Spanish children at the Émile Vandervelde home

The photograph shows some of the Spanish children who were evacuated to Belgium in 1937 and housed in the Émile Vandervelde Home in Oostduinkerke. Taking in children from areas threatened by Francoist troops was one of the ways in which Belgian society demonstrated its engagement with the Spanish Republic Welcoming committees were created and the Belgian government ensured that the plans for evacuation and reception were realized. Between 1937 and 1939, some 5,000 Spanish children went to Belgium.

The committees would publish a call for people to sponsor a child, either by donating money to support them in a residence or taking them into their own home. They then evaluated all offers, and some were rejected because of the precariousness of a family’s financial situation. The committees also had to deal with such practical questions as giving preference to small children and keeping siblings as close together as possible. 

The question of the children’s return to Spain arose very soon after their arrival. The Spanish embassy in Brussels opposed sending children back while the war was still on, but the Belgian government prepared itself to deal with this issue in order to avoid any disputes with the people who had sponsored the children. With the objective of ensuring them that return would be possible, in December 1937, the government decided that children would be repatriated only if their parents requested it, could document their relation to the children, and provide official documents issued by the Spanish government and the relevant Belgian consul in Spain. 

In 1939, when the outcome of the war was clear but the Socialist committees were refusing to deal with the Francoist authorities, the Red Cross and the Catholic committees served as intermediaries on the question of repatriation. The first group of children left for Spain from Brussels’ Midi station on April 25, 1939, but the Belgian government had to deal with new issues. The Socialist deputy Isabelle Blume sent various petitions to Justice Minister Paul-Émile Janson requesting he study the cases of orphans who were in concentration camps in France. Although the government had set out the principle that Spanish refugees in France would not be allowed into the country, the ministry agreed to consider requests from families who, for economic or family reasons, could be considered exceptions. Thus, most - but not all - of the children who went to Belgium during the Civil War returned to Spain after it ended.