San Pedro de Cardeña

San Pedro de Cardeña: April 1938

We soon found ourselves at the San Pedro de Cardeña concentration camp, where we were welcomed by hundreds of prisoners from other International Brigades who were also being held captive. This came as a shock to many of us, as we all expected to be executed at the point of our capture or shortly thereafter. Little did we know, we were being held at the camp to await our exchange. At the time we were completely unaware of the fact that the Republic also had hundreds of Italians held captive, and therefore the thought of an exchange hadn’t yet crossed our minds. Instead we believed the rumors circulating around the camp that we would either be court-martialed, given lengthy prison sentences, or executed in due time. Looking back I am grateful that we encountered no such fate. Yet I remember towards the end of our stay, after having spent 14 long and gruesome months at the camp, execution would have been a desirable escape from our dreadful reality.

San Pedro de Cardeña was on the site of the first Benedictine monastery in Spain, but had been left abandoned since 1922. However, when the Republican government in northern Spain fell, Franco converted San Pedro de Cardeña into a concentration camp for his prisoners. Yet what distinguished this camp from many others was that it was not considered a punishment camp, but instead a camp where an effort was being made to win the support of those held captive there. For this reason, and to our delight, the living conditions and general treatment of the prisoners was superior to all of the other concentration camps. However, it was still a prison camp nonetheless.