Used – To each their own exile - itinerary of a Spanish libertarian activist - Henri Melich - Acratie

Author(s): Henri Melich Publisher: Acratie Publication: 09/2014 Number of pages: 220 Number of books: 1 Weight: 310 g Dimensions: 21.5 x 14.5 x 2 cm EAN: 9782909899480 Summary: Three quarters of a century have passed since that day in February 1939 when a young adolescent was forced to cross the Pyrenees to seek refuge in France.

It certainly took a lot of courage to support fugitives in Vichy France when you were only 16 or 17 years old, or to join the maquis under the nom de guerre "Robert Sans" when you were barely older, or even to enter Spain shortly after, gun in hand with a commando that came under fire from Francoist forces. It still took courage to engage in the anti-Francoist struggle in the 1960s when young libertarians of the FIJL undertook direct harassment of the dictatorship, or to cross the Spanish border many times in the 1970s to "smuggle" comrades fleeing repression. One of the qualities of life stories, such as the one Melich offers us, is that they allow us to access social realities that generally escape the gaze of professional historians, even when they stray from "grand history" and take an interest in the history of mentalities or ways of life.