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More of Franco's Victims Found

Discussion in 'Prelude to War & Poland 1939' started by GRW, Sep 6, 2018.

  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    Doubt if they'll ever find them all.
    "Scientists are working to identify the remains of victims of General Francisco Franco's regime after two mass graves in Paterna, Spain, were recently exhumed.
    Mass graves across the country are believed to hold at least 114,000 victims of the Spanish Civil War - in which half a million people are believed to have died on all sides - and the four decades of Francoism that followed.
    In Paterna, military and civil guard firing squads shot dead at least 2,238 prisoners after Franco seized power in 1939.
    Their bodies are believed to have been thrown into 70 different mass graves and covered in quicklime to seal off the site.
    Recently, after careful digging underneath a layer of ordinary, casket-burials at the cemetery in Paterna, piles of skeletons emerged.
    Now, forensic archaeologists are working to meticulously clean and log the remains found – so that they can be identified.
    Alex Calpe, one of the independent archaeologists working at the site on behalf of the relatives of those killed, has said the experts' work must be 'thorough' because its goal is 'to deliver closure to the victims' families.
    Mariano Descals Salvador is among those who has provided his saliva for a DNA test to tries to find the remains of his grandfather Mariano Descals Montes who was shot in 1939 by Franco's forces."
    www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6136003/More-remains-exhumed-mass-graves-Spain.html
     
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  2. PzJgr

    PzJgr Drill Instructor

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    A sad think knowing how my family on father's side were staunch Falangists. Although looking at civil wars throughout the world, this may be a small number but atrocious nonetheless.
     
  3. Terry D

    Terry D Well-Known Member

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    Very depressing to hear about but it may throw new light on a dark chapter of Spain's history--and, who knows, might even help today's generation of Spaniards to solve their differences peacefully.

    As far as that goes, my own country (the United States), is now closer to civil war than at any time since our last one ended in 1865. If I could, I would take the extremists on both sides here to view the mass graves in Spain. If you teach people to hate their neighbors, that is what you will get.
     
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