The Police, on the trail of Semprún

“PARIS.- A few days ago, the German authorities arrested the Spanish national JORGE SEMPRUN YMAURA, a 19 year old young man, who was living with his parents in the village of Saint Prix (Seine-et-Oise)". (Translated from Spanish to English)

So begins the Spanish Police Service press release on Semprún’s arrest by the Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany. Despite his father's diplomatic efforts to free him, Semprún was deported to the Buchenwald camp after an agonising three-day journey on a freight train with a large group of deportees. He was 20 years old and his prisoner number was 44904.

Back in Paris in 1945, after the liberation, Jorge Semprún maintained his commitment against fascism and devoted himself entirely to the struggle against Franco’s dictatorship. At first his activity centred on propaganda work, but in 1953 the leaders of the Spanish Communist Party asked him to enter Spain and penetrate cultural and student circles. Semprún thus adopted the identity of Jacques Grador, a French civil engineer. It was the first of many trips and many identities, and he was never caught by the police.