Lost Photos from Spanish Civil War

Photographs by two Jewish female photographers who worked behind anti-fascist lines during the Spanish Civil War have gone on display in Madrid after 80 years. For decades the negatives and prints, many of which have never been published, were believed to be lost or destroyed. They are now on show in Madrid for the first time.

Aragón front 1937, Kati Horna

As the war neared a conclusion in 1939, anarchists of the CNT and -FAI, took steps to preserve records of their struggle and achievements. Apprehensive of the war’s outcome, they sealed documents and 2,300 photographs, 5,000 negatives and almost 300 photographic plates in 48 wooden crates, which they smuggled out of Barcelona away from the fascist bombardment, destined for the safe haven of the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam.

Emma Goldman visits Albalate de Cinca in Aragón; Margaret Michaelis 

The photographers were Margaret Michaelis, of Polish-Austrian descent, and Kati Horna, from Hungary and a friend of the photojournalist Robert Capa, a compatriot.

Fighter on the Aragón front, 1937. Kati Horna

Both photographers believed their work had been lost or destroyed in the ruins of Franco’s bombs. Now, for the first time, the pictures are seeing the light of day.

Thanks Thomas