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Almost 3000 people murdered by Franco’s fascists in Madrid finally named

Several historians managed to put together a list of 2,964 people murdered at cemetery of Almudena in Madrid during the first years of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

The 2,934 people were executed by Franco’s regime in Madrid after the civil war. After ten years, most of the bodies were exhumed and buried in mass graves. The executions were part of ‘White Terror‘: a series of assassinations realized by the Nationalist faction during the Spanish Civil War, and during the first decade of Francisco Franco’s rule. The main aim was to eradicate leftism from Spanish politics. It is estimated that between 200,000 and 400,000 were murdered by Spanish fascists during this period.

The Madrid list was put together by Spanish historians in cooperation with a team of researchers commissioned by the Office of Memory and Human Rights of the Madrid City Council. Among the discovered  names, it stands out that there are twenty city mayors from the Second Republic. Along with them, other councilors are listed.

One of the named victims is Amos Alcero: teacher and socialist who was elected mayor of one of Madrid’s neighbourhoods in 1931. He remained in his post until the end of the civil war in 1939. He was arrested along his socialist comrades when they tried to flee Spain through the port of Alicante. They were later imprisoned in the concentration camp in Albatera. Alcero was sentenced to death in May 1941.

Sadly, little is known about most of the named victims.

Mirta Núñez, a historian who began all the research work on those executed in Madrid together with Antonio Rojas in 1997, said: “Here is one of the axes of the policy of the victors: physically ending the enemy was one of the key elements. As well as tame, subdue and intimidate to see what had been the end of those who had been loyal to the Republic.”

The walls of the Almudena cemetery in Madrid were used as a backdrop for mass illegal executions of suspected opponents by the victorious  fascist rebels. It was followed by  the coverup of hundreds of thousands of murders, stealing of babies and 40 years of State terror by the right-wing. Despite of the fall of Francoist Spain in 1975, in some cases the inheritance of power and privilege from fascist regime continues today.

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