La Retirada, Les Minimes, Toulouse, France

The memorial stands in le Jardin Claude Nougaret, Les Minimes, Toulouse, France.

In late January/early February 1939 nearly half a million Spanish civilians and soldiers fled to France.
The word Retirada (Spanish for Retreat) was adopted by historians to signify this exodus, which was the biggest single influx of refugees ever known in France.

This followed the collapse of the democratically elected Second Spanish Republic and the brutal victory of General Franco, aided by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

The last major Spanish city to fall was Barcelona on 26 January.

During the night of 27/28 January hordes of Republicans, having been mercilessly pursued by bombs, were clamouring to get in to France at the frontier towns of Cerbère, Le Perthus and Prats-de-Mollo – this during a vicious winter.

They had come from all over Spain including Asturias and Santander, Euskadi, Extremadura and Castilla la Nueva, Andalucía, Aragón, Catalunya ...