euskalkultura.eus

London, UK.  The London Basque Society will open its doors tomorrow to the testimony of the Basque “Children of War “in the UK, thanks to the historian Susana Sabin Fernandez.  The Bizkaian researcher, living in England, is the daughter of one of the group of children who left Santurtzi in 1937 to take refuge in England from the bombing and danger posed by the Spanish Civil War.  They left their parents and families behind, and for many that trip was a turning point in their life. 

Arriving in Southampton, where the boat that brought them docked, called the attention of the press of the time, but since then, their story has fallen into oblivion, although many of them stayed to live in the country.  Sabin Fernandez studied the echo of this story in the English press in her thesis and the identity of these children, now much older, who feel just as Basque as they do British, and at the same time like strangers in both countries. 

75 years since their arrival

Sabin Fernandez has also studied the commemorations and institutional events around the experience of these children, both as a researcher as well as from the perspective of a daughter of one of the refugees.  “In the United Kingdom this subject was not talked about for many years, to the point that many of them called themselves ‘the forgotten,’ when I started my study in 2006,” the author explains.  The work of associations such as the Basque Children of ’37 and the creation of many documentaries have brought the story back to light.  This year marks the 75 anniversary of the “Basque Children’s” arrival and the events and the Basque and English media coverage will no doubt provide further commentary from the historian in her talk tomorrow.

The talk is entitled, “The Basque refugee children of the Spanish Civil War" and will take place at 19:00 at the Oxford House Café (Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green, London E2 6HG).  “I will make a forty minute presentation and the rest of the time will be dedicated to questions and answers.  I am really excited, and am hoping for an interesting debate,” the historian explained.

-Anyone wishing to purchase the book in English can do so through the Central Service for Publications on the Basque Government’s website here (write the word "memorialisation")