The Eye of the Needle: Girls and Boys of the War

The exhibition “The Eye of the Needle: Girls and Boys of the War ” is inspired by the journey of more than 34,000 Basque children exiled during the 1936 war to America, Belgium, Catalonia, France, Great Britain, and the USSR, as well as the transmission of this memory to subsequent generations.

The exhibition draws on testimonies, photographs, documents and objects shared in a series of workshops held between 2023 and 2025 in Mondragón, Southampton and Gernika by people who experienced this exile first-hand, as well as their descendants. It also features the work of artist Judith Martínez Estrada, which captures the memories of these families.

This exhibition has been organised by the Gernika Peace Museum and the Euskal Herria Museum and is divided between the spaces of both museums.

Organised by both museums in close collaboration with Intxorta 1937 Kultur Elkartea, the University of Birmingham, and BCA’1937 UK-Euskadi, the exhibition analyses the Basque children’s exile, dividing it by host countries —America, Belgium, Catalonia, France, Great Britain, and the USSR— and connects it with the forced migratory movements of the 20th century. Thus, the Gernika Peace Museum will host the experiences of exiles in Belgium, Great Britain, the USSR and Chile, and the Euskal Herria Museoa will host the experiences in France, Catalonia and America.

Through the poetry of Alicia García Bergua, Ana Arregi and Joseba Sarrionaindia and the artwork of Judith Martínez Estrada, Cecilia Zabaleta and Joxerra Melgizo, the exhibition turns family memories into a living legacy that speaks to both the past and the present.

This project is the result of research by the University of Birmingham professor, Mónica Jato, and Intxorta 1937 Kultur Elkartea.

One of these workshops was held on 26 May at the Euskal Herria Museum in Gernika at 5 p.m. for children of the war and at 7 p.m. for their descendants, with the aim of collecting testimonies, objects and photographs.This exhibition has been organised by the Gernika Peace Museum and the Euskal Herria Museum and is divided between the spaces of both museums.

Introduction

France

Catalonia

America