During the Civil War, Catalan psychiatric centers became places of great suffering, with thousands of deaths far from the front lines. In Reus, the Pere Mata Institute recorded nearly five hundred fatalities, a figure that highlights the severe humanitarian crisis affecting mentally ill patients, one of the most vulnerable and forgotten groups.

Food shortages, poor hygienic conditions, and overcrowding were daily realities at the center. Patients were relegated to the bottom of the priority chain, in a context of limited resources and a collapsed healthcare system, a situation replicated in other psychiatric hospitals across Catalonia.

Initially, the management of institutions like Pere Mata was in the hands of trade unions, until the Generalitat took control in 1937. Despite efforts to maintain assistance, the pressure of the conflict and the increase in patients made it impossible to prevent the deterioration of living conditions. The year 1938 was particularly critical, with a significant increase in mortality due to the worsening war situation and supply difficulties.

The victims of Pere Mata remained forgotten for decades, many buried in mass graves without public recognition. Today, almost ninety years after the start of the Civil War, investigations promoted by the Generalitat and family associations are working to recover their names and dignify their history, highlighting the need to make visible these lives cut short by the war.