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The vice-president pays tribute to the last surviving Spaniard of Mauthausen: "You are an admirable example for the Spanish"

22/08/2020
The vice-president pays tribute to the last surviving Spaniard of Mauthausen: "You are an admirable example for the Spanish"

The First Vice-President of the Government, Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory, Carmen Calvo, has paid tribute to the Spaniard Juan Romero Romero, the last surviving compatriot of the Mauthausen concentration camp, whom she has defined as "an admirable example of life for many Spaniards".

Town Hall of Aÿ-Champagne, Aÿ-Champagne (France)

During the emotional tribute, which was celebrated at the City Hall of Aÿ-Champagne, a French town where Juan Romero resides at the age of 101, the vice-president praised the trajectory of the last Spanish supervisor of Mauthausen: "Juan, you have had the courage to know what your place was in the world," said the vice-president, "the recognition of the government is that of the Spanish democrats who are honored that you are one of the best," he added.

Number two of the Executive thanked Juan Romero for "his fight against fascism, for freedoms and in defense of democracy" and told him that Spanish democracy will always "be in debt" to the men and women who, like him, left our country to defend the constitutional order.

"Those who paid with their lives ran out of time, survivors like Juan ran out of their place, their country, Spain. Therefore, we cannot lose the memory of others, because Democratic Memory is what allows a society not to lose its direction" said the vice-president.

Carmen Calvo has said that it is necessary "to recover the dignity of memory and the justice of gratitude for those who traced to us the destiny of what we are now as a country, today in the person of Juan Romero, but also in the rest of the Spanish exile and the deported."

In this sense, he has assured "that Spanish democracy has a pending debt to exile that will pay off in a future law of Historical Memory" because "at this time, of changes and complexity, we must not lose the direction they outlined to us of the defense of values," he added.

The first vice-president wanted to thank the city of Aÿ-Champagne and its mayor, Dominique Leveque, "for allowing us to come here to justly recognize the exemplary nature of a life like that of Juan Romero." He also thanked the associations "that have kept the memory of our country alive" and the families that "with their efforts have maintained a memory in a resistance, which has allowed us to have a democracy today".

Carmen Calvo concluded her speech by saying to Juan Romero: "Thank you Juan for your life, which has not been in vain."

Juan Romero Romero

Juan Romero Romero, (Torrecampo, Córdoba, 1919). He was part of the Army faithful to the Second Republic, fighting on the fronts of the Sierra de Guadarrama, Brunete, Guadalajara, Teruel, as well as in the battle of El Ebro, in which he was wounded. At the end of the Spanish Civil War he suffered exile in France and enlisted in the Foreign Legion in April 1939 where he participated in the fight against the German occupation. He was subsequently imprisoned, transferred to Stalag III-A and deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp. Despite suffering all kinds of calamities, he managed to survive until the end of World War II to continue living in France as an exile.

In 2016 he was decorated with the French Legion of Honor. He is currently 101 years old.

The declaration of reparation and personal recognition, given to him by the Spanish Government, attests that he suffered the consequences of the Civil War and the dictatorship, suffering persecution and exile at the end of the Spanish contest for ideological and political reasons.