The UB hosts a tribute to the women deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp

Cover of 'Memorial de las españolas deportadas a Ravensbrück'
Cover of 'Memorial de las españolas deportadas a Ravensbrück'
(17/01/2013)

Today, Thursday 17th January, at 7 p.m., the Paranymph Hall of the UB hosts the event “For freedom and human rights”, to pay tribute to the women deported to Ravensbrück. Neus Català and other Spanish women who were interned in this concentration camp will attend the event. The tribute, celebrated every year, includes the presentation of the book Memorial de las españolas deportadas a Ravensbrück, which offers the most complete collection of data developed up to now about the Spanish female inmates in Ravensbrück. The journalist Albert Om chairs the event in which the following personalities, among others, participate: Anna Salles, president of the Amical Ravensbrück; Francina Vila, councillor of Civil Rights of the Barcelona City Council; Montserrat Gatell, president of the Catalan Institute for Women, and Jordi Palou, director of the Memorial Democràtic.

Cover of 'Memorial de las españolas deportadas a Ravensbrück'
Cover of 'Memorial de las españolas deportadas a Ravensbrück'
17/01/2013

Today, Thursday 17th January, at 7 p.m., the Paranymph Hall of the UB hosts the event “For freedom and human rights”, to pay tribute to the women deported to Ravensbrück. Neus Català and other Spanish women who were interned in this concentration camp will attend the event. The tribute, celebrated every year, includes the presentation of the book Memorial de las españolas deportadas a Ravensbrück, which offers the most complete collection of data developed up to now about the Spanish female inmates in Ravensbrück. The journalist Albert Om chairs the event in which the following personalities, among others, participate: Anna Salles, president of the Amical Ravensbrück; Francina Vila, councillor of Civil Rights of the Barcelona City Council; Montserrat Gatell, president of the Catalan Institute for Women, and Jordi Palou, director of the Memorial Democràtic.

 During the event, the testimony of several women who were confined in Ravensbrück will be presented. Other people who take part in the event are: the journalists Montse Armengou and Sílvia Cóppula, the actresses Rosa Novell, Mònica Randall and Sílvia Bel, the philosopher and musician Bernat Dedéu and the singers Jaume Sisa and Marina Rossell.

 The book Memorial de las españolas deportadas a Ravensbrück (edited by Amics de Ravensbrück supported by the Ministry for the Presidency), aims to be a tool to know better Spanish deportation to this camp and study in depth this chapter of recent history. The book collects the biographical notes of ninety female inmates in Ravensbrück, and their life stories before their confinement in the camp, during the time they were confined, and the latter experience of the ones who survived. Unfortunately, a great amount of documentation was destroyed, so it has been impossible to know the exact number of victims and their names. The work also contains some chapters about the repression against women performed by the Nazi regime, the diaspora after the Spanish Civil War, and how life was inside the camp.

 

The Ravensbrück concentration camp was the largest concentration camp for women in the German Reich. It was opened in 1939, but extension works were done until 1945. The first women confined in it were German; nearly all the Spanish inmates arrived in 1944. In the camp there were people from more than 40 countries. From 1939 to 1945, about 132,000 women and children, 20,000 men and 1,000 teenage girls suffered the deportation to Ravensbrück.


In 2005, due to the 60th anniversary of Ravesbrück release, the Amical Ravensbrück was founded.