El Burgo Ranero - Memorial Cross - what's the story?

Olivares said:

Philip-- for what I know and/or can read from the monument itself it appears that it was dedicated in 2002 (thus the year 2002 inscription) "to the memory of the children" by Jose Maria Baños Lozano and his wife Maria Monserrate (the "y" after Monserrate is a separate letter meaning "and"). May be/may not be related to the fact that his father, Rufino Baños Lozano, natural from El Burgo Ranero and soccer star in Leon, as you well mentioned, spent time in a Nazi concentration camp (Mauthausen-Gusen). By the way, he was not a Republican soldier when he was captured by the Nazis. He had escaped to France after the Spanish Civil War ended where he joined the French Army during World War II. His entire batallion was captured by the Nazi army. As you also mentioned, his soccer skills helped him gained some "favor" among the guards in Mauthausen and helped entertained the children, even if on such dire conditions. He did survived it and was liberated by the Allies in May 1945. He died an old man in 1980 in France.

Among the things known about the Mauthausen- Gusen concentration camp is that the adult prisioners were the only ones left responsible for feeding and caring for the children in the camp. When the camp was liberated in May 1945, it was noted in documents that while the adult prisioners looked emanciated and skeleton-like, the surviving children appeared in significantly better condition. An amazing testament of humanity by the prisioners in such horrendous circumstances. The stolen food incidents were probably to feed him and others, specially children under their care. If you remember the name of the boy who hid in the annex with Anne Frank (Peter Van Pels), he was moved from Auschwitz to Mauthausen only to die the day (THE DAY) the camp was liberated. Heartbreaking.

I would not be surprised if the story of this monument goes back to a Nazi Germany concentration camp....

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