Editing and censorship in the testimonial narrative about the french concentration camps published in Spain at the end of Franco

Abstract

The article intends to make a contribution to the study of the testimony in Spain from the consideration of two volumes belonging to the corpus of the testimonial narrative about the exodus of 1939, the French concentration camps and the exit to exile, written by two surviving authors of these experiences, Avel•lí Artís-Gener and José Bort-Vela. His two works, La diáspora republicana (1975) and La angustia de vivir (1977) respectively, demonstrate a persistent tension between two forces that strive for meaning: on the one hand, the one promoted by authors and publishers, representatives of the republican collective, who try to restore their own version of the past of the Civil War and the concentration camps; and on the other, the strength of the Franco Regime, represented by the institution of censorship, which until the last moment imposed its control and its conservative rules to reproduce a rhetoric that would distance it from its responsibilities regarding the fate of the exiles or else, that accentuate their defeat.