Labor Camp Number 3 in Omells de Na Gaia

Referència CT040

Post card franked with 25c Edifil 749 and unreadable postmark, sent to Salvador Garriga, Regàs 4, 4º 2a, Barcelona. Text on the back dated on December 31, 1938 and signed by Juan Recasens, who points as sender's address "Campo 3". Allepuz 1754.

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Post card franked with 25c Edifil 749 and unreadable postmark, sent to Salvador Garriga, Regàs 4, 4º 2a, Barcelona. Text on the back dated on December 31, 1938 and signed by Juan Recasens, who points as sender's address "Campo 3".

The Labor Camp Number 3 was in Els Omells de Na Gaia and it was moved to Vila-sana on September 24, 1938, untili prisoners and wards crossed the French border on January 30, 1938.

The sender's name appears in the relation of people interned in the S.I.M. camps, on Appendix 19 of the many times quotet study of Francesc Badia Els camps de treball a Catalunya durant la guerra civil, page 436: "Recasens Ventosa, Joan. Industrial. From Tarragona. Interned in camp number 3 in Omells de Na Gaia". The newspaper La Vanguardia, in its edition of March 25, 1938, page 4, also publishes a note of the Catalan Court for Espionage and High Trasonery explaining that the sender was sentenced to 25 years in labor camps.

As Mr. Badia's study shows, "from July [1938] some correspondence was authorized to the inmates. They could write to their families a text that could not be superior to thirty words, written in post cards provided in the same camp, and the subject had to be the being and the health of the prisoner, that had mandatorely to be good. The place from where it was written could not be mentioned and the only reference allowed was Labor Camp Number 3 as address of the sender" (pages 214/215). Except for the length of the text, this post card fulfills all the other conditions.

Translation of the text:

Today, December 31, 1938

Dear all:

I received the packet and the letter. I am still well, and I wish the same for you all. If you can send espadrilles, as those tall I received are small for me and I cannot wear them, my number is 43. I want to give you a lot of thanks for the buttons, they are very useful for me.

I hope to see you soon, recevie a hughe from your,

Juan

Sender:

Juan Recasens

Camp 3 Dº [for "Detachment"strikethrough]

In brackets, on the left margin "(post cards)"

This post card, with any kind of marking that recalls attention at a first glance, belongs to the group of those very difficult to identify, as only the text points to its origin in a labor camp. Extremely rare, despite being philatelically less attractive for the absence of specific marks.