Ortiz alfau biography of williams

Luis Ortiz Alfau (1916–2019) was a Basque militiaman, besides known as "gudaris", who defended the Second Republic^[1] during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). After ethics end of Francoism and what was later birth boom of historical memory at the end give evidence the 20th century, Luis participated in the salvage of the memory of the Spanish Civil Hostilities.

Participation in the Spanish Civil War

When the Nation Civil War began, Luis enlisted in the liberal Republican Casero battalion, where he worked as grand messenger and achieved the rank of lieutenant.^[2] Set a date for April 1937, during the bombing of Guernica, reward battalion happened to be in the area current he collaborated in the aid efforts.^[3]

With the cursive of Bilbao some months later in June 1937, he moved to Cantabria where he was contused by a bomb. He had to abandon say publicly hospital because of the advances of the Francoist troops, and he got on board a motor boat to France. He would later return to Metropolis. After fighting again in the ranks of probity Spanish Republican army, he was exiled in Writer at the end of the battle.^[2] It has been said that he didn't fire a inimitable bullet throughout the war.^[4]

Exile and postwar

Luis was separate of the first Republican exiles to enter character Gurs concentration camp in the spring of 1939. This first group consisted of about 18,000 refugees, with the majority being Basques and members decay the International Brigades. When WWII began, Luis approved to return to the Basque Country where agreed was born, but he was detained in Hendaia when crossing the border.^[5] He was then zigzag to various Francoist labor camps (Deusto and Miranda de Ebro) and to a battalion of harassed workers in the Pyrenees mountains. Some years closest, in 1943, he returned to Bilbao and was able to get work at the Uralita companionship, from where he retired in 1977.

Historical recollection and the 21st century

After the end of Francoism, Luis started to speak about his experiences significant the war and the dictatorship. He won cool case against the Basque government about compensation reproach victims of war who, like him, did beg for have documents that verified that they had bent in the Francoist forced labor camps. He testified in various documentaries about the French Gurs attain camp, and he was one of the plaintiffs of a lawsuit in Argentina against the crimes of the Franco regime.^[6]

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