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Churchill PSA GEM MT 10 TLS Re: Franco Prisoners of War Facing Execution, Many Of Them Jews, On the Eve of WWII!
Churchill PSA GEM MT 10 TLS Re: Franco Prisoners of War Facing Execution, Many Of Them Jews, On the Eve of WWII!
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Description:

Winston Churchill
[Chartwell, Kent, England], June 25, 1939
Churchill PSA GEM MT 10 TLS Re: Franco Prisoners of War Facing Execution, Many Of Them Jews, On the Eve of WWII!
TLS

A 1p typed letter signed by Winston Churchill (1874-1965), then in his role as Chancellor of the University of Bristol, with the salutation and an additional 15+ word autograph note signed by Churchill at the conclusion. June 25, 1939. [Chartwell, Kent, England]. Typed and inscribed on laid watermarked custom stationery with Churchill's address at the letterhead. Encapsulated and PSA/DNA certified and graded GEM MT 10. Expected wear including flattened transmittal folds. Isolated tiny pin or staple holes near the horizontal fold, several minor closed tears to the top edge, and two stains near the top and bottom edges nowhere near the text. Else near fine. The actual letter measures 5" x 8 while the slab measures 9.625" x 13.25." Accompanied by its original engrossed transmittal envelope with cancelled stamp and postmark, inscribed "N.B. From / Churchill / himself" at upper left. Outstanding provenance information will be elaborated below.

Churchill wrote this letter to John D. Mowat (1914-2007), an University of Bristol alum, solicitor, and Secretary of the university's Labour Club. Mowat had written to Churchill urging him to advocate on behalf of 97 German and Austrian pro-Republican prisoners of war interned in Francoist Spain who were being threatening with imminent execution.

Churchill wrote in part:

"[in Churchill's hand] Dear Sir,

[typed] I thank you for your letter of June 22, and have what you say about the plight of the ninety-seven Germans and Austrians now held captive by the Spanish Government.

[in Churchill's hand] I regret that I do not know of any action I can take.

Sincerely yrs

W Churchill."

Churchill's response must have been disappointing to Mowat and fellow members of the University of Bristol Labour Party, who were politically aligned with the Republican cause recently stamped out in Francoist Spain. The politician's stance can be explained: Churchill had very little political currency at the time, having expressed several unpopular positions on issues during the 1930s, and consequently nearly losing his constituency at Epping. However, reading between the lines, Churchill's personal feelings may have been more than sympathetic. Churchill's own nephew by marriage, Esmond Romily (1918-1941), had served in Spain as a foreign volunteer in late 1936. Churchill had also begun to publicly forewarn of the growing power of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, two nations who had financed and equipped the Nationalists in Francoist Spain.

The identity of the 97 German and Austrian prisoners of war remains unclear, yet wartime demographic information provides some clues. The prisoners were almost certainly members of the International Brigades - dubbed "interbrigadistas" - who flooded Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1938) to preserve the Spanish Republic in the face of Francisco Franco's hostile Nationalist takeover. Historians estimate that about 35,000 - 45,000 foreign volunteers from over 50 countries eventually fought in Republican brigades, and of these, about 25% were Jewish. The foreign freedom-fighters typically held left-leaning political beliefs and were united in a common hatred of Fascism. The International Brigades were held together loosely in coalitions which sometimes fractured along political lines, depending on whether its members were Democratic, Communist, Trotskyist, or Anarchist. Foreign freedom-fighters were typically working-class, and some were World War I veterans or exiles from their own countries.

Of this group of foreign volunteers, it is estimated that between 2,000 - 5,000 of these were Germans (6 - 11%) and that between 800 - 1,400 were Austrians (2 - 3%). The prisoners of war about whom Mowat expressed concern could have belonged to the German-dominated Thälmann Battalion, or perhaps the more mixed-national battalions such as the Nine Nations Battalion or the Chapaev Battalion. The International Brigades were officially disbanded in September 1938 after numerous crushing defeats.

In 1939, even though the Spanish Civil War was technically over, foreign freedom-fighters were still imprisoned in Francoist concentration and labor camps. Modeled after German and Italian camps, the Francoist camps interned Republicans and other political dissidents, as well as homosexuals, Romani, and various "unrecoverables." The largest prisoner camp for foreign combatants during the waning days of the Spanish Civil War was the former monastery at San Pedro de Cardeña. Perhaps the 97 prisoners of war were incarcerated here.

The hundreds of camps in Francoist Spain primarily functioned as labor camps; prisoners of war, lacking official convention-protected status, were forced to work in mines or on infrastructure projects. The prisoners of war endured inhumane conditions and some were summarily executed if not eligible for prisoner swaps. The Francoist camps are believed to have processed between 400,000 - 1 million prisoners of war between 1936 and 1947 - nearly a full decade after the official end of the Spanish Civil War.

Provenance

The Churchill typed letter signed with autograph note is accompanied by provenance information provided by the original recipient of the letter, John D. Mowat. 2pp autograph letter signed by John D. Mowat as "John" on the second page. July 18, 2002. [Bristol, England]. Inscribed on either side of a sheet of laid watermarked paper with Mowat's address label affixed to the top. Several contemporaneous typographical edits and cross-outs. Expected flattened transmittal folds, else near fine. 8.25" x 11.625."

Mowat wrote to an unidentified correspondent named "Morris" in part:

"These are the circumstances in which I came into the possession of the Churchill letter.

In 1938, having taken my degree in Greats at Oxford the year before, I decided to become a solicitor. I was articled to Mr Levy, of firm of H. Gwynne Perry + Levy, of 51 Broad Street, Bristol. All Articled Clerks were required to attend lectures by the Law Faculty, one day a week; I think it was Thursdays.

As a member of the University, I joined the Labour Club, and was rapidly elected to be the Secretary.

This was the time when the Spanish Civil War was a very disturbing political issue. Most Left Wing political opinion was supportive of the Spanish Government, + opposed to the rebel, + Fascist, General Franco. Franco however was gaining the upper hand, with the support of Hitler + Mussolini. He had got hold of 97 German + Austrian prisoners, who had gone as volunteers to supported the legitimate government of Spain, and was proposing to shoot them.

This proposal aroused great feeling among Left Wing circles in the U.K., + I dare say elsewhere. The Bristol University Labour Party discussed the matter, and we decided to write to the Chancellor of the University, Mr Winston Churchill, to ask if he could intervene to save these prisoners.

I accordingly wrote to Churchill, and this is the reply he sent to me…"

John D. Mowat later served as a high school teacher and taught teacher training. He and his wife lived abroad in Polynesia (modern day Tuvulu and Kiribati) from ca. 1967-70 where they taught and collected oral history records. The "Mowat Collection" is housed by the Bristol Archives.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Provenance: ALS by by John D. Mowat.
  • Dimensions: slabbed: 9.625" x 13.25"
  • Medium: TLS

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