Basque Refugee Children Exhibition

As regular readers will know one area of history which fascinates me is the Spanish Civil War and reactions to it in Scotland and the UK.  I have been pleased to mark the sacrifice of the volunteers of the International Brigade at the memorial outside the McManus Galleries.

This week there is an exhibition in the Central Library of the story of the Basque Refugee Children who came to Britain in 1937 to escape the Civil War and bombing in the Basque Country.  In Dundee there was a great deal of support for these children and the Dundee Free Breakfast Mission made their home in Montrose available for these children to stay there.  There was a great deal of support for this including from the local co-operative societies, political parties and trades unions.

If you want to know more about the history of these children please visit the website of Basque Children of 37 website. The website includes a number of  articles about the so-called Montrose colony.  In the 80th anniversary of this refugee crisis we need to look at what we would do today to support those suffering throughout the world.