Generalitat

The Generalitat is the Catalan government that Nuria Monfort says employed her during the war. In her account, her work connects the government’s wartime operations to the political reversal that followed Barcelona’s fall, when the people who had served it became vulnerable to arrest and persecution.

Wartime Service

Nuria recalls working for the Generalitat and says that her duties included keeping watch on figures such as Fumero, whom she regarded as especially dangerous. The account establishes her role through practical surveillance rather than a formal title or a description of the government’s internal structure. Her work placed her within a wartime network concerned with Fumero’s activities.

Defeat and Repression

The Generalitat’s position changed with the fall of Barcelona. Nuria describes the defeat as swift and says the political balance then reversed: she became a persecuted criminal, while her superiors had to hide. Fumero was already leading the ensuing cleanup operation, which she says included public shootings and killings at Montjuic Castle. Her recollection shows how the change in power turned former government service into grounds for danger rather than protection.

Nuria’s Arrest

While attempting to secure passage to France for some of her superiors aboard a Greek cargo ship, Nuria was arrested at the port and taken to Montjuic. She says she was held there for two days before being interrogated and tortured by Fumero and an accomplice. The marks later seen by Dr Baro are identified in the narrative as injuries from that abuse. The episode makes the consequences of the political purge personal: the government’s defeat is traced through the arrest of one of its former workers and the effort to force information from her.

Narrative Significance

The Generalitat is presented through Nuria’s retrospective testimony, not through an institutional portrait. Its significance lies in the contrast between her wartime employment and her post-defeat vulnerability: government work connected her to the people Fumero sought, but could not shield her once power changed hands. Her account also places Fumero’s later authority within a longer chain of political surveillance, arrest, and coercion.