- Between 1941 and 1955, about 6,000 Republican prisoners had redeemed their sentences in the construction of this railway line, working in conditions of semi-slavery
- Fernando Martínez: “These spaces and what happened here are of singular historical relevance and must have an impact on the collective memory.
The Government of Spain will declare Places of Democratic Memory the criminal detachments that built the direct train from Madrid to Burgos, during the dictatorship. This has been announced today, in Lozoyuela (Madrid), the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, in an act in which the republican prisoners who worked in conditions of semi-slavery in this road infrastructure have been honored.
Between 1941 and 1955, around 6,000 prisoners had redeemed their sentences in the construction of this railway line. “What happened here is of singular historical relevance and must have an impact on collective memory,” said Martínez, who has been accompanied by the government delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín; by the families of the victims and by representatives of the memorialist associations.
The direct train to Burgos, a state project conceived in the twenties of the last century, with the intention of reducing the distance and times between the capital and the provinces of northern Spain, was one of the many projects throughout the country that used penalized labor during the Franco regime.
In this case, there were 11 detachments that built, with forced labor and “surrounded by misery, hunger and bedbugs”, the esplanades, tunnels, viaducts, stations, walkways, docks of merchandise and roads of this way, by virtue of the system of Redemption of Penalties for Labor of the Patronato de la Merced.
Many of these workers had been arrested and sentenced by war councils to death penalties for adherence to rebellion, later commuted to 30 years and 1 day of imprisonment, or to lesser penalties if the crime was aiding the rebellion.
Inner exile of families
Many women, together with their sons and daughters, moved to these detachments to be able to be close to their husbands, in a phenomenon of internal exile that affected not a few Spanish families.
The Secretary of State thanked the memory associations, the families, the Young Sierra Orchestra of Madrid, and the students of the IES La Cabrera for their presence, and highlighted the will of the Government of Spain to continue bringing to light events such as those that took place in Lozoyuela. In this regard, he stressed the importance of the declaration as Places of Memory of these detachments, whose opening of the file has been published today in the BOE.