Monument to the victims of Mauthausen

This somewhat obscure memorial, tucked away in Plaza del Rollo over a carpark behind the Plaza de la Villa, commemorates the 449 supporters of the Spanish Republic from Madrid who died in Nazi concentration camps after the Spanish Civil War. They were among more than 16,000 opponents of Franco who died in Mauthausen and other concentration camps. It was designed by the sculptor José Miguel Utande but there are no signs or plaques explaining exactly what it is meant to represent. The sociologist Grazyna Zajdow commented, ‘It feels like the memorial you have when you really don’t want to have a memorial.’