Government honors Mauthausen victims on 78th anniversary of concentration camp liberation
Memorial takes place just 900 kilometers away from war in Ukraine
The Catalan government has honored victims of the Mauthausen concentration camp as part of an event in Austria commemorating the 78th anniversary of the Nazi camp's liberation.
A delegation led by the government's representative in Central Europe, Krystyna Schreiber, highlighted the importance of not forgetting those who lost their lives in the concentration camp.
"Fanaticism wanted to strip from our memory the brave men and women who died here. They wanted to bury them in the past, but they only managed to make them part of the future," Schreiber said during a memorial in Mauthausen on Sunday.
The victims from the time are still present in today's Europe, where "unfortunately, bombs are exploding around 900 kilometers away," she added, referring to the Ukraine War.
Among the dignitaries present at the site were Jordi Font, Democratic Memorial director, Pau Argemí, president of the Triangle Blau Àustria historical memory association, and Juan M. Calvo Gascón, president of the Friends of Mauthausen association. Some IES Manresa high school students also traveled to Austria where they read out a manifesto.
Mauthausen concentration camp
Mauthausen, built during World War II, was one of the largest Nazi concentration camp complexes. Some 200,000 people were deported to the camp, of which only 80,000 survived.
Around 9,500 Spaniards, of which over a fifth were born in Catalonia, were sent to Mauthausen. These prisoners, many of whom had fought for the losing Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, began to arrive in 1941 alongside other members of the French Resistance.
Aside from political opponents, Nazis also deported Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and people of Romani origin.