Sobrevivir a Mauthausen-Gusen: Memorias de Un Espaol En Los Campos Nazis / Surv Iving Mauthausen-Gusen. Memoirs of a Spaniard in the Nazi Concentrati

Dcadas despus de la guerra y fiel al juramento pronunciado por los espaoles supervivientes de Mauthausen el da de la liberacin, Enrique Calcerrada Guijarro escribi este inigualable y estremecedor libro testimonial, de gran calado literario y valor histrico.

El relato de Enrique arranca en Francia, junto a casi medio milln de compatriotas, huyendo del avance de las tropas franquistas. Un periplo que comienza en los dursimos campos que levantaron los franceses en sus playas para los refugiados espaoles. El estallido de la Segunda Guerra Mundial situ a Enrique en una nueva contienda y no tard en caer en las garras de las tropas alemanas. Durante meses fue tratado como prisionero de guerra, y obligado a transitar por diversos campos en Francia, Alemania y la Polonia ocupada. En enero de 1941, su historia dio un giro dramtico cuando lo deportaron al campo de concentracin de Mauthausen. Desde ese instante, se convierte en el mejor cronista de la suerte que corrieron millones de hombres y mujeres en los campos nazis. Cuando, en octubre de 1941, fue trasladado a Gusen -un subcampo de Mauthausen conocido como el Matadero, donde murieron cerca de cuatro mil compatriotas-, Enrique pens que su nuevo destino no poda ser peor que el anterior. Se equivocaba. Carros repletos de cadveres, prisioneros famlicos, hambre, fro, enfermedades, vejaciones y sadismo... Y, frente a todo ello, el deseo de sobrevivir, la solidaridad entre los cautivos y el compromiso vital de vivir para contarlo.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

A unique and valuable testimony, true to the Mauthausen oath.

Decades after the war, and true to the oath a group of Spanish survivors made the day Mauthausen was liberated, Enrique Calcerrada Guijarro wrote this heart-rending and unparalleled testimonial, with great literary depth and historical value.

Enrique's tale begins in France, next to almost half a million fellow countrymen running from the advancing Francoist troops. A journey that starts in the harsh camps the French set up on their shores for Spanish refugees. The outbreak of the Second World War placed Enrique in a new fight, and it wasn't long before he was captured by German soldiers. He was treated as a prisoner of war for months, forced to move through several camps in France, Germany, and occupied Poland. In January 1941, his story took a dramatic turn when he was deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp. From then on, he became the best chronicler of the fate of millions of men and women in Nazi camps. In October 1941, he was taken to Gusen, a Mauthausen subcamp known as the Slaughterhouse, where nearly four thousand of his countrymen died. Enrique thought his new destination couldn't be worse than the last. He was wrong. Carts overloaded with dead bodies, famished prisoners, starvation, cold weather, disease, abuse, and sadism... And facing all that, the will to survive, the solidarity among those who were captive, the crucial commitment to live to tell the tale.