Franco’s Victory

Social Catholic groups took firm control of the juvenile courts after General Franco occupied Madrid. They swiftly exercised their moral judgements on families which suffered executions, imprisonment, employment purges, dire living conditions, and the high cost of living. Court staff particularly loathed secular ‘Red’ worker groups and endeavoured to capture the children of these foes of the faith. Mothers forced into prostitution or petty crime, living in overcrowded and poor housing whose lives were marked by hunger and disease, proved especially vulnerable to child removal. They could also fall victim to their husbands serving jail terms for political offences who, from prison, could battle to deprive them of custody. In other cases, families managed to keep bonds alive by visiting children and youngsters petitioned the authorities to be allowed home to help look after their parents.