Remembering Matilda Landa

During a short holiday on Majorca this month, IBMT activist Pauline Fraser laid flowers in Republican colours at the grave of Matilda Landa in the cemetery at Palma.

Matilda Landa Vaz (1904-1942) was a member of the Communist Party who fought against fascism and the Franco dictatorship. Working with the International Red Cross she defended prisoners of the Asturian Revolution of 1934. During the civil war she headed the inspectorate of children’s colonies and the evacuation of children.

In 1939 she was imprisoned with thousands of other women and helped to have their death sentences commuted. In 1942 she committed suicide in the Can Salas de Palma Prison, because she would not give in to the demands of the authorities who wanted her to convert to catholicism. Through her death she became a symbol of the dignity and resistance of anti-fascists.  She left a young daughter, Carmencilla.

Pauline Fraser is the daughter of International Brigader Harry Fraser and a former IBMT Trustee.