Spanish exiles, transnational soldiers from the French internment camps to the Free French Forces

Abstract

ABSTRACT Thousands of Spaniards contributed to the defence and the liberation of France as military contractors, legionnaires and soldiers between 1939 and 1945. This paper focuses on three elements of their contributions. First, it investigates the importance of French internment camps for Spanish refugees that became key recruitment grounds for soldiers and labourers. Secondly, it will analyse the importance of the military background Spanish volunteers acquired in both Spanish and French ranks. Thirdly, it will analyse the features of Free French Spanish volunteers and their fighting itineraries as transnational soldiers. Despite its importance, politicians in both France and Spain only recognised Spanish contributions to the French resistance after the Second World War. This is a fourth aspect of the entangled Franco-Spanish history of the Second World War that this article analyses. By incorporating the accounts of French Gaullists, Communists and Spanish Francoists, it demonstrates how the context of the Cold War, which reinforced these interpretations, left little room for the study and commemorative inclusion of these “outsiders”.