Josu Erkoreka and Aintzane Ezenarro attend a seminar on the Gurs concentration camp

The session was hosted by Gogora in the run up to the institutional act  of recognition that the Navarra and Basque governments have organised to be held in Gurs on 30 September.

Josu Chueca, a Contemporary History lecturer at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and author of the book "Gurs el campo vasco" [Gurs. The Basque Camp], gave a talk at the seminar. This was followed by the screening of the "Gurs un recuerdo desde el olvido" [Gurs. Remembered from Oblivion] documentary by Natalia Cambronero and Alejandro Santos.

The Basque Government's Spokesperson and Minister for Public Governance and Self-Government, Josu Erkoreka, and the Director of the Institute for Remembrance, Coexistence and Human Rights - Gogora, Aintzane Ezenarro, attended the "Gurs, the Basque Camp" seminar this afternoon. This initiative was organised for people to learn about the Gurs concentration camp in south-west France and to help to recover the historical memory of the people who were there.

The seminar, organised by Gogora, was also a prelude to the institutional ceremony that the Basque Government and Navarra Government will hold at the camp itself on 30 September to recall and recognise the unfair suffering of the thousands of people interned there, after the Spanish Civil War. Any relatives who wish to attend the ceremony can do so by contacting GOGORA, by phoning 94 403 28 or by emailing gogora.idazkaritza@euskadi.eus.

The people at this afternoon's event were able to discover details of the "Gurs, el campo vasco" book from its author, Josu Chueca, the Contemporary History lecturer at the UPV/EHU. After his talk, "Gurs, un recuerdo desde el olvido", the documentary by Natalia Cambronero and Alberto Santos, was screened to end the seminar.

Gurs camp

The Gurs camp was a refugee camp built in 1939 for Republican fighters of the Spanish Civil War. However, after the Nazis occupied France, Gurs became a concentration camp and thousands of Jews were interned there.

Up to 60,000 people, from 52 countries, were sent to the Gurs concentration camp and 6,500 of them were Basque. And even, between August 1942 and February 1943, six convoys transported 3,907 of those people to Auschwitz.

The Gurs camp was closed in 1950. The barracks were then destroyed and hundreds of trees were planted over its eighty hectares.