Spain publishes names of more than 4,000 who died in Nazi concentration camp

THE Spanish government has published the names of almost 4,430 people who died in a Nazi concentration camp in Austria during the Second World War.

The Justice Ministry said the publication of the names of those who died in the Mauthausen-Gusen camp was done to comply with Spain’s Historical Memory law. The law requires the government to help with the repatriation of the Spanish victims of Nazism.

Officials had to search through data held in Spain and elsewhere to trace those who died in the camp.

The list of the names, published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), gives the relatives of those who died web addresses to make applications or inquiries. They have one month to do so, government sources said.

The publication comes after the government approved the creation of a day in memory of the Spanish victims of Nazism for May 5.

More than 10,000 Spanish people were deported to concentration and death camps while Spain was ruled by dictator Francisco Franco, an ally of Nazi Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler. More than 5,000 died in them.

Franco stripped those deported of their Spanish citizenship, making it difficult for relatives to trace victims and survivors of the camps.

Spanish prisoners were among those who welcomed US troops when they liberated Mauthausen-Gusen in May 1945.