Calvo encourages to remember the truth and combat the denialism of Nazism
The First Vice President of the Government, Carmen Calvo, has encouraged "remember the truth and fight those who deny it" during the inauguration of a monolith in homage to the Spaniards deported and killed in Mauthausen and other concentration camps, as well as all the Spanish victims of Nazism.
He has pledged to build a “plural and diverse Spain” to honor the memory of the 5,117 Spaniards deported in the Mauthausen camp but also of the almost 2,500, victims in other camps.
In the rain, Calvo, accompanied by the Minister of Transportation, José Luis Ábalos, who served as host, has warned of the "old records with new forms" that "have decided to leave freedom, rights and respect behind" and has guaranteed that will intensify efforts to build a democratic Spain because the country "belongs to us all".
In the gardens in front of the Ministry of Transportation, where the monolith has been erected and in the presence of a hundred members of the victims associations, who carried the blue triangles with the S that identified the Spaniards (Spanier) in Mauthausen, Calvo has grateful for their work, which has "prevented forgetting" and forced public authorities to recognize the sacrifice of the deportees.
The president of Amical Mauthausen, Eric Garriga, recalled during the event, which he had the presence of the former President of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, that in order to honor the victims it is necessary to continue fighting for a Europe “without barriers” and “without fascism. "
The inaugurated memorial coincides with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and is part of the initiatives of the Interministerial Commission for the Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the Spanish Republican exile, which launched the former Minister of Justice, Dolores Delgado.
Ábalos and Calvo on behalf of the Government have deposited a crown of flowers at the foot of the monolith where the plaque, dated May 5, 2019, commemorates the release date of the Mauthausen camp, in 1945.
The president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, Isaac Querub, and Eric Garriga, have also made floral offerings before a memorial where they read part of the oath signed by the prisoners after the liberation of the camp.
According to sources from the Vice Presidency, given the impossibility of placing the column one meter high on the public highway, due to the number of requests that the City Council has pending, it has been decided to install it in the ministerial gardens.
