La legislación catalana sobre refugiados de guerra durante la guerra civil

Abstract

During the Spanish-Civil War, hundreds of thousand of people were displaced from their homes to other areas far from ther war zones. One of them was Catalonia, where the first evacuees —children from Madrid and the Aragonese front— arrived between August and October 1936. The Generalitat had to address this situation through a series of measures orchestrating the reception, support and organization of these people, who according to various sources reached a total of one million in 1938. The present article explains the legislation by the Catalan government in the context of the political situation which existed both in the rearguard and on the battlefront. Reference is made to the economic cost it brought, using as a source the measures which appeared in the «Diari oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya». Finally, it is important emphasize the assistance given by local councils to these people, a fact which was essential in ensuring that the drama of the refugees did not end in tragedy.