1930s Spain

[John Volz]

The 1930s and 40s sure did have a lot of strange happenings.  in 1996
about 2 months after our first Camino (by Bike) we were biking in
Austria and visited the Mathhausen Concentration Camp near the Danube.
This camp was opened by the Nazi about 3 months after the Anscluss
(take over of Austria by the Germans).

We were amazed by the memorials and statistics showing a rather large
number of Spaniards who had been taken to this place where they and
others of many nationalities were literally worked to death in
quarries.  They must have been taken there as part of the
German-Italian particupation on the Franco part of the "civil war". Of
course we all know of Guernica as German practice for aerial bombing
of cities that was part of WWII.

John Volz
Santa Rosa CA