The Government of Spain has paid tribute today, in Paris, to the members of the company ‘The Nine’, for their contribution to the liberation of the French capital from the Nazi occupation, on the day of the 81st anniversary of the gesture.
This company belonged to the ranks of the 2nd Armored Division of Free France, under the command of General Leclerc, and was composed mostly of Spanish Republicans, headed by Captain Raymond Dronne. The members of ‘The Nine’ were the first to enter Paris, on August 24, 1944, with the semi-tracks ‘Guadalajara’, ‘Madrid’, ‘Guernica’, ‘Brunete’, ‘Jarama’, ‘Ebro’, ‘Teruel’, ‘Belchite’, ‘España cañí’ or ‘Don Quijote’.
The Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, and the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, have unveiled today, in the Garden of ‘The Nine’ and within the commemoration of the 81st anniversary, a plaque that declares this space as a Place of Democratic Memory, for its special symbolism and meaning in collective memory, in the context of World War II.
Martínez has pointed out that “the best antidote against populism and the advance of the extreme right in Spain, in Europe and in the world, is memory, especially the memory of heroes such as the Spanish republicans of ‘The Nine’. Today we remember his gesture, his courage and his commitment to freedom.”
Recognition to the Mayor of Paris
The commemoration has become, in turn, an act of tribute to Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, promoted by the organizations of the Spanish republican exile: August 24 and Desbandá, for “their support and determined action for the recognition of the role played by the Spaniards in the liberation of Paris”. The Secretary of State has joined, on behalf of the Government of Spain, in this recognition and has thanked Hidalgo for “his sensitivity to the Spanish Republican exile, for having made it possible for the contribution of the Spanish Republicans of ‘The Nine’ in the liberation of Paris to be immortalized in history”.
Likewise, Fernando Martínez has highlighted the commitment of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory of the Government of Spain to promote next autumn a great Exhibition in the city of Madrid, under the title ‘1945. Libération. After the footsteps of La Diez and its men’, in which the collaboration of the Ministre déléguée chargée de la Mémoire et des Anciens combattants of France will be counted.