This area displays two pieces that accompanied their owners into their obligatory exile after the Spanish Civil War and that they conserved until donating them to the Museum.

Leopold Benguerel was five years old when, in early 1939, Franco’s troops were about to occupy Barcelona. His parents, the writer Xavier Benguerel and Rosa Godó, along with other writers, had had to flee into exile in France, and Leopold and his elder brother, Xavier, had remained in Barcelona in the care of their grandparents. At the end of 1939, when the war in Europe had broken out, the Benguerel family, along with other writers, were preparing for a new exile, this time in Chile, thanks to the efforts of Pablo Neruda. Benguerel arranged for the children’s passage to France and obtained a safe conduct to Perpignan, where he waited for them while the grandparents brought them to Figueres on the train and then crossed the frontier by night. They embarked for Chile, where a new life awaited them. Each child carried their belongings and their most treasured toys in a small suitcase. In his case, among other items, Leopold carried some collectors’ cards from Amatller chocolates. He conserved the case during the twenty years he lived in Chile and all the rest of his life, until in 2016, thanks to a suggestion from Julià Guillamon, he donated it to the Museum. 

Damas Calvet Serra (Figueres, 1912-1989) fought on the Republican side at the battle of the Ebre. At the end of the Civil War, in 1939, he fled to France, where he was interned in the concentration camps of Sant Cebrià and Argelers (Rosselló). His passion for chess led him to fill his hours carving in wood each one of the 32 pieces of the set he then used with his fellow interns and exiles. He returned to Figueres with the chess set as his only luggage. Back in the city he took part in countless games and even gave chess lessons at the Sant Pau school.