Costa Blanca
An almond tree is planted in Alicante to remember the thousands held in Campo de Los Almendros concentration camp
By m.p.
Jan 21, 2008 - 5:55 PM

Some 300 people attended a ceremony in La Goteta, Alicante, on Sunday, where an almond tree was planted in memory of the thousands of Republican prisoners who were held in the Campo de los Almendros internment centre at the end of the Civil War, one of many provisional concentration camps which were set up around the country.

A commission set up in Alicante for the Recovery of Historical Memory, the Alicante Civic Commission, finally achieved their goal last year for a subsidy to fund a memorial at the site where the Campo de los Almendros once stood: 28,000 € from central government. The final hurdle was approval from City Hall, which was turned down at a council meeting last month. The Informacíon newspaper said all the councillors from the Partido Popular local government voted against the motion presented by the Socialists.

The Commission’s President, Enrique Cerdán Tato, said the subsidy will be lost if it is not spent in the next few months.

94 year old Ángel Rubio Nieto was one of the thousands who were held in the Campo de Los Almendros. He was at Sunday’s ceremony and described his experience as a ‘horror which must be remembered so that it never happens again.’