This afternoon, Rasines hosted an emotional act of reparation and memory in tribute to the brothers Alfonso and Felisa Montes Maza, who had to go into exile in France together with the rest of their family as a result of the Franco dictatorship and repression, being Alfonso murdered in the concentration camp of Mauthausen in 1942.
Organized by the Government Delegation in Cantabria, in collaboration with the Memory Collective of Laredo and the City of Rasines, the event was attended by the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, and the mayor, Sergio Castro, and took place in the Old Schools of Ojébar, where Alfonso Montes Maza, one of the honored victims, studied.
During the ceremony, held on the eve of the Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Exile, a commemorative plaque has been discovered on the facade of the social center of the municipality, former school building where Alfonso studied, and the Declaration of Recognition and Personal Reparation issued by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory has been delivered to the family.
Alfonso Montes Maza, a native of Ojebar, went into exile in France in 1939, where he was arrested and detained in the camp of foreign workers of Septfonds. He was later deported to the Altengrabow prison camp (Stalag XI-A, Germany) and finally transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. He was killed there on July 10, 1942 in the Gusen sub-camp.
Together with him, his sister Felisa Montes Maza also suffered the consequences of exile. In 1939, when she was just a little girl, she left Spain with her parents, José Montes Mazmule —former pedantic mayor of Ojebar— and Joaquina Antonia Maza Sáenz. The family left by boat from Santander for Pauillac, in France, and after a brief passage through Catalonia, they crossed the border again, settling definitively in the neighboring country. Today, Felisa, at the age of 97, continues to reside in France. Her daughter Claudie has attended today from the neighboring country to the tribute on behalf of her mother.
"This recognition more than for my mother is for those who lost their lives, and although I could not meet my uncle, it is as if I had done so, because she kept her memory alive," he said.
The Secretary of State, Fernando Martínez, has pointed out that this act serves as a reminder to the more than 500,000 Spaniards who had to go into exile in the face of repression and not only risk prison, but also lose their lives. "Exile was a lot of pain and suffering; imagine having to leave your country; learn another language; lose your friends... And always thinking about your homeland and your identity," he told the hundreds of people who witnessed the event, including the Director General of Victim Care, Zoraida Hijosa.
He has also encouraged people to be "proud" of the important role played by the exiled Spanish democrats in the liberalisation of France against Nazism and, with it, in the construction of freedom and democracy in Europe.
"These stories need to be made known and especially among young people. They are the best antidote to the reactionary wave," he added, referring to the story of the Montes Maza family. "Memory and democracy are linked. And oblivion is incompatible with democracy,” he said.
"Respect, recognition and affection"
During her speech, the government delegate in Cantabria, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, thanked the "tireless work" of the memory collectives and stressed that this act represents "an act in favor of justice, truth and reparation". "From the deepest respect, recognition and affection, we pay heartfelt tribute to those who had to leave their homeland and were persecuted for the totalitarian barbarity of the Franco dictatorship and today, especially, to those imprisoned, repressed, exiled and murdered in rural areas, so often forgotten," he said, adding value to the perseverance of those who struggle to keep the democratic memory alive.
Gómez de Diego recalled that this week marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps, and mentioned the recent opening of an investigation by the Democratic Memory Prosecutor’s Office to clarify the possible collaboration between the Franco regime and Nazi Germany in the deportation of thousands of Spaniards to extermination camps. "It is estimated that more than 10,000 Spaniards were deported and that 4,435 were tortured and killed," he said.
Democratic values
With this act, the Government of Spain complies with Law 20/2022, of October 19, on Democratic Memory, which recognizes the right to moral reparation and the recovery of the personal and family memory of those who suffered persecution for political, ideological or religious reasons during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship.
“It will take more than memory not to repeat the mistakes of the past, but memory is one of the essential ingredients”, concluded the delegate, in a message of firm defense of democratic values against negationism and the rise of the far-right
The history of the Montes Maza family, deeply marked by the suffering of exile, has today been publicly remembered as part of an exercise in historical justice and institutional reparation.