The Madrid City Council wants to set up a garbage warehouse in the place where it is believed that they are buried until 451 brigade members of the Civil War . The existence of this mass grave is clear to archaeologists and to the Association of Friends of International Brigade Members. However, the mayor of the city, José Luis Martínez Almeida, has stated that he is not aware of it.
It does seem to appear in a 1937 short film directed by Herbert Kline and Charles Korvin. Titled ‘Heart of Spain’ , this documentary about the Civil War collects the most striking images, accompanied by a phrase that puts the viewer in context: “This is the cemetery of international volunteers.” As can be seen in the video, it is a cemetery that was created in Fuencarral, in Madrid, for the soldiers who came to support the Republicans during the Civil War.
In 1941, the Franco regime decreed, through a document, the exhumation of all of them. Today, only a mausoleum remains there… and the suspicions that next door is the mass grave with all the bodies, right where they want to install a garbage can. “We have photographs of aerial flights, both military and civil. And there is precisely a small plot where it is seen that the earth was removed in the year 41. This shows that the brigade members’ common grave may be there.”
This is what Pablo Domínguez, spokesperson for the Association of Friends of the International Brigades, reasons. Gutman Salomon or David Saphiro They are some of the more than 450 brigade members of different nationalities who were buried there. Furthermore, to this historic fight against the Canton is added that of the environmental impact claimed by the neighbors. “The biggest impact is suffered by schools,” warns Vicente Sánchez, spokesperson for the Platform for People Affected by El Cantón.
The mayor does not share this evidence. “We have no proof, not even a hint that there may be 450 buried on the site where we plan to install the canton,” said José Luis Martínez Almeida at a press conference. However, he stated that they will dig and if they find something, they will notify the competent authorities. The defender of the people, for the moment, has demanded a report.
