All the photos are from the late '30 ( Cantabrian Nation fall to the invaders in 1937 and from there on the genocidal repression started) and then '40, '50 and '60s
(in the '70 they dismantle the main-big concentration camps but they were still hundreds of Cantabrian Republican Prisoners in the different gaols around the county and outside in spanish ones)
In the photos of the top, first Santander bullring (they were only two or three in the rest of the Cantabrian Country by the way, been this one the bigger with capacity for few thousands people) used as temporary Concentration Camp after the betrayal of the spanish left and government and subsequent surrender of the majority of the Cantabrian Army at Santander.
The second, Cantabrian Prisoners force to work for the victors, in the El Dueso gaol. A huge prison with a normal capacity for severl hundreds, that was overpopulated and held some thousands.
The photo below is in the same gaol, and shows the Cantabrian Prisoners forced to march by the spanish fascist during a religious festivity in the year 1964
The next three photos are from the permanent concentration camp of La Madalena, located the, then outskirts of the city of Santander, with capacity for thousands.
The nest two photos is of a prison situated inside the city. One of the worst. The infamous Tabacalera Prison. A small prison, it worked as concentration camp, been overwhelmingly overcrowded. Thousands were packed there. We have only to see this two photos.
Cantabrian Prisoners forced to do the fascist (or roman as in called in other places) salute, under the close watch of the murderous spanish special socio-political police.
NOTE:
We said of the first photo that was a temporary Concentration Camp. They were few locations like that. For example the Racing de Santander stadium, the soccer team of Santander, was used for the same ignoble purpose.
At this places the Cantabrian POWs were detained while the victors, identified and selected. After they were taken to the firing squad. The lucky ones were to permanent Concentration Camps and Prisons later on.
While they were hundreds of "legal" executions for many, many years, they were dozens upon dozens of cases that this was done without papers so to speak. Fascists arriving at the prison and just taking this or that prisoners to kill him, in whatever way the choose.
The number of executions were bigger in the years just after the defeat of 1937. But kept going for decades. But were more legal so to speak. Judicial process of years, come to and end in the '60, '70. And execution was the penalty. In the late years many of the killing were of Cantabrian people that after the war were detained and imprisoned for "resistance activity" or because they "supporters" of the Cantabrian Resistance. Some, not few, even they were sympathetic to the Resistance fighters (maybe because they just were of the same village, or they went to school together, or the were in the war together) they were just Cantabrian men and women, living traditional lives and trying to survive.
By the way, in one photo we see Cantabrian Prisoners working in captivity. Some people and families, some been natives, become rich on the backs of Cantabrian force labor. And many prisoners died because the spanish authorities used them to build roads and dams.
Many of the roads were build to connect Santander to some inaccessible places of the Cantabrian country. The invaders wanted to be able to reach, and to reach as fast as possible as much Cantabrian Territory as possible. In many of this places the Resistance was able to have some rest and refuge. And in the other hand they were able to spread their modern way of life and latinization.
Of course, of the unofficial dead there are no records.
Of the hundreds of Cantabrian Prisoners that died during all the years and projects where they were used as force labor...they are no records.
A very good example of this works, done by the Cantabrian Prisoners with hand tools (the cheapest, both the slaves and the tools):
Tunnel the road, going up and beside the dam
Another part of the road
Photo of the dam being built
Then, we "only" have to imagine hundreds of Cantabrian Prisoners, used as slaves, under military personnel supervision. Just like the image of the Nazis doing the same to other peoples in other parts of the world. The difference is that the Cantabrian Nation is small and all the crimes against her People had been successfully cover, as successful had been the campaigns of alienation among the Native Cantabrian Population developed for decades, and still going on.
That this recent genocide has been cover up, obviously by the spaniards but by all the rest of states.
And the spanish left has also help, because talking about the Cantabrian Genocide, will lead to many of their organizations and leaders at the time, and the betrayal. And the fact that the Cantabrian Nation was in 1937 a de facto Independet Republic and much more independent minded than basques and catalans.
Only to finish, a historian, recognized and respect by the establishment (therefore we are not talking of a subjective "Cantabrian patriot" or "red Cantabrian") years ago give a astonishing number. A figure that has been, again cover and taken out of sight for the general population of the Cantabrian Nation (as so many thing of recent history, but older history and even culture, traditions and identity).
He said that, in the direct repression suffer by the Cantabrian People (the Natives of the Cantabrian Nation) through the years (till the last execution) between 8.000 and 12.000 of Cantabrian women and men were murdered. Then, see the size of the Nation and her People and think of what is the % of that. A GENOCIDE
This without talking of the hundreds of Cantabrians forced out of their Nation through the years (and even today but this "only" for socio-economic reasons), having to go to Spain or elsewhere.
Whole families fled the Fascist in 1937 to exile. Finally with this we remember this case:
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