With the opening of the French border, at the end of January and beginning of February 1939, between 470,000 and 480,000 people left Spain, in the context of the end of the Civil War. Among the different crossing points of the Catalan Pyrenees, the Belitres pass was one of the most used and numerous graphic witnesses gave evidence all over the world of the drama of the Spanish republicans. A few kilometers to the north, the drama of the concentration camps awaited most of these people and for some, a very long life in exile.
The Coll dels Belitres was one of the first spaces of the Memorial Spaces Network of the Democratic Memorial. On an esplanade, on the pass, a monumental and informative set that forms a memorial was installed, in memory and tribute to the thousands of republicans who embarked on the path of exile.
There are a series of photographs by the painter Manuel Moros of the retreat, which were taken in February 1939. A new meaning was also given to an element of the Census of Franco symbology through the contextualization and explanation of its origin.