Draft Evaders

During the Civil War there was a “third army”: the army of the non-combatants. This term referred to the hundreds of thousands of young Spaniards who used a variety of tactics: ranging from bribery and feigning illness to obtaining civilian posts far from the front lines, to avoid fighting in the conflict. The most extreme case was undoubtedly that of the emboscados (“those in hiding”). 

This was a widespread phenomenon, particularly in rural Catalonia, where it is estimated that some twenty thousand young men concealed themselves in the countryside and in remote mountain areas to avoid being conscripted into the Republican army. They were known in Catalan as els emboscats (a group of whom appears to be shown in the photograph), and some formed large armed bands that forcibly resisted attempts by government security forces to capture them. Others were hidden individually or in small groups by relatives and friends in haylofts, caves, or isolated huts.

The typical draft evader in hiding was a young conservative Catholic who detested the Republican side and the revolutionary excesses and crimes that had taken place in his area. Many of them tried to flee to France in order to cross from there into the Nationalist zone, but for various reasons were unable to do so. Others simply went into hiding to wait for the war to end. This became increasingly common as Republican defeats mounted during 1938 and the territory under Republican control steadily shrank, and as the authorities began conscripting progressively older men (the quinta del saco, or "sack class") and very young recruits (the quinta del biberón, or "baby-bottle class").

If they were captured, emboscados were prosecuted for desertion—a charge that could be aggravated if they had offered armed resistance—and could even be sentenced to death, although such sentences were rarely carried out. More commonly, they received prison terms and fines, which were often commuted on the condition that they be assigned to frontline military units.

Although the emboscados generally sympathized with the Nationalist side, the Franco regime often treated them harshly, as it deemed that their failure to cross over to Nationalist lines was a way of avoiding fighting in the war. As a result, former emboscados were required to complete the full three-year term of compulsory military service and were regarded with suspicion by their officers.

By the 1960's, the attitude of the Francoist authorities had changed, and in 1966 they erected a monument in the town of Solsona to honour the people in the farmhouses who hid or provided assistance to the emboscados.

ACS