Dear comrades,
Following the participation at the main ceremony of the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Mauthausen Concentration Camp, we gather like every year, before this plaque to pay tribute to the five Cubans listed as victims of the atrocities committed by the Nazi and Fascist regime in this place.
Patriots Roberto Cortezón Martínez, Félix Llanos Alonso, Alberto Sánchez Martínez, José Luis Pérez Arocha and Manuel Sola Castillo were imprisoned and turned over by collaborationists of Vichy´s regime to the Hitlerian hordes in the occupied France and they were confined here in Mauthausen. As many other compatriots, they were part of the International Brigades that from the Republic fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. They also represented the genesis of the internationalist and generous spirit that characterizes us as people.
Mauthausen-Gusen network was one of the most horrendous concentration camps of the Nazi regime. It was established at “Level III” which was the most rigorous in the criminal insanity of the Nazi-Fascism. People entered here without any hope to leave this place. Between year 1938 and 1945 about 190 thousand human beings from over 40 nations passed through its facilities. Generally speaking, and even if it is difficult to determine, it is estimated that 140 thousand people lost their lives in Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex and its subcamps.
Many men, women, elderlies and children arrived here. All people who seemed to be different to the fascism´s horrendous official doctrine due to their origin or religion, their ideology or way of thinking, their disabilities or their sexual orientation. Essentially, Mauthausen was a concentration camp devoted to political prisoners to silence the different voices with the view of trying to stop the ideas and ideologies.
The victims´ stories locked in these walls and barracks are moving. The slave labor in the granite quarries and the unbearable conditions of starvation and cold were the main SS´ weapons to genocidal annihilation in these camps.
Even though it is a heart-breaking story, it is a human responsibility to recall this to prevent that a similar event can occur again. We should not be ignorant of the threats mankind is confronted with like proliferation of demonstrations of xenophobia, racism, all type of intolerance, hegemonic expansionism, and wars under false excuses.
It is the duty of the progressive, pacifist and antifascist humanity to alert and close ranks against the advance of such threats and aggressions!
The Empire, the neo-Fascism and the extreme right-wing will not pass!
Eternal glory to Cubans dead in Mauthausen!
Never again to Fascism!
Always to victory!
I thank you so much.
(Embacuba Austria / Cubaminrex)