{"id":5474,"date":"2022-06-05T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=5474"},"modified":"2022-06-04T13:04:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T13:04:27","slug":"basque-fact-of-the-week-basque-refugee-children-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2022\/06\/05\/basque-fact-of-the-week-basque-refugee-children-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Basque Fact of the Week: Basque Refugee Children in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#acdcf9\">During the Spanish Civil War, particularly the years of 1936-1937, thousands of women and children, many of the latter without their parents, were evacuated from the Basque Country to a variety of countries, including the Soviet Union, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Denmark. I&#8217;ll write about some of these others in the future. However, a key destination for many of these children was the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/90047227_habana.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/90047227_habana.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5475\" width=\"244\" height=\"137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/90047227_habana.jpg 976w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/90047227_habana-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/90047227_habana-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Basque refugee children on the SS Habana as it arrived in Southampton. Photo from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-england-35532286\">BBC News<\/a>, by Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/may\/04\/children-fleeing-spanish-civil-war-offered-refuge-in-uk-1937\">May 21, 1937<\/a>, the ship <em>SS Habana<\/em> left the Basque port of Santurce with some 4,000 children, headed for the British city of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Southampton\">Southampton<\/a>. They stayed in the Stoneham camp, consisting of some 250 tents, organized by the Basque Children&#8217;s Committee. The evacuation to Britain was not without <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-england-35532286\">controversy<\/a>, as some in the British government viewed it as a breach of the non-interventionist policy and others argued it would prolong the war by reducing the number of &#8220;mouths&#8230; that don&#8217;t have to be fed&#8221; by the Basque government.<\/li><li>The children were placed all across the country in what were called colonies. For example, about 60 children were placed at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sussexexpress.co.uk\/heritage-and-retro\/retro\/how-worthing-people-stepped-up-to-help-children-fleeing-the-spanish-civil-war-3541465\">Beach House, in Worthing<\/a>. The government provided no support &#8211; rather, the hosting families and other volunteers raised the necessary funds and clothing to support the children. In fact, the government demanded that the Basque Children&#8217;s Committee <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ipswichsociety.org.uk\/newsletter\/newsletter-october-2017-issue-209\/the-basque-children-of-wherstead-park\/?fbclid=IwAR3fIl_o80IF9z7MJSGNQilwunWyDhaxMz0Kz-8MbMYRT6YSYX3kNMFspFk\">guarantee 10 shillings per week per child<\/a> to pay for the care and education. The children stayed there for a few years before most returned to the Basque Country. A plaque was recently placed on the Beach House by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basquechildren.org\">Basque Children of &#8217;37 Association<\/a> to commemorate their role in aiding these children.<\/li><li>While most children eventually returned home to the Basque Country &#8211; by 1940 only about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-england-35532286\">500 remained in the UK<\/a> &#8211; others made new lives in their adopted countries. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-england-hampshire-61179882\">Sabino Barinaga and Raimundo Perez Lezama<\/a>, two of the 4,000 children to arrive in 1937, became professional soccer players. 14 years old when they arrived in the UK, they honed their soccer skills on British fields before returning to Spain. Barinaga played for Real Madrid while Lezama was a goalkeeper for Athletic Bilbao. They met in the 1943 Spanish Cup final where Lezama&#8217;s Athletic Bilbao team beat Real Madrid 1-0. Other refugee children also made careers in soccer following their encampment in the UK.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/nation.cymru\/sport\/how-a-basque-refugee-football-team-overcame-tragedy-to-take-wales-by-storm\/\">Another 230 children were sent to Wales<\/a>. The Basque Country and Wales have a long history of interchange, with Basques working in Welsh industrial cities in the 1880s and Welsh workers doing the same in the early 1900s. 56 of these children made it to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Caerleon\">Caerleon<\/a> and soccer was again a distraction from the harsh realities of being so far from home in the middle of a war. They formed a team, called by some &#8220;The Basque Wonder Team&#8221; and &#8220;The Basque Unbeatables,&#8221; that became somewhat of a sensation in southern Wales. One of the boys, Enrique Garatea Bello, became a professional goalie back in Spain after returning home.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Primary sources: Arrien Berrojaechevarr\u00eda, Gregorio.&nbsp;<em>NI\u00d1O, NI\u00d1A (NI\u00d1OS EN LA GUERRA)<\/em>. Au\u00f1amendi Encyclopedia, 2022. Available at: <a href=\"https:\/\/aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus\/en\/nino-nina-ninos-en-la-guerra\/ar-79019\/\">https:\/\/aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus\/en\/nino-nina-ninos-en-la-guerra\/ar-79019\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the Spanish Civil War, particularly the years of 1936-1937, thousands of women and children, many of the latter without their parents, were evacuated from the Basque Country to a variety of countries, including the Soviet Union, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Denmark. I&#8217;ll write about some of these others in the future. However, a key [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[836,5,8],"tags":[765,3299,3297,514,3304,3305,3302,3303,3300,3296,290,1077,3295,708,3298],"class_list":["post-5474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basque-fact-of-the-week","category-diaspora","category-euskadi","tag-athletic-bilbao","tag-basque-children-of-37-association","tag-basque-childrens-committee","tag-basque-refugee-children","tag-caerleon","tag-enrique-garatea-bello","tag-raimundo-perez-lezama","tag-real-madrid","tag-sabino-barinaga","tag-southampton","tag-spanish-civil-war","tag-ss-habana","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales","tag-worthing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/90047227_habana.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1qi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5474"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5501,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5474\/revisions\/5501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}