Developments in Gandesa. Progress and also loss? Yesterday, I took the niece of David Danny Schubert, an American brigader who was killed on the 3rd of April 1938 in Gandesa. The exciting fieldwork and research being done by Anna Marti and Enric Comas see this report in Rnglish and a link to the Spanish version) aswell as the late Antonio Blanch of the. Gandesa Museum of the. Ebro Battle, has allowed us to identify the oral memory of 50 Americans who wre captured when one company (likely. Melvin Offsinks company) disappeared into the town, never to be seen again. However, oral memory points to a building in the town where the fifty Americans were held and stripped to their underwear. (To humiliate and easily identify them if they escaped?). Locals remember that they were tired and hungry and that they gave them water and cigarettes. The local memory also points to a gulley near the town where they were executed, and where they are possibly buried. I. I can rebuild a relationship to the owner (I have to work on this after Antonio died), I would like to ground search radar the area to confirm the possible mass grave or not). I believe that David Schubert was one of these executed, but other records have to be discovered yet. This all takes time! However, yesterday, when. I took Dannys niece to see these places, the building in which they were held was being demolished to build a public area with the fountain and religious figure repositioned. I immediately took photos of the demolition, and talked with the builder. He kindly allowed me to take a piece of rubble for Dannys niece and me a beautiful piece of wood from the ceiling! This is my evidence of thr building that will soon be gone. Of course, the story may be a load of cobblers, but I have found that often oral memory is of great value. I think it is true. So, with this in mind, I have brought the piece of wood home (you can see the same form at the apex of the roof in one of the photos). I have turned it upside down and plonked a candle on it to try and persuade my partner that it is art. Lets see if I can get away with it tonight! I am thinking that maybe a molecule of one or more of the cigarettes that these brigaders smoked before they were marched down to the gulley, might have lingered in the air and is part of this beam? And that this is for me a tiny memory of their presence and subsequent demise in horrible circumstances. Silly? Well, for me, progress is important, and the change of use for the benefit of the inhabitants of Gandesa is important too. But I am happy to have retained a fragment of this building to serve as a memory of these men and as a focus for their story to tell to others.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 11:13:46 +0000
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