Rafael GOMEZ-RODRIGUEZ was born in Guadix, Provinz Granada, Spain on September 24, 1918.
He was one of about 7,000 Spaniards who had fought for democracy and freedom in defense of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939, who fled to France after the Republican forces were overwhelmed by those of General Franco and his German and Italian allies, and were then interned in France before the German conquest of France allowed the Nazis to ship them off to the Mauthausen concentration camp.
The prisoner cards of the »SS Main Economic and Administrative Office« [the SS organization responsible for managing the finances, supply systems and business projects for the SS which also ran the concentration camps and was instrumental in the implementation of the Final Solution] show that 40 of these Spanish Republicans were held in the police jail on the Rudolfsplatz (which was called Georg-von-Schonerer-Platz under the Nazi regime), before they were deported by the Salzburg Gestapo Salzburg to Mauthausen on September 11, 1941.
There they were registered as »Spanish Reds«, and Rafael GOMEZ-RODRIGUEZ was prisoner number 4957.
On February 1, 1942 he was 23 years old when he was murdered in the Mauthausen-Gusen branch camp.
At least 21 of the 40 Spaniards deported from Salzburg to Mauthausen were killed, either there or in one of its branch camps – mostly in Gusen:
• Ramon Alvaro-Moreno, born in Cartagena on August 31, 1911
• Jose Callon-Peon, born in Santa Eugenia on October 13, 1913
• Luis Camacho-Ferre, born in Villanueva on November 27, 1913
• Felix Carceller-Moya, born in Teruel on November 8, 1908
• Jose Fajardo-Garcia, born in Melilla on June 16, 1910
• Manuel Garcia-Crespo, born in Sitges April 1, 1914
• Domingo Garcia-Lopez, born in Malaga on March 20, 1906
• Pedro Gimenez-Ostio, born in Teba on January 20, 1914
• Ramon Llovera-Pons, born in Torregrosa on July 5, 1916
• Alberto Mallorqui-Asbert, born in Valls on September 17, 1909
• Rafael Martin-Perez, born in Las Palmas on June 8, 1903
• Angelino Montanes-Bellmunt, born in Albocacer on August 17, 1918
• Luis Perez-Fernandez, born in Fondon on August 9, 1907
• Juan Sanchez-Martinez, born in Terque on December 22, 1919
• Marcelo Sanz-Sanz, born in Manzanares on April 9, 1910
• Miguel Satana-Martin, born in Las Palmas on March 19, 1903
• Juan Sentis-Valenti, born in Brafin on October 28, 1907
• Antonio Simon-Carmona, born in Nijar on July 25, 1908
• Francisco Trallero-Escobedo, born in Calenda on October 24, 1902
• Antonio Trigo-Ortega, born in Ardales on January14, 1917
• Francisco Valencia-Concos, born in La Loma on May 10, 1916
These 22 Spaniards whose names are now known are some of the Gestapo victims whose names were never entered in the Salzburg police registration files and were not included in the book Widerstand und Verfolgung in Salzburg 1934-1945 [Resistance and Persecution in Salzburg, 1934-1945] published in 1991.
Sources
- The prisoner cards of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (Salzburg Gestapo)
- Mauthausen Death Registry
Translation: Stan Nadel
Stumbling Stone
Laid 28.09.2017 at Salzburg, Rudolfsplatz 3
