Jewish refugees who fled Europe via Franco’s Spain: coping with insufficient food in the concentration camp of Miranda de Ebro

Abstract

ABSTRACT Between 1940 and 1944, thousands of persecuted Jews fled Europe via the Iberian Peninsula. For men, a defining feature of this escape was feeling hungry for several months in a Spanish detention camp, the “campo de concentración de Miranda de Ebro.” There, the men developed coping strategies for acquiring additional food, and tactics for coping psychologically with the hunger. These strategies created bonds and stable groups; conferred a sense of agency; and made the men feel useful, valued, and cared for. In parallel, Allied country diplomatic representatives, Red Cross organizations, and American relief agencies provided food parcels.