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Basque exiles in a camp in France. Photo credit: Gregorio Arrien. Niños vascos evacuados en 1937.

The seizure of Basque territory and the rest of the Republican north by Franco’s troops, and the subsequent repression and exclusion, led to a great tide of exiles leaving for elsewhere. It is estimated that 100,000 Basques went into exile, from our land, between 1936 and 1937, 30,000 of whom were children, and that over 10,000 people were from the Basque Country out of the 500,000 people who left in the so-called “Withdrawal” from Catalonia to France in 1939.

The first important exodus of the Basque population abroad took place just a few weeks after the start of the war, during the Gipuzkoa campaign. Many women and children fled to France, driven by the widespread fear among the population caused by the rapid advance of the rebel troops towards the frontier area and the proximity of the fighting. From the first week of May 1937, after the Franco offensive on Bizkaia, when the frequent bombardments of the different towns led to many dead and emerging hunger, the concern spread to the whole society and resulted in the large-scale evacuation of the civilian population.

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