2022 – 2024 Pau Casals and refugee aid

Pablo Casals is, without a doubt, one of the most universal Catalans, with a worldwide recognized musical career. This research project aims to focus on a key dimension of this multifaceted figure: the values of peace, justice and freedom that accompanied him throughout his trajectory and, more specifically, the humanitarian aid task deployed by Casals from 1939.

In January 1939, in the face of the imminent end of the Spanish Civil War, Pablo Casals went into exile in Prada de Conflent, France, where he turned to help Catalan and Spanish exiles interned in the French refugee camps. But his commitment went beyond the immediate post-war period. From 1953 on, he became honorary president of the Spanish Refugee Aid (SRA), an American initiative that sought to improve the living conditions of thousands of Spanish exiles who moved to France, to whom the founder of the SRA, Nancy Gardiner McDonald (1910-1996), defined as “the legion of the forgotten”. The active role that Pablo Casals took in this organization was very important and represented most of his charity activity until the last years of his life. Through numerous personal letters that Pablo Casals sent to personalities, friends and acquaintances, first from Prada and later from Puerto Rico, helped the organization to collect money, food, medicine and clothing. Pablo Casals was active in the organization until his passing in 1973. From its foundation in 1953 until its dissolution in 2006, the SRA helped nearly 6,000 Spanish refugees through its headquarters in New York and its French headquarters in Paris, Montauban and Toulouse.

The episode starring the Spanish Refugee Aid and the most outstanding role that Pablo Casals played in the organization until 1973 – the year of his passing-, has not received the attention the attention it deserves, paradoxically as it happened to the thousands of exiles they attended. This research aims to recover and disseminate the humanitarian work carried out by Pablo Casals from 1939, but focusing especially on the actions carried out within the framework of the Spanish Refugee Aid, a participation that must be vindicated.

To carry out this research, several archival collections have been consulted in which most of the documentation related to this organization and with the participation of Pablo Casals is preserved. The main funds are:

• Pau Casals Collection. Pau Casals Foundation. Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya.
• Spanish Refugee Aids Fund. Democratic Memorial. Generalitat de Catalunya.
• Spanish Refugee Aid Fund. Tamiment Library & Wagner Labor Archives. New York University. New York

With the support of the Memorial Democràtic of the Generalitat de Catalunya.