Monument to the victims of Nazism in Madrid and Stolpersteine

3 May, 20243 May, 2024

Madrid remembers the victims of Nazism with the establishment of the Monument to the victims of Nazism in Madrid and the plaques known as Stolpersteine.

The city of Madrid is always changing. It is enough not to set foot in it for a couple of years to find something new. This has always been the case and even more so now if we think about the city after the coronavirus pandemic, now that projects have been reactivated or one hasn’t been in the city after that. Just look at the new Puerta del Sol with its new Zero Kilometer, the renovation of Puerta de Alcalá or the Metrópolis building. Today we bring you a brand monument to discover in the old town but in a not very crowded place, all along with some little tiles on the ground.

Let’s start with the monument. In Plaza del Rollo, on the new parking lot behind the old townhall in Plaza de la Villa in central Calle Mayor, there is the brand new Monument in memory of the “madrileños” deported to Mauthausen. This monument to the victims of nazism commemorates the 449 people deported to Mauthausen concentration camp, Austria. Around 7200 Spaniards would be deported here with some 5000 dying. Three columns show the names of the victims. The largest piece resembles a door from which you can see the three columns that look like people. The last piece of the five total includes the Mauthausen Oath in which the survivors committed themselves to ensure that something like this would not be repeated again. The artist is José Miguel Utande, and it was completed in November 2022 all in corten steel.

We continue with the tiles on the floor, better known by their German name, stolpersteine, “stumbling stone” in English. These are small commemorations about 10 cm on a side with the name, date of birth, some biographical data related to the Second World War (often concentration camps) and death or in some cases liberation of the prisoner. It’s moving to read about each of them. They can be traced throughout the city, although in our Sunday en el Rastro flea market, we focused in La Latina and Lavapies area. Many Spanish republican fighters would flee to France upon losing the Civil War in Spain, with the chance to continue fighting fascism in the clandestine resistance against Hitler and Vichy France. Many were capture there, passing through Vesoul camp to end up in Mauthausen.

The people commemorated on the tiles that we add here are all represented in the monument to the victims. And of course you can look on your phone to see what happened to each one of them. Were they militants? Teachers? Were they in the worst place possible at 18 years old? Did they come out alive? Did they see military action? Were they betrayed? We get close to this monument in our tour in the old town, especially in French, since it’s notable that many French citizens are moved by it and are more familiar with this type of memorials, many being descendants of Spaniards, knowing stories of an exiled neighbor, and knowing that many of those commemorated are heroes who also fought for the freedom of France. We say farewell with some names that we have seen on this side of the monument.