José Ester Borrás Papers
Period 1925-1980
(-1993)
Total size 2.87 m.
Consultation Not restricted
Biography
Ester Borras, José: born in Berga, Spain 1913, died in Alès, France 1980; trade unionist and campaigner for political prisoners; active in the Spanish anarchist youth movement; fought in the Colonna Tierra y Libertad during the Spanish Civil War; was arrested by the communists; fled to France in 1939; participated in the French resistance against the Nazis; was arrested and deported to the concentration camp Mauthausen; returned to France in 1945; as one of the founders and moving spirit of FEDIP, Ester campaigned for political prisoners in Franco's Spain, for former political prisoners in German concentration camps and for imprisoned Spanish republicans in the Soviet Union; also active in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in exile.
Content
Personal correspondence 1937, 1939-1952, 1957-1961; identity cards and other personal documents 1931, 1937, 1945-1947, 1952 and n.d.; typescript of 'Recuerdos y Reflejos', first chapter of his autobiography 1942; documents on the French resistance and the liberation of Paris 1941, 1945-1946, 1948, 1959, 1966 and n.d.; documents from his wife Odette Ester-Kervorc'k 1976-1992 and n.d.
Spanish prisoners in Germany: correspondence with F. Herzfelder, Felix Martorell, Carlos Martinez Parera and others concerning indemnity payments to former Spanish prisoners in German concentration camps 1958-1974; other documents on indemnity payments, including documents concerning the German Bundesentschädigungsgesetz ( BEG) 1954-1974 and n.d.; reports and notes by Hans Marsalek and others concerning former Spanish prisoners in Mauthausen 1949, 1953, 1957-1971, 1978 and n.d.; lists of names 1946, 1968 and n.d.; documents concerning the Fédération Nationale des Déportés et Internés Résistants et Patriotes (FNDIRP) 1968-1970 and n.d.; documents concerning the Fédération Internationale Libre des Déportés et Internés de la Résistance (FILDIR) 1964-1965, 1970 and n.d.; other documents and clippings concerning deported Spaniards in German concentration camps 1939-1940, 1946-1972 and n.d.
CNT in exile: minutes of meetings 1948-1949; correspondence with A. Germinal Esgleas of the Movimiento Libertario Español (MLE) 1947-1948 and correspondence with Marcelino Massana 1951-1952, José Peirats 1951 and n.d., Roque Santamaria 1951-1952 and others 1945-1974; files concerning persons, including Juan Cazorla Pedrero 1952-1954; Luis Companys 1934, 1936, 1940, 1969-1970; Guillermo Farregut Castells 1950 and n.d.; A. Florentino Estallo 1952-1955; Gabriel Garcia Tomas 1949-1950; Manuel Mendez de Vigo y Cubas n.d.; Quintin Sanchez 1952; Francisco Sanz 1950 and n.d.; Felipe Torrente Larrosa 1952-1953; files on the weekly Ruta of the Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias (FIJL) in France 1953, on interventions in behalf of prisoners in Spain and France 1946-1947, 1949, 1952, on the exile of inhabitants from Berga in France 1947-1951-1953, 1957-1960, 1966 and other subjects; reports, notes and other documents concerning the CNT 1946-1952, 1966 and n.d.; typescripts of articles by J. Ester 1941, 1943; printed material, including photocopies of newspaper articles by Albert Camus on the Franco regime in Spain 1948-1953, 1957, 1959, 1961-1962, 1964-1966 and n.d.
Processing information
Inventory made by Tiny de Boer in 2002, supplement to the list on the accruals of 2006 and 2011 made by Bouwe Hijma in 2012
Secondary creator
Ester-Kervorc'h, Odette. Federación Española de Deportados e Internados Politicos (Paris)INTRODUCTION
José Ester Borrás was born on 26 October 1913 in Berga (province of Barcelona), Spain. His parents Dolores Borras Solanas and Francisco Ester were practically illiterate and from very poor families. His father, who was a construction worker and later had a small bar, could write a little. Ester had one older sister Antonia . Ester started working as a locksmith apprentice in 1927. He met Alfonsina Bueno Vela in the factory where they both worked. They became companions in 1932. They had one daughter Angeline , born in 1932 in Berga.
Ester was a member of the Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias . In 1932 he joined the Textile Union of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in Berga. In July 1936 he took part in the revolutionary committee of Berga, before enlisting in the Colonna Tierra y Libertad in the Spanish Civil War. He fought alternately at the in Aragon, Madrid and in Catalonia. In May 1938 Ester, Leal and Domingo were arrested by the communists, who accused them of having killed an official of the brigade. He was kept imprisoned until the front line collapsed. After the fall of the Spanish Republic he fled to France where he joined the CNT in Exile in the region of Toulouse. During the occupation he participated in the resistance against the Nazis and since its founding in July 1940 he was a member of the group of Francisco Ponzán Vidal . The group, exclusively consisting of Spanish anarchists, had contacts with the international network Pat O'Leary , later called the network Pat- Françoise (after the arrest of 'Pat', the Belgian doctor colonel Albert Guérisse ). On 30 April 1941 he was arrested in Toulouse and interned in camp Vernet d'Ariège, where at the request of Francisco Ponzán and thanks to Robert Terres and a few administrative accomplices, he was set free with false documents. Within the Pat-Françoise Network he was involved in the evacuation of numerous allied pilots and members of the international resistance to Spain. He was arrested again on 28 October 1943 by the Gestapo, together with his first wife Alfonsina , his father-in-law Miguel Bueno Gil and his brother-in-law José Bueno Vela . Ester was deported to Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was a member of an illegal international committee which prepared the uprising and the liberation of the camp in 1945. His wife and his brother-in law also survived the concentration camps, unlike his father-in-law who died in Mauthausen.
After returning to France Ester was one of the founders of the oftline Federación Española de Deportados e Internados Políticos (FEDIP) , of which he was general secretary from 1947 until his death in 1980. FEDIP was founded in August 1945 in Toulouse and moved to Paris in the beginning of 1947. In FEDIP nearly all political alignments of Republican exiles were united. During the split in 1945 of the Movimiento Libertario Español (MLE) in Exile , Ester signed the declaration of the province of Barcelona, which supported the elected National Committee during the congress held in Paris. He became secretary of the Comisión de Relaciones of the MLE-CNT Intercomarcal del Alto Llobregat y Cardoner , but he mainly dedicated himself to the support of former deportees to concentration camps. Thanks to his persistent campaigning they or their widows obtained a pension from the German government.
In 1947 Ester was the principal instigator of the campaign for the liberation of the antifascist Spanish sailors and pilots in training, interned in the Soviet Union labour camps in Karaganda. After many years of efforts the surviving prisoners were released in 1956. Ester also participated in the work of the Commission Internationale contre le Régime Concentrationnaire (CICRC)n (International Commission against Forced Labour Camps), instigated by David Rousset . The members of FEDIP also campaigned for political prisoners of the Franco regime in Spain. Ester took part in all FEDIP congresses and collaborated regularly to FEDIP's internal bulletin Hispania .
Working in the Spanish section of the Office de Protection des Réfugiés et Apatrides (OFPRA) (of the Department of Foreign Affairs) Ester took part in the settling of numerous cases of refugees and former freedom fighters, who clandestinely escaped Spain under the Franco regime. He intervened many times to save militants in Spain or to save those threatened by expulsion from France as a result of their actions against the Franco regime.
Ester was honoured with the title 'sous-lieutenant' of the Forces Françaises Combattantes, officer in the Légion d'Honneur and with various decorations (French, English and American), including the King's Medal of Freedom for his participation in the resistance. Ester remained active until well into the 1970s. In 1974 he left Paris with his second wife Odette Ester-Kervorc'h and moved to Saint Christol les Ales (Gard)? He died on the 13th of April 1980. See also the FEDIP archives and www.iisg.nl/collections.ester.html
The IISH received the papers from his widow Odette Ester-Kervorc'h in 2000, supplemented later that year with a small accrual concerning the campaign for the release of the prisoners in Karaganda obtained from Rolf Dupuy . In 2002 another small accrual was received from Odette Ester-Kervorc'h. The papers of FEDIP complement the documents received in 1998 on the organization's campaign for the liberation of Spanish republican prisoners in Karaganda, Soviet Union. The FEDIP papers consist of congresses and meetings, correspondence by Ester and José Doménech and others, files on various persons, correspondence, files and other documents concerning the indemnifications for Spaniards in German concentration camps. Another part of the papers relate to Ester's activities in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo in Exile (CNT) . The CNT papers consist of minutes of meetings, correspondence with various general secretaries of the CNT in Exile and other correspondence, files on various persons, reports and other documents. Also included are documents concerning Ester's activities in the Comisión de Relaciones of the MLE-CNT Intercomarcal del Alto Llobregat y Cardoner , documents concerning his friends from Berga and documents concerning his activities in the CICRC and OFPRA . The papers also include documentation on Spain, on concentration camp Mauthausen and other documentation. The collection also contains some papers of Odette Ester-Kervorc'h.
Books and periodicals were transferred to the library of the IISH. Photo's, drawings and tapes were transferred to the audiovisual section of the IISH.
INVENTORY
PERSONAL
- 6
- Documents concerning his arrival in France as a refugee under the alias Domingo Lopez Sepulveda . 1939 and n.d. 1 cover.
- 7
- Documents concerning his work in the resistance during the second World War. 1941-1943, 1945-1952, 1967 and n.d. 1 cover.
- 8
- 'Recuerdos y reflejos'. Typescript of the report of his youth recollections. With notes. 1942 and n.d. 1 volume.
PUBLIC LIFE
FEDIP
Congresses and meetings
Correspondence
- 15-16
-
Correspondence
concerning the campaign for the relief of the interned Spaniards in Karaganda.
1947-1950. 1 folder and 1 cover.
NB. See also the FEDIP archives.
Files
Indemnifications ('BEG')
- 33
- Correspondence with F. Herzfelder , member of the court of appeal of Munich in Paris concerning the indemnifications, including notes. 1958, 1962-1966, 1968-1971 and n.d. 1 cover.
- 34
- Correspondence, mainly with Felix Martorell and Carlos Martinez Parera concerning the indemnifications, including notes. 1958-1966, 1970. 1 cover.
- 35
- Correspondence with Alfred Frenzel , member of the German parliament and others concerning the German indemnifications. 1959. 1 cover..
- 36-37
- Other correspondence concerning the indemnifications for Spanish prisoners in German concentration camps. With notes. Partly transcripts of letters. 1959-1962. 2 folders..
- 38-55
-
Files on
indemnifications.
1944, 1954-1962, 1964, 1966, 1969-1970 and n.d.
18 covers..
- 38
- 'Notas de interés, carta de servicios, copias de cartas curiosas'. Notes and correspondence, including some clippings. 1944, 1958-1962 and n.d.
- 42
- 'BEG, note honoraires, decisiones negativos, carta consulado de Barcelona'. File on consulates and lawyers. 1957, 1960-1962, 1964 and n.d.
- 46
- 'Pensiones, Gestiones-Transferencias, Banca'. File on transfer of pensions through banks. 1958-1960 and n.d.
- 51
- Printed open letter to Triboulet , minister of former resistence fighters, including a carbon copy. 1960.
- 60
- List of concentration camps, published in Bundesgesetzblatt , no. 5, part 1 (Bonn). 1970. 1 copy..
Contacts with FILDIR
Other FEDIP documents
- 65-66
- Documents concerning the buying off arrangement by the French government in 1974 of social contributions during internment, deportation or captivity. 1939- 1940, 1942-1943, 1945-1948, 1951, 1957, 1962-1971, 1973-1974 and n.d. 2 folders..
- 67
- Lists of Spanish, Dutch and English prisoners in concentration camp Mauthausen and other camps. 1944 and n.d. 1 cover.
- 69
- Documents concerning interventions in favour of prisoners in Spain and France. 1946-1947, 1949, 1952. 1 cover.
- 70
-
Passports of the Republican Spanish Government in Exile, decreed for the
interned in Karaganda.
1948. 1 folder.
NB. The passports were never used; they all left directly for Spain.
- 71
- Documents concerning testimonies and information on detention in Spanish prisons. 1948, 1950. 1 folder.
- 72
- Documents concerning French pensions for exiled Spaniards. 1948, 1950, 1965, 1972-1973, 1978 and n.d. 1 cover.
- 73
- Typescripts of articles, reports, a speech and notes by Ester and others. 1949, 1951 and n.d. 1 piece.
- 74
-
Documents concerning the Comité d'Aide (aid committee) of FEDIP
.
1949, 1952-1953 and n.d. 1 cover.
NB. See also inv.no. 17.
- 77
- Transcripts of correspondence, mainly between Jeannot and Joffre , including notes concerning Francisco Hernandez Gonzalez . 1968-1969. 1 cover..
CNT in Exile
Correspondence
- 81
- Correspondence with Germinal Esgleas , Valerio Mas , Federica Montseny , Bernardo Pou , Alfonso Tricheux , José Viladomiu and others. 1946-1950. 1 cover.
- 82
- Correspondence with Germinal Esgleas , secretary of the Comité Nacional of the CNT , and some others. 1947-1948. 1 cover..
- 83
- Correspondence with José Peirats , secretary of the Comité Nacional of the CNT , and some others. 1947- 1950. 1 cover..
- 84
- Correspondence with Cristobal Ballesta , Manuel Benitez , Pedro Flores , Baltasar Martinez , Juan Pintado and others. 1947-1950. 1 cover..
- 87
- Correspondence with Martin Vilarrupla , general secretary of the Secretariado Intercontinental of the CNT in Exile , and some others during the 'proceso de Barcelona'. 1952. 1 cover..
- 88
- Correspondence, mainly with Jaime Vivé , general secretary of the national committee of Solidarité Internationale Antifasciste (SIA) . 1952. 1 cover.
Reports and notes
Other CNT documents
- 133
- Spanish and French paper money, partly dating from the Spanish Civil War. 1925, 1927-1928, 1931, 1937-1938 and n.d. 1 cover.
- 134
- Manuscript and typescripts of articles and speeches by Ester , Féderica Montseny and others. 1941, 1943, 1946, 1950 and n.d. 1 cover.
- 136
- Carbon copies of transcripts of newsletters, telegrammes and other documents of the Cuerpo de Ejercito (army corps) of Urgel (Spain). 1946. 1 cover.
- 137
- Documents concerning the congress of the Association Internationale des Travailleurs (AIT) . 1951. 1 cover.
- 139
- Documents concerning a protest meeting against the death sentences of CNT militants in Sevilla and Barcelona, held in Paris. With photographs. 1952. 1 cover.
- 140
- Documents concerning the attack on dr. Bernard Peck and his wife by Spanish bandits. 1953. 1 cover.
- 141
- Biographical data concerning José Riquelme y Lopez Bago , former general in the Spanish army, including some other documents concerning him. 1972 and n.d. 1 cover.
Assistance to friends from Berga
- 148
- Documents concerning 'official progress in favour of friends from Berga'. 1938-1939, 1943, 1946, 1950, 1962-1962. 1 cover.
Other documents
- 153
- Documents concerning cooperation of the German secret police with foreign political police. Photocopies. 1938, 1940, 1942. 1 cover.
- 154
- Documents concerning conspiracy of German police services and Spanish Franquists. 1940, 1942. 1 cover.
- 155
- Declaration and vaccination certificate from the camp of Vernet-d'Ariège for Louis Garcia . 1942. 1 cover.
- 156
- File on resistance in France and the liberation of Paris. 1945-1946, 1952, 1955-1957, 1964, 1966 and n.d. 1 cover.
- 157-160
- Documents concerning the Commission Internationale contre le Régime Concentrationnaire (CICRC) (International Commission against Forced Labour Camps). (1949-) 1950-1953, 1956-1957 and n.d. 3 folders and 1 cover.
DOCUMENTATION
- 165-167
- Documentation on Spain, including notes by Ester . 1946-1953, 1957-1963, 1965-1966, 1971-1972 and n.d. 1 box, 1 folder and 1 cover.
- 168
- Photocopies of articles from and concerning Albert Camus , mainly published in Solidaridad Obrera , including other documents concerning Camus. 1948-1949, 1951-1953, 1955 and n.d. 1 cover.
- 169
- Report concerning the situation of the representatives who were elected in the general elections of 16 February 1936 in the parliament of the Spanish republic. 1950. 1 piece..
- 170
- Tekst of a play, taking place in the capital of a european state, some years after the wars of 1936-1945. Untitled. 1952. 1 piece.
- 171
- 'Mémorandum du Groupe Kronstadt . Une page d'histoire du mouvement anarchiste Français'. Stencilled report. 1954. 1 piece.
- 172
- Documentation concerning the Commission Internationale contre le Régime Concentrationnaire (CICRC) . 1954- 1955. 1 cover.
- 173
- Course book 'Historia del Movimiento Obrero Español. Epoca de 1842 al 1860' by Bernardo Pou . Received from Bernardo Pou in 1956. 1956 and n.d. 1 volume..
- 174
-
Triangle bleu. les républicains espagnols à Mauthausen 1940-1945 ,
book by Manuel Razola and Mariano Constante
. With notes, clipping and a photograph of a drawing.
1969. 1 cover.
NB. Comments on Ester on page 132-133.
- 175
- Articles in newspapers and periodicals concerning concentration camp Mauthausen. 1969-1970 and n.d. 1 cover..
- 176
- Newspaper clippings on legal and social subjects, mainly published in Le Déporté , Le Patriote Resistant and Journal des Combattants . 1969-1974. 1 folder.
- 177
- Documentation on the expulsion from France of seven Spanish refugees of the Basque provinces. 1970, 1972. 1 cover.
- 178
- Typescript of an article by Hans Marsalek (museum of Mauthausen) in reaction to the article 'Republicanos Españoles en los campos de exterminio nazis' by Eduardo Pons Prades , published in Historia y Vida , no. 30 (1970), including notes. Photocopy. 1971. 1 cover..
Papers of Odette Ester-Kervorc'h
NB. Born 15th July 1915 in Bouguenais, France, died 11th March 2010 in Chapelle-sur-Erdre, France.
- 182
- Documents concerning the preparation of the book 'Deportation' by Odette Ester . 1939-1940, 1944-1945, 1949, 1958, 1964, 1973-1974, 1976, 1978-1981, 1985, 1993 and n.d. 1 folder.
- 183
- Note from Albert Camus concerning an open letter from Camus to UNESCO , including covering letter from Odette Ester . 1952, 2000. 1 cover.
Accrual 2002 to the papers of José Ester Borrás
- 189
- Documents concerning the participation of Spanish republicans in the resistance in France. 1946-1951, 1953, 1957, 1959, 1962-1966, 1972, 1981-1982, 1998 and n.d. 1 folder.
Supplement list 2012 (Accruals 2006 and 2011)
General
Various subjects
Founding and statutes
Departments of the FEDIP
History writing ('le Livre')
Typescripts / memories
- 206
- Copy of 'Rapport sur la situation actuelle des Réfugiés Espagnols qui furent victimes du national-socialisme' by José Ester. 1955. 1 cover.
- 207
- Typescript of a declaration on the concentration camp Mauthausen by an unknown person during the Schulz process in Cologne on 14-15 September 1962. 1962. 1 cover.
- 208
- Typescript 'Estructura Organica. Zonas y Departamentales' by the General Secretary of the FEDIP. With some enclosures. 1966, 1971 and n.d. 1 cover.
- 209
- Typescript 'Les camps d'extermination' by and notes on this typescript by Émile Témime. With some enclosures. 1971, 1989 and n.d. 1 folder.
- 210-211
- Typescript 'El K.V. Mauthausen garante de la vida de un Español (p. 35-61), lists, notes and other documents on the concentration camp Mauthausen and its Spanish prisoners. 1974, 1978, 1980, 1990 and n.d. 2 folders.
- 212
- Typescript 'Refrescando memorias para evitar tropezones repetidas beces' by José Rasal. 1981. 1 cover.
- 213
- Typescript by Firmin (Fermin) Arce on World War II and letter from Arce to Odette Ester. 1982. 1 cover.
- 214
- Typescript 'Vidas bajo el terror concentracvionario, su calvario, sus torturas, su muerte' by Fermin Arce. N.d. 1 cover.
- 215
- Typescript 'Recuerdos de un ayer (Para mi amiga Odette Ester)' by J. (Pepe) Paniagua. 1983. 1 cover.
- 216
- Typescript 'Temoignages oraux sur les guerillas antifranquistes du Leon (1947-1952)' by Odette Martinez-Maler. [c. 2002]. 1 cover.
- 217
- Typescript 'Rapport établi par la F.E.D.I.P. concernant l'activité des Républicains Espagnols dans la Resistance contre l'envahisseur Nazi' / 'Rapport concernant l'activité des Résistants Espagnols en France au cours de la guerre 1939-1945'. N.d. 1 cover.
Various persons, organizations and subjects
- 228
- Manuscript of a speech 'Camarades' by André Breton on the Franco dictatorship and the strikes in Barcelona in March 1951 and the newspaper Solidaridad Obrera of 1 March 1952, published in Paris, with contributions by André Breton, Albert Camus, Emile Kahn and Jean-Paul Sartre. 1952. 1 folder.
- 229
- Identity card of Ramon Sant Mas and copy of a letter by an unknown person about life and death of Sant Mas. 1965, 1973. 1 cover.
- 231
- Letter and press article on the reburial in Madrid of Francisco Largo Caballero, the earlier president of the Spanish Republican Government and the exhumation of his remains in the cemetery Père Lachaise in Paris in April 1978. 1978. 1 cover.
- 233
- Correspondence between Odette Ester and Carlos Cabeza, the secretary-general of the FEDIP. 1981-1986. 1 cover.
- 234
- Correspondence between Odette Ester, Carlos Cabeza, Jean (Juan) Gil and some others. 1981, 1985-1986. 1 cover.
- 238
- Declaration by the FEDIP on the situation in Spain and accusation against the regime of general Franco, notified to the General Assembly of the United Nations. 1950. 1 cover.
- 239
- Minutes of the meetings of the Fédération Internationale Libre des Déportés et Internés de la Résistance (FILDIR) and other documents on the FILDIR. 1952, [1967], 1974-1975, 1979 and n.d. 1 folder.
- 240
- Documents regarding the rights of refugees and stateless persons living in France. 1977-1979 and n.d. 1 folder.
- 241
- Documents on the Amicale des anciens guérrilleros Espagnols en France (F.F.I.). 1978, 1998 and n.d. 1 folder.
- 242
- Documents on the rights of widows of fighters for the Spanish Republic and other war victims. 1980-1984. 1 cover.