After the International Brigade’s disciplinary prisons in Albacete were closed due to the advancement of Franco’s troops, André Marty decided to set up a new prison for the Brigades at Castelldefels castle, from the end of March 1938 to 22 January 1939, one day before the town was taken by Franco’s troops.
There are no totally reliable figures concerning the number of prisoners but at times there were close to 400, living together in very little space.
The prison had four directors: Milan Côpic (previously responsible for a prison in Albacete); Marcel Lantès (from June 1938); Djordjevic (September 1938) and Pietro Celli (until January 1939). A fifth director, Tony DeMaio, seems to have been specifically in charge of prisoners from the United States.
The prison’s regime was very tough under the first two directors, with a lot of cases of torture and cursory executions. The Republican authorities intervened on finding out about this situation and Côpic and Lantès were tried and then sentenced to death, although their punishment was never carried out.
There are no totally reliable figures concerning the number of prisoners but at times there were close to 400, living together in very little space.
The prison had four directors: Milan Côpic (previously responsible for a prison in Albacete); Marcel Lantès (from June 1938); Djordjevic (September 1938) and Pietro Celli (until January 1939). A fifth director, Tony DeMaio, seems to have been specifically in charge of prisoners from the United States.
The prison’s regime was very tough under the first two directors, with a lot of cases of torture and cursory executions. The Republican authorities intervened on finding out about this situation and Côpic and Lantès were tried and then sentenced to death, although their punishment was never carried out.
Comentarios