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Diary Josep Buján Duran

Date
1937 - 1939
Archive
Municipal Archive of Sant Joan Despí
Document type
Textual
Reference code
CAT-AMSJD-619-001
Link to the online document
Description

One of the most terrible periods of the 20th century was the Civil War. Testimonies such as those that Josep Buján i Duran (1914-2010) collected in his diary between 1937 and 1939 are essential to understand this conflict.
When the Civil War broke out, Josep Buján i Duran was doing his military service in Barcelona. His barracks did not revolt against the Republic and the soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes, were able to go home, to Sant Joan Despí. There, the local People’s Court sentenced him to death for his conservative and religious ideas. But Sant Joan Despí is still a small town and as one of the councilors was from the family, they let him go free.
He tried to leave for Mexico and, when he was standing in line to take the boat, he was detained and mobilized to join the Republican army.
The war, the fall of Barcelona, ​​the escape to France, the journey to Hendaye and his return to Spain occupied by Franco’s troops are part of the notes in this diary.
Finally, he returns to Sant Joan Despí, where he becomes Head of the Falange.
The Civil War is the most devastating conflict that Catalonia experienced in the 20th century, the forerunner of what Europe would experience in World War II.