The Alt Empordà Exile, Deportation and Holocaust Working Group and the Figueres City Council promoted two consecutive events aimed at reinforcing historical memory and preventing the repetition of past horrors. The first, called «Figueres 1938», took place on Friday with the participation of students of Contemporary World History from nine high schools in the region, coordinated by historian Jordi Roig.
During the morning, the students toured the center of Figueres, visiting points of interest related to the aerial bombings by the Italian fascist aviation between January 1938 and February 1939. One of the sites that generated the most impact was the air-raid shelter in Plaça del Gra, explained by historian David Garcia Algilaga.
“"Precisely this year, the date of January 23 coincides with the bombing of a Sunday morning on Passeig Nou, the first major attack that no one expected, which caused the death of 16 people and 27 injured, including many children who were walking with their families in that place."
On Saturday, the Figueres City Council dedicated the day to honoring the carabineer Faustino Molina Velázquez, exiled, captured by the Nazis, deported to the Mauthausen camp, and assassinated in Harthiem in 1941. A Stolpersteine cobblestone was placed in the Enric Morera Garden, adding to the eleven already existing in the city.
The commemoration ceremony was attended by computer scientist Oscar González Palomo, a resident of Strasbourg, whose investigation helped uncover the history of Molina, who had been a resident of Figueres and was married to a local woman. His research was crucial in bringing to light the story of this carabineer, a victim of Nazism.
