"Don't lower your face for anyone": the farewell letter that one shot by Francoism hid in the cuffs of his shirt

Barcelona"Lola, I ask you and my wish is that of these letters I am writing to you, you have an enlargement made, in the form of a diploma, to have it displayed in my bedroom or my dining room, because I want my children to know it thoroughly and that if they kill me they will not have to lower their heads for anyone. And another day they will know how to defend the rights that belong to them, for me, for the Republic. Goodbye. Keep this writing, which is the original. Barcelona, May 25, 1939". This is the farewell letter of Salvador Ros i Ros before being shot at Camp de la Bota on June 20, 1939 and buried, without his family being able to say goodbye, in a common grave in Montjuïc cemetery. He was 41 years old and left behind a widow and two children, Lluís (1927) and Maria Carme (1930).

At some point, the letter ended up in an antique shop, where historian Ramon Planes i Albets found it, who has decided to deposit it at the National Archive of Catalonia. Ros managed to get the letter to his wife, Dolors Roca, hidden in the unstitched cuffs of the shirt he gave to be washed. Roca did what her husband had asked her to do: Planes found the letter with a post-war frame and a photograph of Ros. For many years it must have been very visible at the widow's house, so that the children would know that they should never lower their heads. At some point, when the house was emptied, it ended up in an antique shop. "I was very struck when I read it, it has such a strong charge and with such significant considerations... and Ros wrote it with great fortitude shortly before dying," explains Planes. Thanks to Planes' donation, the letter was not lost forever and will be accessible to everyone through online archives.

"I do not reject my ideology"

In the letter, Ros explains to his wife that he had been arrested on February 27 and beaten: "They hit me with a large club and took me to a basement, as if I were a criminal. I spent a few hours there so bitter that they can only be endured for the sake of my children's health," he wrote. Ros recounts how he had been convicted without evidence: "The only thing they can accuse me of is having been a member of the political party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya. And with all honor I can say that I have not hesitated for a single moment nor do I reject my ideology, because I have considered it a democratic party." When he wrote the letter, he was convinced that the death sentence would be carried out: "I will die in defense of the party and defending the constitutional and legitimate Government of the Republic."

Ros was born in Corbera in 1899 and, after working as a waiter, farmer, painter, and laborer, he inherited a barbershop from his older brother. An ERC militant and affiliated with the UGT, he was the councilor for Culture of Corbera during the Civil War and was mainly responsible for conditioning the municipal schools. When the coup d'état occurred, on July 19, 1936, he hid the rector of Corbera and his mother in his home, but this was not taken into account in the summary trial that sentenced him to death. Along with Ros, other members of the local ERC committee were executed. They were accused of military rebellion. Today Ros has a street named after him in Corbera de Llobregat.