Deported to the Stalags

Without taking into account those Spanish workers who later volunteered, over 30 000 Spanish refugees were deported from France to Germany, ¹ and of these perhaps 15 000 entered Nazi camps. ² The great majority of these had served in the Travailleurs étrangers units. If, as we have seen, some of these were at first sent back into the French camps or into the Vichy forced-labour groups, most of them shared the initial experience described by Amadeo Cinca Vendrell and Juan de Diego Herranz, both of whom were former internees in the French concentration camp at Septfonds (Tarn-et-Garonne) and then volunteers in the 103rd Compagnie de travailleurs étrangers. This company, under the command of the French Lieutenant Simon, consisted of some 250 Spaniards, and Cinca Vendrell, a captain in the Republican Army, was given subordinate command. The unit had been assigned to the extension of the Maginot Line to the west, and had been stationed at Saint-Hilaire, near Cambrai. Simon was a courageous officer, but he was a retired veteran of the First World War who understood nothing of Guderian's concept of blitzkrieg. Cinca's pleas that the unit be allowed to retreat were brushed aside, and on 20 May 1940, in the forest of Amiens, Simon saw his whole company taken prisoner.