Rafael Priego is a great-nephew of Gabriel Priego González, who fought with the Third Mixed Brigade of the Spanish Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War. At the end of the war, Gabriel Priego Gonzáles fled to France where he was interned in a camp for Spanish refugees. Following the German defeat of France in 1940, he was deported to Germany. Gabriel Priego Gonzáles died in the Neuengamme concentration camp in December 1942. Rafael told us about how he learned what happened to his great-uncle, how this story shaped him as a person and about his involvement in the Spanish Amical of Neuengamme.
How did you learn the story of your great-uncle?
My father told me the story when I was a child. As far as he knew, Uncle Gabriel was captured by the Nazis in France and was killed in Hamburg. I only found out that he was deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp through the information provided to me by the International Tracing Service of Bad Arolsen-Germany on January 19, 2009 in response to an email I had sent them in December 2008. I found more information about his exile and deportation in Spanish, French and Russian archives.
What influence does your family history have on the person you are today?
My paternal family history is the epitome of Franco’s brutal repression against the defenders of the Spanish republican democracy. It includes the forced disappearance of my grandfather, the exile of my great-uncles and aunts and the deportation and murder of Gabriel. Naturally all of this has shaped my personality. There has always been a feeling of emptiness due to the loss of Gabriel but also a sense of pride at the same time. However, these topics were always talked about in hushed tones and within the intimacy of the family because Franco’s dictatorship instilled a deep fear in the society which prevented people from speaking freely in public. During the dictatorship, fear and silence invaded the lives of anti-fascists.
When I was a child, a painter from my father’s village used to tell me that I resembled my great-uncle Gabriel. This made me curious about who he was and why I never met him.
What elements of your family’s history and values will you pass on to the next generation?
I try to impart to them the sense of commitment to defending ideals of social justice and human solidarity as well as the pride that our ancestors once fought against the fascist threat in defense of freedom and democracy, even if they paid a high price for it.
The fate those deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp suffered is a warning to future generations of what could happen again if we do not adequately protect our democracies against the current rise of fascist and far-right movements.
How did you become involved in the Spanish Amical and what does your involvement mean to you?
After reading a newspaper article published in 2019, I contacted the historian Antonio Muñoz, who told me that my great-uncle Gabriel had been the first Spaniard deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp and provided me with the contact information for the newly established Spanish Amical, the association of relatives and friends of those deported to Neuengamme.
This is how I met Balbina Rebollar, the president, as well as Mayu and other members.
In November 2021, I participated in the 7th Future of Remembrance Forum at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. In May 2022, I attended the events commemorating the 77th anniversary of the camp’s liberation.
In May 2023, we returned to Hamburg to attend the events marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners of the Neuengamme concentration camp, including the inauguration of a monument honoring Spanish resistance fighters and members of the International Brigades.
My involvement in the Spanish Amical of Neuengamme is motivated by the moral obligation to tell the story of the cruel fate that befell my great-uncle and other Spanish deportees to Neuengamme as well as to do my part to remember these events, warn future generations of the consequences of hate speech and to prevent history from repeating itself.
About Gabriel Priego González
written by Rafael Priego
My great-uncle GABRIEL PRIEGO GONZÁLEZ, son of Fernando and Clotilde, was born on March 18, 1905, in Montalbo (Cuenca) and died in the Neuengamme concentration camp on December 14, 1942. He had previously been imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in April 1942 and was assigned prisoner number 41631. In Neuengamme, he was assigned prisoner number 9810.
The International Tracing Service of Bad Arolsen-Germany provided me with all this information on January 19, 2009, in response to an e-mail I’d sent them in December 2008.
Gabriel, a farmer by profession, was an active member of the Republican Left.
During the Civil War, he served as a Carabineros Sergeant at the Third Mixed Brigade (Brigada Mixta Galán) of the Spanish Republican Army, where his brother Máximo, my grandfather, also served as a medical officer. He was killed by the fascists in December 1936.
In February 1939, at the end of the war, Gabriel and his brother Gregorio (a teacher, banned from the teaching profession by Franco) fled to France. They were taken to an internment camp for Spanish refugees and later assigned to militarized foreign workers companies in Rennes. They were subsequently transferred to Orleans (Loiret) in August 1940. In November 1940, Gregorio managed to escape while Gabriel was captured by the Nazi occupiers in Paris and deported to Germany.
In the “Causa General” (National Historical Archive, Causa General, Box 1063, Folder 2, Judicial District of Huete, Montalbo municipality) and in the court martial (case number 12585, file 4147) Gabriel Priego is mentioned at Charlottenburger Str. 118, Berliner Fabrik, Berlin Weissensee on July 19, 1941. In German, “Berliner Fabrik” means “Factory in Berlin”, where forced laborers worked and were later deported to concentration and extermination camps.
According to the historian Antonio Muñoz, there were several factories located on Charlottenburger Strasse in Weissensee (this is the correct name of the street and the Berlin neighborhood) that belonged to Warnecke – whose name resembles the name Otto Warnke mentioned in the letter – among them this one, where forced laborers from France were said to have worked in 1942. It could very well be the factory where Gabriel worked.
According to the Guide to the Site’s History and the Memorial published by the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial and edited by Karin Schawe, “several hundred bodies, mostly of executed prisoners, were given to the anatomical institutes of the Hamburg and Kiel university hospitals.” (page 39).
Based on the funeral service contract regulations and the evaluation of the Ohlsdorf documentation collected from the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Gabriel was paid fees and issued a certificate of consent by the Anatomical Institute. This fact may lead us to the conclusion that he was possibly executed.
According to the documentation, the date of cremation was December 22,1942. A first grave is recorded at the Hamburg-Ohlsdorf cemetery at the following location: Bl 71 Rh 57 No 12 and a second grave at Bp 73 Rh 24 No 35, with the burial date listed as February 24,1959.
It should be added that, according to the Historical Archive of the First Territorial Military Tribunal of Madrid, a court martial was held against Mr. Gabriel Priego Gonzalez by the fascist authorities (case number 12585, file 4147).
On July 10, 2009, the Minister of Justice of the Spanish Government issued a Declaration of Reparation and Personal Recognition to Gabriel Priego González, persecuted and imprisoned for political and ideological reasons and sentenced to death by the Military Tribunal of Huete without a fair trial.
