Unfinished business

Unfinished Business

 

 

 

 

"HOMAGE TO THOSE MURDERED IN THE CASTLE OF ÄLORA"

 

In the early hours of the 5th. April 1937 Andrés Franco Sanchez and 75 other young men were herded at gunpoint, with their hands tied with rope or wire, up the hill to the 'castillo' here in Álora. The castle served as the town's cemetery and became the  place of execution of an unknown number of people thought to be unsympathetic to the new Spanish regime  headed by the 'Caudillo' Generalisimo Francisco Franco Bahamonde.  76 was more than the usual number for a 'paseo'. I am told they were then mown down by a mixture of local falangists (fascists) and civil guards against one of the walls which encloses the top part of the castle. The wall has recently been removed but for many years it was pockmarked with bullet holes.

The bodies were buried in a shallow 'fossa' (pit) and they are still there. After heavy rain I am told that human remains can become exposed. This unmarked mass grave along with two others within the castle perimeter served as a reminder to would- be dissidents during Franco's dictatorship (1936-1975).

 

Yesterday we went up to the castle, which at the moment is shut for refurbishment to join a campaign for the recognition of what happened on that day in 1937 and to call for a monument to be placed there to commemorate these victims of Franco's 'terror'.

 

 

One of the people there was Susana, the grandaughter of Andrés Franco Sánchez. She lives in Madrid with her mother and her teenage daughter. Her mother has been searching for 75 years to locate the resting place of her father. Susana took up the grim quest and only recently was able to find the record of her grandfather's murder. She told us about the search, which could only start in earnest after Franco's death in 1975 when her family felt safe to return from their exile in France. She read a poem she had written to her grandfather. Then she removed her black silk shawl and placed it on the grave.

 

'TRUTH JUSTICE REDRESS

FOR THE VICTIMS OF FRANCOISM'

Flowers in the republican colours of red, yellow and blue were placed on the site of the mass grave and a photograph of her grandfather with his name and the date of his death was attached to a fig tree which now grows there. I hope it will remain there until the local authorities have the courage to place a fitting memorial there

 

 

 

22/10/2012

Philipe told me that there should have been 77 victims but one young man used a stone to cut through the rope and escaped over the wall.