TRIBUTE TO COMPANYS AT LA BAULE/AR BAOL
Friday next, August 13th 2010 at 11.00, a tribute to Catalan president Lluís Companys at the small square at number 1 Avenue Ploërnel in La Baule, Brittany. Companys was arrested exactly 70 years ago, on August 13th 1940, by the Nazi Military police at number 5 of that same street.
A commemorative plaque is to be placed in the square in honour of President Companys At the act a couple of pieces of music associated with historic cellist Pau Casals will be played by Serafin Poulet. The vice-President of Catalonia, Sr. JL Carod Rovira will make as speech as will the Mayor of La Baule. There will afterwards be a reception at La Baule City Hall and a popular meal. The image of President Companys that accompanies this text is called "Visca la Llibertat" and was specially commissioned for the event of Valencian artist Toni Miró feta per la comemoració.
A LITTLE HISTORY
During the year 1940, Lluís Companys, first elected president of the Generalitat of Catalonia (1934-1940) found a refuge in the Breton station of La Baule / Ar Baol. The pro-Franco police forces are after him and search in vain for him in Paris. The president of Catalonia found rest for a while with his wife and a nephew at 5 avenue de Ploërmel in the villa Ker Imor Vad which means The house of good mood.
In 2005, the son of the owners of this néo-Breton style house, a young adult in 1940, remembered meeting Lluís Companys. Why did Companys remain in La Baule instead of fleeing from the nazi invasion? Having left Paris, he thought of putting his son -suffering from a serious mental illness- at the seaside centre in Saint-Goustan in Le Croisic, a city nearby. According to some sources, Lluís Companys refused the proposal of Breton nationalist militants to leave for Ireland because his son was still in an establishment of the Paris region.
This offer is not surprising when one knows in particular the assistance brought by the Breton Yann Fouéré, as a high official, to members of the Basque government. This Breton militant had been able to provide identity papers for the Basque president, Jose Antonio Aguirre, who would reach the USA with his family after a long jounry under a false identity through Europe. The proximity of the harbour of Saint-Nazaire / Sant-Nazer and its Transatlantic connections in the direction of Cuba (1) and Vera Cruz may also be a reason of the presence of the Catalan president on the south coast of Brittany.
DOCUMENTS
The director of the Departmental Archives of Loire-Atlantique (2), spoke in 2008 of "a card is kept in the name of his wife Companys born Carme Ballester, under the temporary label 3008 /W6. This card refers to a file at present in process of classification. It is about a request for a residence permit of January 1942 with mention that she is Louis Companys' widow and that she resides in avenue de Ploërmel at La Baule".
Refusing to forsake his son, Lluís Companys will be arrested by the Nazi Military Police on August 13th, 1940 in the villa Ker Imor Vad.
The nazis are accompanied by Pedro Urraca, a Francoist agent. This sinister agent – whose file in the Spanish Interior ministry is closed to access until 2021 – was at that time in charge of a network of Franco's police officers, who tracked down – with the complicity of the French State – Catalan and Spanish republican leaders who were trying to escape. It was the Spanish Embassy Attaché who first questioned the Catalan president in the Prison de la Santé in Paris under the authority of the Gestapo. Accompanied by a German officer, Urraca led Lluís Companys to Irun to deliver him to Franco's henchmen.
If, when under the responsibility of the Germans, Lluís Companys was correctly treated, when he arrived at the Safety Head Office in Madrid, the leader of free Catalonia had to undergo five weeks of tortures, vexations and various humiliations before being transferred to Barcelona on October 3rd. After a sham trial in the Fort of Montjuïc, he was condemned to death on October 14th. Until his last breath, he was an example of dignity and courage. On October 15th, 1940 at 6 30 am, before falling under the bullets, Lluís Companys
shouted with strength and firmness "Por Catalunya!". For Catalonia!
Acts at La Baule are to be followed by others in Barcelona (15th and 17th October). The refusal by the Madrid Government authorities to allow the Catalan Dignity Commission to hold a tribute ceremony at the spot where Companys was tortured in Madrid (at present, the very headquarters of the Madrid Government in the Puerta del Sol) is being studied by the Secretariat of the Comissió de la Dignitat, which will shortly issue a statement on the question.
+ info: Josep Cruanyes, campaign director
00 34 665 72 73 29 / 00 34 625 37 06 61
www.freedom.cat / www.comissiodeladignitat.cat
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