Almuñécar Town Hall has paid homage to the five Almuñequeros who died in Nazi concentration/extermination camps during World War Two.
It was the far-left (IU) Councillor, Francisco Fernández who tabled the motion, which included providing a plaque in a place to be agreed upon, honouring the five Almuñequeros
Councillor Fernández praised the investigative work done by José María Azuaga into the fate of these victims.
“Heraldo Muñoz Puyol died in the concentration camp of Gusen [a subcamp of Mauthausen Concentration Camp operated by the SS in Austria] at the age of 25,” said the councillor, adding, “the four other Almuñequeros were also sent to the same camp but there fate is still not known.”
These four men were: Antonio García Ribas, Juan Cubero Guarda, Miguel Díaz García and Miguel Martín Arellano.
All political parties belonging to the Town Council backed the motion :Convergencia Andaluza, Partido Popular, Partido Socialista Obrero Español, Más Almuñécar, Ciudadanos and Izquierda Unida-Podemos. The IU councillor expressed his gratitude for their support.
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)
Malcom: after the defeat of the Republican forces by Franco’s forces in 1939, thousands of civilian refuges and soldiers fled into France.
The soldiers and militiamen were disarmed and kept in pens on the beaches, as were the civilians. The French used them as labourers on defensive structures but with the invasion of France, German troops came across these Spaniards and asked Franco what he wanted done with them and he replied, more or less, “whatever you like; I don’t want them back here”
Hundreds ended up in concentration camps or as slave labour in factories, etc.
Quite a few managed to escape and form the backbone of the French Resistance, whom we know as the Maquis (a Spanish word) as they were trained soldiers who had fought against Franco’s forces and their fascist allies, the German and Italian, all over Spain for the three years that the Civil War lasted.
Some managed to make it to North Africa and join the French Free Forces. They were grouped under La Division Leclerc and were the first troops to enter into occupied Paris at its liberation. If you look at old photos of the entry of allied forces into Paris you will see tanks bearing the names of battles from the Spanish Civil War – they were Spanish troops fighting under the FFF.
On the other hand, Franco sent a legion of ‘volunteers’ to fight on the Russian front – they were called La División Azul. Those captured during the war, if they survived, were the last Axis soldiers to be sent home, which was with Stalin’s death in 1953. I say volunteers because although the majority were Franco supporters, many were Repubicans ‘redeeming’ themselves through combat on the Eastern Front.
So there were Spaniards on both sides during the war, with many dying in Nazi concentration camps or in the Soviet Siberian equivalent.
Astonished to learn this terrible news. Do you know how they ended up there? After all Franco was a fellow fascist so I would have thought that Spanish citizens were safe – or were they communist or socialists that he cared nothing for?