Letter to the Editors
To The Editor:
I read with great interest your article on Spaniards in Mauthausen. A few years ago, my wife and I visited Vienna and made a side trip by train to Mauthausen. When we arrived at the station near the camp, we needed to find a taxi to take us there. Also waiting for a taxi was a young couple from Barcelona. We wondered what their interest was in visiting a Nazi concentration camp, but didn’t ask. We hadn’t made the connection between anti-fascist fighters for the Spanish Republic and a death camp for political prisoners, Jews and gypsies. Reading your article, I now can imagine why the young couple made the pilgrimage to Mauthausen. Most likely, they had a familial connection to someone who had perished in the camp, or they were savvy enough to have studied the role of their countrymen in the battle to keep fascists out of Spain.
Thank you for the enlightening article!
George Haber
Jericho, Long Island, New York
PS My uncle, Louis Stoloff, was an ALB volunteer from New York City who was killed in the Battle of the Ebro. My search for his story was the subject of an article in Newsday.
Very interesting comment about the Barcelona couple visiting Mauthausen. I read the article in Newsday about your uncle. You should be proud of a relative who made the ultimate sacrifice for the cause of democracy and freedom! Salud!
JR