1939: Las Trece Rosas
Add comment August 5th, 2018 Headsman
The Spanish Civil War’s victorious fascists shot Las Trece Rosas — “the thirteen roses” — on this date in 1939.
Plaque at the Cementerio de la Almudena in Madrid in honor of 13 young women shot there by Francoist troops on August 5, 1939. (cc) image by Alvaro Ibanez.
Earlier that 1939, Franco had clinched victory by finally capturing the capital city after a siege of 29 months. A punishing suppression of the Spain’s leftist elements ensued, running to hundreds of thousands imprisoned, executed, or chased into exile.
Our 13 Roses were members of a communist/socialist youth group, JSU, and they had been arrested in rolling-up of that organization. They were crowded into the overflowing dungeons of the notorious women’s prison Las Ventas.
A few Spanish-language books about Las Trece Rosas |
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And there they resided on July 29, 1939, when their JSU comrades struck back against the dictatorship by assassinating Isaac Gabaldón, the commander of Madrid’s fascist police.* The 13 Roses were immediately court-martialed and executed in revenge. Their names follow; there’s a bit more detail about them in Spanish here:
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Carmen Barrero Aguado (age 24)
Martina Barroso García (age 22)
Blanca Brissac Vázquez (age 29)
Pilar Bueno Ibáñez (age 27)
Julia Conesa Conesa (age 19)
Adelina García Casillas (age 19)
Elena Gil Olaya (age 20)
Virtudes González García (age 18)
Ana López Gallego (age 21)
Joaquina López Laffite (age 23)
Dionisia Manzanero Salas (age 20)
Victoria Muñoz García (age 19)
Luisa Rodríguez de la Fuente (age 18)
The affair is the subject of a 2007 Spanish film.
* Gabaldon’s predecessor, the police commander under the Spanish Republic, Jose Aranguren, had been removed from his post and executed in April.
On this day..
- 1843: Sarah Dazley - 2020
- 1678: Thomas Hellier, "Groans and Sighs" - 2019
- 1944: The Wola Massacre begins, during the Warsaw Uprising - 2017
- 1549: The Clyst Heath massacre, during the Prayer Book Rebellion - 2016
- 2008: Jose Medellin, precedent - 2015
- 1943: Red Orchestra members, in the Nazi Paradise - 2014
- 1993: Joseph Paul Jernigan, Visible Human Project subject - 2013
- 1623: Daniel Frank, the first hanging in the USA - 2012
- 1909: Georges-Henri Duchemin, matricide - 2011
- 1775: Maharajah Nandakumar, judicially murdered? - 2010
- 1864: Romuald Traugutt and the January Uprising leaders - 2009
- 1676: Malin Matsdotter and Anna Simonsdotter, ending a witch hunt - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Arts and Literature,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,History,Hostages,Innocent Bystanders,Martyrs,Mass Executions,Power,Revolutionaries,Shot,Spain,Torture,Wartime Executions,Women
Tags: 1930s, 1939, adelina garcia, ana lopez, august 5, blanca brissac, carmen barrero, communists, dionisia manzanero, elena gil, fascism, isaac gabaldon, joaquina lopez, jose aranguren, julia conesa, luisa rodriguez, madrid, martina barroso, pilar bueno, socialists, spanish civil war, victoria munoz, virtudes gonzalez
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