ABSTRACT
This chapter studies the process by which a relief project, the evacuation of Spanish children to France during the Spanish Civil War, was transformed from a foreign, humanitarian programme into a national, public policy in Spain. This type of process was not unheard-of in interwar Europe and has often been interpreted as the result of imperialist attempts by foreign humanitarian actors to reshape state apparatuses, where they intervened. In the case under study here, however, Spanish state actors were the driving force behind the integration of child evacuations abroad into state policy for three reasons. First, they wanted to reinforce Spanish child welfare and educational institutions. Second, the fear that Spanish children might lose what connected them to their fatherland led state officials to bring all decision-making regarding child evacuees within the remit of the Spanish government. Third, the process was facilitated by the fact that Spanish officials were able to build upon previous experiences and administrative structures. In the end, however, due to the Spanish Republican state’s continued dependency on material support from foreign, private aid committees, attempts to nationalize the child transport relief scheme were never fully realized.
