in Madrid:International Brigades cemetery in Fuencarral
In the defense of Madrid at the end of 1936 many of the casualties of the International Brigades members did not have a decent burial. According to Rafael Fraguas (El País / 02/08/2017) “between 1936 and 1937, Hungarian general and writer Máté Zalka, who fought under the name of Pavel Lukács, and who commanded the 12th International Brigade, requested permission from the authorities in Fuencarral to bury the growing numbers of dead in the fight to defend Madrid from Franco’s forces. In 1940, after the war, the Franco regime exhumed the Americans, Canadians, British, French, German, Italians, Poles, Austrians, Bulgarians, Russians, Greeks, Spaniards and other nationalities buried there and dumped their bodies in an unmarked mass grave nearby.” In 1980 the Madrid City Council placed a reproduction of the original plaque in the Fuencarral cemetery. Subsequently, different embassies and associations have placed memorial plaques dedicated to the volunteers. These photos were taken in January 2022.