Dr. Emili Gironella
Emili Gironella, full academician of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), doctor in Economic and Business Sciences and renowned auditor, finalized the writing of his second doctoral thesis, which will be entitled “Los juicios sumarísimos del franquismo a los represaliados republicanos en La Bisbal d’Empordà (Girona)” (The summary judgments of Franco regime to Republican reprisals in La Bisbal d’Empordà (Girona)). In the dissemination of various aspects of this work, Gironella has already delivered two conferences on specific aspects. The last one, on October 24 in La Bisbal d’Empordà, in the session “Les condemnes a mort del bisbalencs durant el franquisme” (The death sentences of the people of La Bisbal during the Franco regime). The intervention was reviewed by the Catalan newspaper “El Punt Avui” in its October 28 issue in the article “Depurats per Franco a la Bisbal” (Purged by Franco in La Bisbal).
In his lecture, Gironella presented an overview of Franco’s repression in Spain by provinces. He explained that the total number of victims is estimated at 132,810 people, according to a summary of studies carried out by different historians who have dedicated themselves to the subject, with the provinces of Seville and Badajoz as the ones that took the worst part, with 12,507 and 11,205 people retaliated, respectively. Catalonia was the least affected areas, with 1,716 people in Barcelona, 750 people in Lleida, 703 people in Tarragona and 519 people in Girona. The reason for this low level of reprisals in Catalonia was due to the fact that many crossed the French border to flee, something impossible in other parts of Spain. To these victims are added the more than 50,000 murdered for personal revenge, for their ideas or for other reasons, without any impartial judgment.
The academician said that the profile of these victims of Franco’s repression was that of public office as mayors and councilors, members of the popular anti-fascist committees, militiamen, soldiers of the defeated army, presidents and secretaries of unions, managers of collectivized companies, affiliated persons to left-wing parties and suspects of disaffection of the Franco regime, qualified performance as revolutionary or simply having indifferent behavior in relation to Franco regime.
“In La Bisbal d’Empordà (Girona), before simply La Bisbal, 91 people who were born there were retaliated and went through a summary trial. Of these, 32 people were acquitted, without declaration of responsibilities, their case was dismissed, filed or sentenced to freedom. Two of the acquitted persons were sentenced additionally to two and three months of major arrest. Five neighbors were sentenced to death, three of them were executed and the other two were commuted to death for life imprisonment because they were lucky to be arrested in 1941, when the climate of maximum repression had relaxed a bit”, Gironella said. At the discretion of the academician and based on the existing documentation, the three executed weren’t exiled because they didn’t commit any crime of blood or act that could represent problems. The longest sentence of the last two was that of the detainee on August 12, 1941, who was in prison and subsequently in work battalions until October 6, 1950, when he was released on probation.
