• The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory visits the Chozas de la Sierra Penal Detachment (Soto del Real), accompanied by the government delegate in Madrid
• Ángel Víctor Torres announces that there will also be a census of the people who suffered the consequences of the prison and the Patronato Para la Redención de Pena por el Trabajo
• In these criminal detachments of the Community of Madrid more than 6,000 Republican prisoners were forced to work in the construction of the train between Chamartín and Lozoya
• Prisoners and their families lived in shanty towns in harsh conditions of isolation and misery
The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, announced on Wednesday that he will promote an investigation into forced labor in Spain with the aim of preparing a census of victims and an inventory of buildings built with forced labor during the dictatorship: “Our souls are broken when we hear the testimonies of daughters and granddaughters of those who were imprisoned for defending democracy and who were forced to work under conditions of inhuman misery and isolation.”
These are statements made by Torres in the course of a visit to the ruins of the Chozas de la Sierra Criminal Detachment, in which during the dictatorship more than 2,000 Republican prisoners of the 6,000 who worked in the construction of the train line between Chamartín and Lozoya, of the Madrid-Burgos railway, were confined.
Together with the mayor of Soto del Real, Noelia Barrado, the government delegate in the Community of Madrid, Francisco Martín and representatives of the Chozas de la Sierra Cultural Association, the minister has toured this site of the Sierra de Madrid “which is discovered as one of the darkest and forgotten episodes in the history of Spain. They were people who defended democracy and who, therefore, suffered prison and forced labour. Silence cannot be the answer and to restore its memory we have a Democratic Memory Law that we will continue to develop and promote, and I hope that all democratic citizens will be on the side of that law so that we have a country of harmony and word for future generations,” he said.
In the surroundings you can see the remains of shacks built by the prisoners where, in just over four square meters, women and children survived overcrowded, near their husbands, parents or sons and daughters, like Lucía Díaz, who was born in that detachment and who today has also participated in the visit.
The minister assured that the work will continue “because they are of justice” and explained that the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory is promoting studies of recovery of this part of the forgotten memory in Chozas de la Sierra, Bustarviejo and Las Jarillas de Colmenar Viejo. In particular, grants have been granted to the Association Los Barracones de Bustarviejo and the Cultural Association of Chozas de la Sierra for studies of memory recovery of these detachments.
70 kilometers of tracks with forced labor
In the construction of the Madrid-Burgos railway line, prisoners and their families worked and lived, detained in nine detachments: Chozas de la sierra, Bustarviejo, Cueva de los Montes or Lozoyuela, Valdemanco, Miraflores de la Sierra, Colmenar Viejo, Fuencarral, Chamartín and Las Rozas.
With the forced labor between 1941 and 1955, 70 kilometers of railway infrastructure were built. The road was planned in 1928, but the works suffered delays during the Second Republic. The works were resumed after the Civil War. Although they were completed in 1955, the railway was not inaugurated until 1968.