Manuel Bolaños Díaz 1912 - 1941

Born 15.5.1912 in Puerto Real
Died 29.12.1941 in Gusen

Biography

 

Manuel Bolaños Díaz was born on 15 May 1912 in Puerto Real, a small village near to the provincial capital Cádiz in southern Spain. His family consisted of his parents, José Bolaños Betanzos, born in Medina Sidonia, Isabel Díaz del Río from Paterna de la Rivera, and three siblings: Catalina, Antonio and Pedro, the eldest. Aside from a few documentary traces in the files of the Negociado de Quintas,[1] almost nothing is known of his youth.

The general economic crisis in the first decades of the last century and their implications for the population left their mark on Manuel’s early years. The wider socio-economic picture made the already difficult life in this small town even tougher – with increasing dissatisfaction among the working people in the community and an endless succession of labour negotiations and strikes.

The military putsch of 1936 and the start of the Spanish Civil War led to a process of arbitrary arrests and executions in Puerto Real, which was captured without a single shot fired. This was the situation that led Manuel, in fear of a possible denunciation, to flee his birthplace as quickly as possible – with nothing but the clothes he was wearing. He initially sought refuge in a well in the Ardales, a family-owned estate located in Medina Sidonia. However, a few days later the threat of a new denunciation meant that he once more felt compelled to flee.

At this point all traces of Manuel disappear. It is only years later that they resurface with his arrival at Stalag IX A Ziegenhain, between Frankfurt and Kassel in the German region now known as Rheinland-Pfalz. He left this transit camp on 11 August 1940 for Mauthausen concentration camp, where he arrived on 13 August 1940 in the third convoy, together with 97 Spanish Republicans. The Spaniards were assigned prisoners numbers 3714 to 3804. 83.5 per cent of them never returned, 61 per cent died in Gusen alone. One year later, on 17 February 1941, he was transferred to Block 16 in Gusen, a few kilometres from Mauthausen, where he was registered under prisoner number 10331. He died there on 29 December 1941 with 17 other Spanish Republicans.

His family knew nothing of these developments and of Manuel’s terrible fate until they received a letter in 1950. Tersely and without any details, the letter informed them of his death and of the possibility of financial compensation.

To this day, no evidence of membership of a trade union or the organised workers’ movement has been found in Manuel’s case. Neither does he seem ever to have fought for the Republican side. His life is one of many cruelly shattered.

Juan Pinero Rendon

 

Translation into English: Joanna White

 

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