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The strange discovery of 17 communist and anarchist militiamen in a mausoleum for martyrs of the national side

2022-05-19T21:03:16.528Z


Historians investigate the sumptuous sepulcher of a cemetery in San Sebastián in which they have identified Republican fighters among a hundred Francoist dead


The one known as the "mausoleum of the martyrs" in the San Sebastian de Polloe cemetery is dedicated "to the memory of those killed for defending their ideals, God and Spain", as stated in the inscription that still remains at the base of a cross that presides.

It is a tomb that was built at the end of 1939 to give land to the fallen of the national side.

Now there are well-founded suspicions that among the 121 buried there are at least 17 militiamen from the PCE, the CNT, the UGT and the popular militias.

All mixed, the Francoists and the Republicans.

The Aranzadi Science Society has found historical documentation that reveals the burial in the same tomb of opposing combatants during the Civil War.

And so they have remained for the last eight decades.

The historian Javier Buces, who has directed the investigation at the request of the San Sebastián City Council, assures that "there are not many cases of this type".

"It is not common to find the bodies of deceased from both sides in the same burial, something that can be offensive to all of them," says the expert.

In addition to the 17 militiamen and

gudaris

(Basque soldiers) identified, there are another 14 bodies buried in the aforementioned mausoleum that could correspond to members of the popular militias who died defending the city in 1936. This possibility is still being investigated. research.

The remains deposited in the mausoleum of the martyrs correspond to Civil War combatants who died between July 22 and 25, 1936, who had been buried in individual niches and in mass graves (called “limbo”) in the Polloe cemetery.

Those dates coincide with the uprising of the military from the Polloe barracks in San Sebastian and the fights that took place during the siege with the militiamen who tried to repel the attacks.

Franco's troops finally managed to control the city in September 1936.

In the San Sebastian Municipal Archive, explains Buces, there is documentation of an appeal made in 1939 by the Francoist Consistory to the relatives of the dead of that side to transfer the remains to a mausoleum that was going to be built in Polloe and whose expenses were assumed by the City hall.

This information has been collated by researchers with the reports prepared by the cemetery caretakers when, between 1958 and 1963, the possibility of taking these bodies to the Valley of the Fallen was offered.

"This could not be carried out, because the officials argued that they were buried collectively and the bodies could not be separated and identified," explains Buces.

Only four buried in the local Altza cemetery were taken to the Valley of the Fallen.

Inscription for those "murdered by God and Spain" of the mausoleum of the martyrs.Javier Hernández

Of this list of 121 names, Aranzadi is certain that at least 17 belong to communist and anarchist militiamen who came in some cases from Bilbao and from towns such as Mondragón, Eibar, and Alsasua (Navarra).

Others were originally from Madrid, Segovia, Palencia, Lugo or A Coruña.

There is no reliable explanation for the unknown why these Republicans were buried in a Francoist mausoleum and shared a grave with the rebels.

Buces maintains that "it could be because at that time there was not enough space in the cemetery", but there is also the theory that the caretaker of the time did not distinguish which side those buried were from and only noticed that they were "dead by bullet wound".

The San Sebastian City Council, explained this Monday the mayor, Eneko Goia, has ordered the "urgent" removal of the plaque that appears on the frontispiece of the mausoleum, owned by the municipality, because it goes against the law of historical memory.

Aranzadi will provide the results of the investigation to the Gogora Institute (dependent on the Basque Government and in charge of "preserving and transmitting the democratic memory" of Euskadi) so that it can decide whether to proceed with the exhumation of the bodies deposited in this mausoleum.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-05-19

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