33 Sanatorio

Fueron muchos los niños que resultaron heridos a lo largo de la contienda, por lo que tuvieron que ser atendidos y, en muchos casos, hospitalizados. La atención médica, clínica y asistencial a la infancia durante la guerra civil española se produjo en los dos bandos en conflicto. Las personas que trabajaron para paliar las consecuencias de la guerra, en la infancia, no sólo a nivel físico, sino también emocional y educativo, dependían de diferentes organizaciones e instituciones. 

Con independencia de su origen u orientación política, fue gracias a los cuidados que recibieron por parte de los médicos y enfermeras, por lo que muchos pudieron sobrevivir al conflicto. En ningún momento, ninguno de los dos bandos se olvidó de la necesidad de juego y ocio que necesitaban. Queda constancia de la serie de imágenes captadas por Centelles en uno de los Hospitales de Barcelona, donde se organizaban espectáculos y teatros, para que también pudiesen disfrutar y fuesen capaces de recuperar la alegría. Además parece necesaria una revisión de la situación generada en los hospitales, asilos y centros regentados por religiosos en la zona republicana, tras el estallido del conflicto, debido a la violencia anticlerical. 

Queda constancia de la atención prestada, entre otros, en el hospital de Labaca, en La Coruña, en el que se atendía a la infancia y que fue utilizado como Hospital de Guerra. En este hospital, como en tantos otros, se acogieron niños víctimas de las bombas y de otras muchas heridas. También en el Hospital de la Malvarrosa, en el que siempre se tuvo presente que era a niños a quienes se atendía y a las necesidades que, debido a su edad, presentaban. Aún queda mucho por investigar en este campo. Cuando la intolerancia política condujo al asesinato o al alejamiento de los religiosos que regentaban hospitales, asilos y otras instituciones caritativas,  surgieron iniciativas civiles impulsadas por distintas organizaciones sindicales y políticas que asumieron una parte de estas responsabilidades. Es un tema del que no se ha investigado mucho y sobre el que sería preciso estudiar sus consecuencias sociales.  [Rubio, JL. & Durán, A. (2016). Revolución, utopía y educación. La atención a la infancia durante la guerra civil española (1936-1939). (En prensa); (2014). ] 

Existen diferentes imágenes de niños heridos durante los combates. Entre ellas la fotografía de Robert Capa que corresponde a un rollo dedicado a captar las imágenes de los heridos y refugiados que abandonaron la ciudad de Teruel, y debieron realizarse a finales de febrero de 1937. Esta imagen fue publicada por Schweizer Illustrierte Zeitung, el 12 de enero de 1938 y por la revista Life el 24 de enero de ese mismo año.

A finales de diciembre de 1937 Robert Capa encuadra varias veces a una pareja de niños, uno de los cuales se encuentra herido en la mejilla, se hallan sentados contra una pared de piedra y mortero.

Mary Elmes – Petals and Bullets

Local writer, Bernard Wilson, was recently undergoing some research on Mary Elmes, who was posthumously awarded last year the honour of "Just parmi les Nationals" by the state of Israel. Bernard has come across a child's drawing of the mill at Esperaza in 1942. 

A handwritten note on the back explains the great hardship endured in that village (and no doubt in Quillan too). It is written in pencil and signed "ME", Mary Elmes. She was responsible for an extensive feeding programme for the school children there. See drawing to this note.

Mary Elmes was born May 5th 1908 as Marie Elisabeth Jean Elmes in Cork. Her parents had a family business in Winthrop Street, J Waters and Sons, Dispensing Chemists, her father being the pharmacist. She was educated at Rochelle School and Trinity College Dublin where she gained First Class Honours in Modern Literature (French and Spanish) and the Gold Medal. She went on to the London School of Economics as a scholarship student, where she was awarded the LSE Scholarship in International Studies.

In February 1937, Mary joined the University of London Ambulance Unit in war-torn Spain and worked in a children's hospital in Almeria. The Friends' Service Council soon took over the responsibility for this work, and Mary moved to Alicante in charge of the hospital there.

The following January, Mary received news that her father had died but she refused to leave until a replacement could be found. No replacement was forthcoming, and the bombing in Alicante had become unbearable for the children, so she found a refuge in the mountains to which she moved her charges. Despite her mother's pleas that she should return home, she carried on with her work until the war came to an end with the victory of General Franco. In May of 1939 she, and a few other workers, crossed the border into France bringing with them all the records of their work in Spain.

If conditions had seemed bad in Spain, they were many times worse in France. In the first two weeks of February 1939, half a million Spanish men, women and children had struggled into France, bombed and machine-gunned by planes, while enduring the hardships of the terrain and the winter weather. The French response was to section off areas of the beaches with barbed wire, and to enclose the refugees between the wire and the sea. They had to scoop depressions in the sand for shelter. There were no toilets, they had to use the sea in full view of everyone. Drinking water was pumped up from underground but rapidly became polluted, bread was tossed over the wire leaving the refugees to fight for food. The French authorities hoped that their unwelcome guests would return to Spain – some did, but most refused knowing what fate might await them there.

By the time Mary arrived in France, things were somewhat more organised, there were now many more camps along the coast and some attempt at shelter and provisions had been made. There was still a pressing need for clothing and food, and conditions were still woefully inadequate. She saw however, that if these camps were to remain for any length of time, there was a need for schooling, for reading matter suitable for both children and adults, for the means to occupy their time and provide some kind of purpose to their existence. In July 1939 she was appointed by the International Commission of the American Friends Service Council for cultural work in the camps. She saw the need for books in Spanish, and shortly after her appointment was in Paris buying books for the libraries she was soon to open. She became a familiar figure in the camps, thousands knew her as “Miss Mary” and turned to her for solutions to their problems.

But things were to become worse still. With the outbreak of war in September of that year, German refugees who had sought shelter in France were immediately rounded up as enemy aliens, many of them ending up in the already overcrowded camps on the Spanish border. The following year, with the German invasion of the Low Countries, another tide of refugees poured into the region.. Now everyone was short of food. Mary and her colleagues in Perpignan opened canteens, provided meals in schools throughout the region, while still continuing the work in the camps.

With the fall of France, British workers had to leave, but Mary as an Irish neutral stayed on. A new camp had opened – Rivesaltes – and many Spaniards were transferred there. They were soon to be joined by thousands of Jews, rounded up and taken from their homes by the Vichy government. Rivesaltes was a permanent camp, it had huts and toilets and the Quakers and other aid organisations established canteens and workshops there. But it was no picnic. It was an immense camp on a bleak open plain, there were rats and lice, there was malnutrition and the bitter wind of winter and the scorching heat of summer made living there intolerable.

Mary opened colonies for the children in private houses and hotels, removing them from the camp with the agreement of the authorities and their parents. But soon the deportations began. Train after train left crammed with Jews for “unknown destinations” Even the children's colonies were not safe, children had to be spirited away and hidden in more isolated places. Mary concealed some children in the boot of her car and drove them high in the Pyrenees.

In November 1942 the Germans occupied the southern zone. Mary hid papers which would have incriminated her in her bathroom, but eventually she was arrested and taken to Toulouse and then to Fresnes prison near Paris. She was suspected of assisting escapees but she was never charged, and was released nearly six months later. She later dismissed her imprisonment with the words “Well we all experienced inconveniences in those days, didn't we?”

Mary refused to accept the salary which had accrued while she was in prison, and likewise the Legion d'Honneur which the French government wanted to bestow on her. She was not a Quaker, though she lead the Quaker work in Perpignan throughout the war. When the war ended she married Roger Danjou and had two children who continue to live in the area where their mother worked. Mary Elmes died on the 9th March 2002, aged 92. A journalist wrote of her in 1947 “Tirelessly, with courage and simplicity, she brought to the most deprived the food and clothing which prolonged their lives and the hope of survival. Her confident, affectionate and smiling presence kept the memory of happiness and liberty alive”.

Article on Mary Elmes: Bernard Wilson