Repatriation, Family Feuds, and Child Removal

In the Spanish Civil War, hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes to other areas in Spain or abroad. By December 1940, around 340,000 adults and children had returned from the country. Many youngsters returned to find their parents or relatives dead, in jail, or deeply impoverished. Accordingly, they became vulnerable to further displacement or removal. Left-wing men returning to Spain also became involved in custody battles, particularly if their wives had been forced to survive by living with other men or had followed a different political path to their husbands. Court staff frequently viewed such women as depraved and removed their children. Grandparents and other relatives became involved in similar struggles. Mothers and girls who transgressed gender norms also proved especially vulnerable to removal. The pain and suffering experienced by removed children and their parents comes across in the archival record.