prisoners and correspondence between penitential institutions; negotiations with the Francoist government about the right to visit prisoners; policy of the Francoist government towards Sephardic Jews living in other countries; reports on Spanish detainees and military pardons of political prisoners; reports from the ICRC delegates on the situation and daily life of the prisoners; documentation on children sent abroad, children of Spanish prisoners in France, and the protest by the Spanish government of the acts organized in France by Spanish exiles against the Franco Government; documentation on people sentenced to death in Spain.
Pictures of Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) [CICR CID, V P Hist]. It contains 655 photos taken during the conflict.
- Archival history:
- The copy of this collection was donated to the Spanish Culture Ministry on June 13, 2006 by virtue of an agreement with the International Museum of the Red Cross in Geneva. It was deposited at the Documentary Center of Historical Memory.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an international organization, headquartered in Geneva and founded in 1863 by Henri Dunant; its objective is to help war victims. It emerged in October 1863 run by the Geneva Society of Public Utility, a charitable society; that same year, other national Red Cross committees were created, among them the Spanish Red Cross. In the beginning, the societies concentrated their attention on the wounded military and civilians of armed conflicts, but they later expanded their activities to become health and welfare institutions. The ICRC also funded the International Movement of Red Cross and Red Crescent. In 1864, the Swiss government, together with international representatives, approved the Geneva Convention, giving rise to the creation of the International Humanitarian Law that was improved and expanded in the following Conventions and Protocols (up to 1977). According to this legislation, the functions of the ICRC as an independent and neutral organization are: to protect and assist victims of armed conflicts and catastrophes; to look for missing people; to visit war prisoners and civil convicts; to exchange messages between families separated by a conflict; to reunite families dispersed; to provide food, water, and relief to civil populations; and to safeguard International Humanitarian Law.
- Access points: locations:
- France
- Geneva
- Spain
- Switzerland
- Thessaloniki
- Turkey
- System of arrangement:
- The collection contains several documentary fonds. In the Iberian Service and in the General Archives, documents regarding Sephardic Jews are contained.
- Access, restrictions:
- Free access regulated by the current legal environment on access to Spanish historical archives (law 16/1985 of Spanish Historical Patrimony). Students under 18 years of age must present a recommendation letter from his/her teacher.
- Finding aids:
- 41 inventories of the collection are available and can be consulted at the archive. Data on the collection also are available at the website of the Spanish National Archives (PARES).
- Links to finding aids:
- https://pares.culturaydeporte.gob.es/inicio.html
- Yerusha Network member:
- Spanish National Research Council
- Author of the description:
- Marina Girona Berenguer; ILC, CSIC; July 2019