Monday, 22nd June 2015

Hi!

I'm sorry I'm late, but today I haven't  had any time  for doing anything but watching a film called Adiós, muchachos (Au revoir, les enfants). It was impressive. In the end, a priest dies in Mauthausen. We have watched a documentary about this in Social Sciences. It was just shocking, I couldn't describe it. It was about a concentration camp of the nazis in Mauthausen (Austria). It started in August 1940 and it ended in 1945. There were 8 Spanish old men talking about that. They were survivors. They were Spanish republicans who moved to France and then were arrested and exiled to Mauthausen. They had to survive practically without eating. They had  "black water" at breakfast, water with potatoe zests and turnips at lunch, and 1/4 of a bread slice with a piece of sausage. They were in such an extreme situation that they prayed for the people who were worse to die because death was better than what they were going through. I was too sad when I've watched this:

These were the stairs they had to climb and take down, running.

And this is how the Spaniards were dressed (at least until they were allowed to wear clothes).

The part of the French songs was also very sad. I think these men must be proud of themselves. They are heroes. 

It was one of the most painful and emotional things I've seen in my whole life. 

See you!

https://youtu.be/PkUuoCiU0LU

Monday, 22th of June

Hi everybody !

Today in the class of Social Sciences, Paqui has showed us a documentary broadcasted by "La 2" in 2000 called: "Mauthausen, el deber de recordar". As we were only 5 in class (Minerva, Clara, Marta, María and me) we have taken the class of Social Sciences and the next period to finish the documentary. But María had to leave at the middle of the documentary, so she said that she was going to watch it at her home.

 "Mauthausen, el deber de recordar" is a historical documentary that shows us the experience of some republican Spaniards who were in Mauthausen until their liberation by the US army on the 5th of May of 1945. The documentary collects the testimony of  eight Mauthausen's survivors: Joan de Diego, Francisco Batiste, Ramón Milá, Francisco Comellas...

                                                             The Mauthausen camp

                                                   http://imageshack.com/f/834/mauthausengates.jpg

The documentary starts telling us that when the Civil War in Spain finished, the republicans were obliged to go into exile. So most of these republicans went to France and when WW2 started they joined the French army. But when Hitler took the control of a part of France in 1940, he ordered to arrest the soldiers, including the republican Spaniards. Then, he asked Franco what he should do with theSspaniards and as Franco said to him that these republicans were no considered to be Spaniads, Hitlet decided to send them to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.

         Meeting of Franco and Hitler                                       

http://www.internationalschoolhistory.net/western_europe/spain/1939-45.htm        

  

           Exile of the republicans

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/488992472011949871/

There, they were obliged to wear a stripped uniform with a number (as a way of identification) and a distinctive. To knew that these prisioners were Spaniards, they wore this symbol on their uniforms:

              Uniform of Mauthausen                                  Distinctive of the republican Saniards

                                                                                    
Sources
- http://cuestionatelotodo.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/hoy-se-cumplen-67-anos-de-la-liberacion.html
- http://www.heraldo.es/noticias/comunicacion/adios_vida_rescata_los_recuerdos_los_presos_aragoneses_mauthausen.html

They were forced to wake up at a very early hour to work on the quarries to break the rocks (then they had to carry them through a very long stair), they didn't eat much and they were constantly suffering the humiliations, tortures... of the SS soldiers. Facing that situation many people comitted suicide by touching the wire fence (it was electrified all the day) and then, their bodies were brought to the crematorium to burn them and finally, the soldiers threw the ashes of the deceased even to the ground.

 

                                                             A way of commiting suicide
                                  http://ctxt.es/es/20150611/culturas/1412/Mauthausen-maneras-de-matar-Holocausto-Benito-Bermejo.htm


But even in this situation there were brave Spanish people who, for example, kept the photos they took and they waited fot the oportunity to bring the photos outside to show to the world the reality of the Mauthausen camp. The mother of Leopoldine Drexler helped a lot in this fact (she hid the photos behind a wall)

Finally, the long yearned liberation took place, on the 5th of May of the year 1945 the US army took the control of the concentration camp (this year was also marked by the suicide of Hitler). Even if the Spanish prisioners were released they couldn't come back to Spain, so the survivors are living in a foreign country.

For me, the worst part has been the scene in which the soldiers are moving the bodies with a machine. Another strong scene has been the one in which the camera has focused on the dead and ill-fed bodies. I don't understand how humans can do things like that, I'll never understand. Paqui is totally right, humans don't learn from their own mistakes and that's very sad because the same mistakes are been repeated now. For example with the radical Islamism, it's a different way of doing the same thing. The executioners should suffer the same as they have made suffer the victims. I know this doesn't solve anything and that revenge is a bad feeling but I think that these executioners should suffer this only for a period short of time, I think many of them would reflect on it.The documentary has been very sad and even Paqui has cried a little, I like it but it makes me think how cruel the world is.


Have a happy summer !