Felipe VI pays tribute in Mauthausen to the “thousands of Spanish Republicans who fought for freedom”

Eduardo González The King and Queen attended the official events this Sunday commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp, where at least 4,500 Spanish Republicans died during World War II. King Felipe and Queen Letizia were welcomed upon their arrival at the arena by the Federal President of the Republic of Austria, Alexander van der Bellen, and the First Lady, Doris Schmidauer. They then met with Spanish officials from the Amical de Mauthausen association and relatives of concentration camp victims, and participated in the floral offering at the memorial to the victims. They were accompanied by the Spanish Ambassador to Austria, María Aurora Mejía, and the State Secretary for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez López. After the ceremony, the King and Queen, accompanied by the Federal President of Austria and his wife, headed to the Museum's Temporary Exhibition Halls, where, after signing the camp's golden book, they held a brief meeting. In the golden book, Felipe VI paid tribute to "all the victims murdered here or who suffered violence and cruelty" and remembered, "in a special way," "the thousands of Spanish Republicans who fought against Nazism and for freedom." "May the memory of the crimes committed here and the memory of our compatriots remain intact to preserve their dignity, and to never forget the horror 80 years later, we reaffirm our collective and personal commitment to democracy and the defense of human rights," he added. They then proceeded to the memorial to the Spanish Republicans and laid a floral offering. Later, they laid another wreath in front of the memorial to the French Republicans. They then traveled to the Wiener Graben quarry and the "stairway of death," where prisoners worked to build the camp facilities and buildings in Nazi Germany, thus concluding the visit. For his part, the Minister of Social Rights, Consumption, and the 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, also participated in the official events. “Today we remember all the victims. There is no better way to honor them than to fight so that no one else suffers such horror: extermination and genocide. The Europe that remembers today, that keeps the memory of its victims alive, must put an end to the genocide suffered by the Palestinian people,” Bustinduy stated during a speech at the commemorative event. “But remembering is of little use if it doesn't help build a future. The duty of remembrance was born here, in the Nazi camps. In the obligation to forever remember the millions of murdered Jews, the European anti-fascists, the Roma people,” he continued. “Europe was built on an anti-fascist imperative. On the promise to build a world where Nazism could never happen again,” the minister added, asking for “forgiveness, on behalf of the Spanish government,” for having taken so long “to recognize the struggle of anti-fascist heroes and heroines” and also called for a halt to the far right in Europe and to combat “reactionary rhetoric.” Mauthausen On May 5, 1945, exactly 80 years ago, US forces entered Mauthausen, where they were greeted with Spanish Republican flags and a large banner at the gate reading: "Anti-fascist Spaniards salute the liberating forces." The Mauthausen camp had been built near an abandoned quarry along the Danube River in northern Austria. It is estimated that nearly 200,000 prisoners passed through the concentration camp and its "subcamps" (such as Gusen, a Kommando or auxiliary camp located in Upper Austria intended for the extermination of the weakest prisoners) between 1938 and 1945, and nearly 120,000 people were murdered, a third of them belonging to the Jewish community. According to official figures, Mauthausen held more than 7,500 Spaniards, of whom at least 4,500 died, the vast majority (almost 4,000) in Gusen. On August 26, 1940, the first Spaniard died, and his compatriots immediately honored him with a minute of silence. It is estimated that the majority of the Spanish deaths occurred between 1941 and 1942. Mauthausen was located next to a granite quarry where prisoners worked until they were exhausted (survivors remembered for many years the "stairway of death," the 186 steps up which the granite blocks had to be carried). Furthermore, in 1941, Mauthausen was classified as the only Category III concentration camp, reserved for prisoners "guilty of truly serious charges, incorrigible, asocial, and convicted of criminal charges." As a consequence of this political function of the camp, the prisoners at Mauthausen/Gusen suffered the harshest conditions of detention and some of the highest mortality rates of all the concentration camps of the Third Reich. Although most prisoners died by shooting and hanging, as well as from hunger, disease, and mistreatment, the Mauthausen gas chamber had the capacity to kill 120 people at a time and was frequently used whenever prisoner transports arrived, as a kind of "show" to impress the high Nazi dignitaries who visited the camp. After 1945, Mauthausen remained under American administration and was subsequently used as a barracks by the Soviet Army. In June 1947, Moscow handed the former concentration camp over to the Austrian government for the construction of a memorial, which was inaugurated two years later as the Mauthausen Public Memorial. Remembrance On May 16, 1945, Soviet citizens—one of the largest groups of prisoners in terms of numbers—left the concentration camp in an orderly formation heading home, and at that very moment, the Mauthausen Oath was proclaimed in 16 languages. This text is a commitment, derived from the experiences of concentration camp internment, to stand in solidarity and unite for a better world. Very soon, however, many of the liberated concentration camp survivors realized that regularly returning to Mauthausen as free people and participating in a liberation ceremony were becoming of utmost importance to them. In the early years or decades, when thousands of concentration camp survivors still gathered at Mauthausen each year in May, the celebration of liberation also served a cathartic function. Knowing and reaffirming that one had survived, sharing experiences with fellow sufferers, and then returning home helped many cope with the massive trauma. The second, sociopolitical function of shedding light on what had happened, the slogans "We must never forget!" and "Never again!", and addressing youth were evident to most concentration camp survivors. The first official celebration of liberation at Mauthausen took place as early as 1946 and included a gathering at the foot of the "Todesstiege" in the quarry with over 10,000 people and an exchange of information in Linz. However, the celebration of liberation at Mauthausen (traditionally in mid-May) remained for decades an affair exclusive to survivors, always international, but without much impact on Austrian society. For decades, the Liberation Ceremony has been organized by the Mauthausen Committee of Austria in close collaboration with the International Mauthausen Committee and the Austrian Lagermeinschaft Association, with financial support from the public sector and, to a greater extent, private donations.

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