Josefa & Elisa Uriz Pi
Elisa Uriz Pi
Tafalla, 24th January1893 - East Berlin 14th August 1979
Elisa was a teacher and pedagogue aswell as a political activist. After studying in Madrid, she became a school teacher and started working in several schools in Cataolonia. During the Second Spanish Republic, she became a member of UGT (one of the main workers' unions) and she was a member of the Spanish Communist Party. She also was a member of the Antifascist Women's Association, a feminist and antifascist group, leaded by Dolores Ibárruri.
In 1939, when the republicans were defeated, she exiliated in France, together with her sister, and during thre Nazi occupation of France, she joined the French Resistance. From the exile she continued fighting for women's rights and joined the Women's International Democratic Federation, where she established 1st of june as Children's Day.
In 1951 she was threw out of France for her communist activism, so she crossed the iron courtain and settled in East Berlin.
Josefa Uriz Pi
Badostain, 15th March 1883 - East Berlin 2th August 1958
Josefa, like her sister Elisa, was a teacher and pedagogue who studied in Madrid and started her carreer in Catalonia. Together with her sister, was a very relevant figure in the modernisation of the Spanish education system, introducing innovations from important pedagogues such as Montessori, Piaget, etc.
She was general secretary of the UGT's federation of teaching workers and she was part of the Spanish Communist Party. When the Spanish Civil War started, she joined, with her sister, PSUC (catalonian communist party).
In 1939 she exiliated to France with her sister and later, in 1951, both were threw out of France for being communists and moved to East Berlin, where they lived the rest of their lives.
SOURCES:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisa_%C3%9Ariz_Pi