A Touching Story

Last Sunday I went to visit the Maternity of Elne. For several months I heard the fascinating story of this maternity and Sunday finally I took the road to discover this place. In 1939,thousands of Spanish refugees fled Franco's troops,who were parked on St. Cyprien beaches of Argeles, the Barcares, Rivesaltes etc. Prison conditions were horrible and mortality, especially among children was very high. There was a small young woman named Elisabeth Eindenbenz,a nurse from Switzerland. She was going for some shopping like everyday to provide camps and saw for the firs time the ruins of an abandoned castle in the countryside. She had the idea to ask for money to restore the castle to accommodate pregnant women interned in camps and make motherhood. These mothers who lived hidden or who experienced the harsh restrictions of the war were Jewish mothers, mothers of Spanish, French parents, gypsy mothers, at least 15 different nationalities. Between 1939 and 1944 more than 600 children, all sentenced to death because of their origins or the conditions of detention of their mothers, were born in this maternity courageously led by this young woman. I can't explain the emotions that we experience when we visit this motherhood, now a museum ... full of photos, testimonials, objects that tells this wonderful human story of a woman who devoted part of his life to others ... Indeed,at the entrance of the museum a sentence is printed on the wall "a cradle of humanity at the heart of the inhuman". The story of motherhood was forgotten until the mid-90s she was "awakened" by a gentleman who was born at the Maternity and the new owner of the castle. Definitely recommend to visit this place and breathe a little emotional atmosphere surrounding this maternity and discover at yourself the sensitivity and generosity of Elisabeth Eidenbenz. Here are some pictures of the castle and Elizabeth.