Gardens of New Ministries, Madrid (Spain)
During the inauguration of the Memorial in honor of the Spanish deported and deceased in Mauthausen and other concentration camps, and all the Spanish victims of Nazism, the First Vice-President has committed herself "to continue remembering what we have never forgotten".
"It is very necessary to remember the truth and fight those who deny it. This government will be there, as was the government of Rodríguez Zapatero, who is with us today. We will be in it constantly," he said.
Calvo, who has discovered a monolith and made a floral offering accompanied by the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, José Luis Ábalos, wanted to pay tribute to the more than 5,000 Spaniards who were killed in the Mauthausen concentration camp, to the 1,500 who died in other camps, and to all the Spanish victims of Nazism.
"I feel very honored to be here today as a minister responsible for Democratic Memory, and to be able to discover this monolith of our memory and dignity," said the First Vice-President, who added that "when faced with the diversity of circumstances by sexual choice, religion, culture, ideology or race, someone decides the extermination and denial of the other, he also denies himself." In this sense he has assured that "true progress is the one that is built on humanist pillars".
The Vice-President expressed her gratitude on behalf of the Government to the memory movement of our country "for keeping alive the flame of memory and against memory for 40 years" and added that thanks to this group "we have continued to remember that the dignity of what we are today as Spaniards is based on the victims".
The tribute ceremony, which began with the reading of Mauthausen’s oath, was also attended by the former president of the government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and representatives of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain, and AMICAL de Mauthausen and other Nazi concentration camps.
Visit to the exhibition on Republican exile
After the celebration of the tribute, the first vice-president moved to the exhibition hall of the Archery of New Ministries, where she visited the exhibition "1939: Spanish Republican Exile", a documentary work and two photographic exhibitions that pay tribute to the more than half a million people who had to leave Spain to save their lives.
An exhibition whose opening has been extended until February 29, due to the success of public attendance.