Catalan Institute for Cultural Heritage Research presents the book "Ferroviaris en Guerra"

Ferroviaris en Guerra (Railway Workers at War). This is the book that the Catalan Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (ICRPC-CERCA) presented on Thursday at the Ateneu Barcelonès and which has been written by researchers Carles Gorini and Eduard Caballé. The publication, edited by Pagès Editors, is a research work that shows the strong purge that Catalan railway workers suffered once the Civil War ended. The study has been possible thanks to the wealth of the documentary collection of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Catalunya (FGC), which includes the territorial, economic and human dimension of the railway companies and also thousands of work files that draw a detailed picture of the professional life of the workers, many of whom were reprisals by the dictatorship.

The book, which has the collaboration of the Memorial Democràtic, explores how, during the war, the railway companies were confiscated and collectivized by the Republican forces, and how the workers were directly involved in their management, a fact that would put them in the spotlight of Francoism once the conflict was over. For example, the research reveals the cruelty of this punishment, which directly affected around two thousand railway workers, many of whom were dismissed without any rights, in a professional purge that had devastating consequences for them and their families.

Thursday’s presentation began with the intervention of the director of the Memorial Democràtic, Jordi Font Agulló, who highlighted the importance of books like this: “Today, there are still people who speak relatively well of the dictatorship and it is necessary to show how Francoism penetrated all areas of society in a punitive manner. And the railway workers are a clear example.” In this sense, he also recalled that “talking about our recent past is becoming a defense of democracy”. The next to speak was the director of the ICRPC, Gemma Domènech Casadevall, who highlighted that Ferroviaris en Guerra “perfectly combines the study of historical heritage and democratic memory”, two of the institute’s main axes. She also pointed out that the publication highlights the role that women played in railway companies, a fact except because the female collective often falls into oblivion.

The president of Ferrocarrils, Carles Ruiz Novella, highlighted this historical research, “which serves to pay tribute to all the railway workers of the predecessor companies of FGC who were purged by Franco for having stood in favor of democracy and the interests of the Second Republic, as well as their families”. As he added, "for Ferrocarrils, it is an honor to have contributed to the preparation of this study and to have made available to researchers the entire historical documentary collection of the company. We have facilitated this with the recent digitization of the entire historical archive, within the framework of the FGC Historical Heritage Strategy. They are key pieces for understanding the country's railway history, as well as the history of Ferrocarrils"

After the institutional speeches, the two authors of the book, Carles Gorini and Eduard Caballé, detailed the purification processes that the railway workers underwent and also spoke about the role that the railways and trains had during the Republic and the Civil War.

Ferroviaris en Guerra, therefore, reaffirms the role of the ICRPC as a reference in the research of Catalan cultural heritage and the transfer of this knowledge to society.