Cover to San Vicente del Raspeig labor camp, 1938

Reference: CT085

Cover with letterhead «Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Madrid a Zaragoza y a Alicante, material y tracción» to José Munilla, in San Vicente del Raspeig labor camp. Franked with 45c Edifil 744 and Sucursal Nº 9 Madrid postmark, dated on June 20, 1938. Handwritten note on top left corner «Rda el 4/7/938» (Received on July 4, 1938).

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Cover with letterhead «Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Madrid a Zaragoza y a Alicante, material y tracción» to José Munilla, in San Vicente del Raspeig labor camp. Franked with 45c Edifil 744 and Sucursal Nº 9 Madrid postmark, dated on June 20, 1938. Handwritten note on top left corner «Rda el 4/7/938» (Received on July 4, 1938).

In San Vicente del Raspeig labor camp there were some 50 prisoners, sent there in 1938 by the Dirección General de Prisiones to help building shelters. The prisoners were hosted in an old warehouse transformed in prison in Echegaray street, and they were guarded by Carabineros and Guardia de Asalto.

Up to day only two covers sent to this extremely rare camp are known: the first one is a cover with mark and franchise of the International Red Cross in Barcelona addressed to the director of the camp, in Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica (signature MAD 1662/29,3). The second one is the one offered in this lot.

The addressee, José Munila, was a worker of MZA railway company sentenced to 3 years of internment in labor camp as per sentence of November 23, 1937 of Madrid’s Juzgado de Urgencia (Centro Docmental de la Memoria Histórica, signatura FC-CAUSA_GENERAL,263,Exp.27).

In lot CT005 in this same catalogue there is another cover, sent by this same man to his brother in Orihuela labor camp, postmarked on August 30, 1938, where he writes as sender’s info the address of San Miguel de los Reyes prison, in Valencia, proving that by that date he already left San Vicente del Raspeig labor camp.

This is the only cover known sent to a prisoner in San Vicente del Raspeig labor camp, and the only one of the two know covers addressed to this camp (the other one goes to its director) available in the market, as the other one is in a public archive. Very rare.