Democratic Memory

The name of Elisabeth Eidenbenz has always been associated with women and maternity. This Swiss teacher and nurse was the founder and director of the Elna Maternity Home in the Eastern Pyrenees. A humanitarian institution that saved the lives of 595 children, sons and daughters of exiled Spanish republicans and Jewish women, during WW2. It ran from 1939 until 1944, when it was closed down by the German army. Now the Les Corts district is honouring her by naming a street after her in the Maternitat i Sant Ramon neighbourhood, next to the La Maternitat hospital site.