Bearing Witness

'Thanks to this superb translation, English-language readers finally have access to a classic work of prison literature that has played a major role in keeping alive the memory of the crimes of Franco'-Paul Preston, historian and author of Architects of Terror

This is the story of a woman who resisted two totalitarian regimes. Mercedes Nunez Targa was a Catalan socialist imprisoned under the Franco dictatorship. On her release, she joined the French Resistance and was subsequently arrested by the German Gestapo.

This is her story in her own words. Her vivid writings about her time in Ventas prison in Madrid reveal the contrast between the horrific conditions in the prison and the prisoners' incredible spirit and endurance. Later, writing about her confinement in a Nazi concentration camp, she describes the violence of the SS guards and her comrades' own pitiful conditions, showing how the appalling treatment only united the women further.

This is the first time her story has been available in English, her words providing a unique opportunity to further understand female solidarity and resistance against the dreadful power of fascism.