Spanish prosecutors have launched an investigation into the deaths of about 4,500 Spaniards in Nazi death camps
The Spanish prosecutor’s office announced today that an investigation into the deaths of about 4,500 Spaniards in the Nazi concentration camps where they were deported from France after escaping the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
The prosecution wants to determine whether there was a « joint strategy between the Spanish dictatorship led by (general) Francisco Franco and the Nazi regime in detention and subsequent transfer of thousands of Spaniards expelled to France in various extinction camps, » the statement said.
The death of 4,435 Spaniards in these extinction camps was recorded in the birth and death registry.
« These Spaniards were mainly sent to the Mauthausen and Guens and Germany camps in Austria and Germany, where they were subjected to forced work, torture and where they disappeared or killed, » the Department of Human Rights and Democratic Remembrance of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which will lead the investigation, said in a statement.
The investigation comes at a time when the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp is being marked.
The initiative stems from the provision of the Democratic Memory Law, promoted by the leftist government of Pedro Sanchez, which was adopted in mid -2022.
The law aims to rehabilitate the victims of the dictatorship of Franco (1939-1975).
