A document from the Negrín Archive reveals that the popular Madrid lottery seller 'Doña Manolita' "anxiously" asked the president of the Republican government, Juan Negrín from Gran Canaria, for help in October 1937 to locate her "full nephew, Manuel Palenzuela, who had disappeared in combat."
It happened in the midst of the civil war, when Palenzuela was serving as a lieutenant observer in the Republic's air force.
Negrín proceeded "with great interest," but could only confirm the military man's death
Three original and unpublished documents, belonging to the Negrín Archive, reveal this episode of the war and help to shed light on the hardships of life in the rear guard.
The lottery winner appeals to the president's "good heart," to whom she goes in "anguish," as reported this Friday by the Juan Negrín Foundation, based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The first document consists of two handwritten pages in black ink, dated October 3, 1937. It is a letter from Manolita de Pablo (1879-1951), the real name of the original 'Doña Manolita' who gives her name to the very famous lottery office still open in Madrid, although it is no longer owned by the family.
In the manuscript, the lottery winner explains that they haven't heard anything from Manuel for two months, despite the numerous efforts they have made.
The family had gone "every day" to the Ministry of War, Navy, and Air (sic), also to the airfield chief, without obtaining any results. The latest news from the serviceman dates back two months and from a place called Tarazona de la Mancha (Albacete).
"Please excuse the trouble I'm causing you and give me the news I so anxiously request" (..), pleads Manuela de Pablo, before informing the prime minister that his nephew is the son of the engine driver Ernesto Palenzuela Fernández, "who also lost his life for the cause".
Manolita reminds Negrín that she had already told him about Ernesto's death, which occurred on May 4th, "at his Lottery," indicating that they knew each other, the Foundation highlights.
The other two documents correspond to the response of the undersecretary of Aviation of the Ministry of National Defense, on the one hand, and, on the other, to the condolence note that Negrín writes to send along with the military document.
At the behest of the Presidency of the Government, the former reveals that observer lieutenant Palenzuela had died on August 25, two months before Manolita wrote her desperate letter.
The young man had lost his life in the Aragón Sector "when the plane he was part of the crew of was shot down", although this information did not reach the family until the president's intervention.
"I regret that fate has imposed upon me on this occasion the duty of informing you of your relative's heroic end," Negrín writes to him on October 18, in response to the letter he had received just fifteen days earlier.
Dr. Juan Negrín López (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1892 - Paris, 1956) presided over the government of the 2nd Republic from May 1937 to 1945, already in exile. He also held the ministries of Finance - between September 1936 and April 1938 - and Defense, - from April 1938 to March 1939 -.
The Negrín Archive is known as the large documentary collection that gathers public documents corresponding to the ministries headed by Negrín (Finance and Defense) and the Presidency of the Government during his tenure. It also includes private papers and information related to the Republican exile.
The archive left Spain in 1939 and did not return until December 2013. Since that year, it has been managed by the Juan Negrín Foundation in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and has been consulted by dozens of historians as well as private citizens who, like Doña Manolita, are looking for news of relatives who disappeared during the war or exile, the statement adds.
