1:18:02
After a few days in Catalonia,
in February 1939
1:18:07
they crossed
the border into France
1:18:09
together with hundreds
of thousands of Spaniards.
1:18:13
Then they were put in
a concentration camp on the beach.
1:18:17
It was hell.
1:18:18
Not really a concentration camp,
1:18:20
but a death camp.
1:18:22
The French didn't know
what to do with them.
1:18:24
One day, some French Foreign Legion
recruiters went by and he enlisted.
1:18:29
Just to get out of there.
1:18:30
The outbreak of World War II
1:18:32
found him under Leclerc
1:18:34
in the Maghreb.
1:18:36
Jacques Philippe Leclerc...
Quite a guy!
1:18:39
He rebelled
1:18:41
against Vichy,
formed a resistance in Africa,
1:18:44
and crossed miles and miles
of desert till they reached Tripoli.
1:18:48
They landed
1:18:49
on Utah Beach, Normandy,
1st August 1944.
1:18:55
They were the first contingent
1:18:58
to enter Paris.
1:18:59
By the Porte de Gentilly,
on 24th August.
1:19:04
15 days later, they were sent out
against the Siegfried Line.
1:19:08
By then Miralles had been
1:19:10
at war for 7 years.
1:19:12
A German mine saved him.
1:19:14
Thanks to it he became a French
citizen with a pension for life.
1:19:19
I may not know what a hero is,
but I do know
1:19:22
I've met one.
1:19:32
It's him!
1:19:52
Antonio... Antoni.
His name was Antoni Miralles.
1:19:56
But everybody called him Miralles.
1:19:59
Did he ever talk about Collell?