Register of prisoners. Prison book

Date: 1944 - 1953

Archive: County Archives of Pallars Sobirà

Document type: Textual

Reference code: CAT-ACPS-2-1178

Link to the online document

Description: During the Second World War thousands of people crossed the Pyrenees fleeing Nazism. One of the escape routes linked the French departments of Ariège and Haute-Garonne with Pallars Sobirà, passing through the town of Sort, and was called “The path of freedom”. The fugitives could be Jewish people and families, Allied soldiers and airmen, young Frenchmen of military age who could be recruited by the Nazi army, or people persecuted for other reasons. For the specific case of the Jews, the Diputació de Lleida, with the collaboration of the Regional Council and local councils, has launched the Persecuted and saved project, which has recovered and marked the escape routes of the Jewish refugees through the Pyrenees of Lleida during the Second World War. Some of the fugitives died on the way, many achieved freedom, and others were arrested by the Civil Guard. The latter were admitted to Sort prison, which was the first reception and reclusion center for fugitives intercepted in Pallars Sobirà and Vall d’Aran. The detainees stayed in Sort for a few days, a stage before their transfer to Lleida. Their fate varied depending on the time of the war: some were deported to France, others were able to leave Spain and many were placed in concentration camps and prisons until their embassies or the Red Cross secured their release. On June 23, 2014, the presentation of the Persecuted and saved project took place at the Regional Archive of Pallars Sobirà. As part of this presentation, the ambassador of the State of Israel in Spain, Mr. Alon Bar, activated the upload of images in order to make visible in Online Archives the documents that contain information about the passage of fugitives from Nazism through Sort prison. These are the documents that order his admission to prison, or his departure to Lleida, and which are part of the correspondence of the fund of the Town Council of Sort. They are a set of 633 documents with a total of 1123 images.

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