Mass grave reveals Civil War tragedy in Campillos in Malaga province

For those who lived through the Spanish Civil War, the risk of death was always a terrifying, unavoidable reality, even in this small town in the north of Malaga province. The history of Campillos will forever be marked by the tragic events of 13 September 1936. Now, 88 years on, the bodies of over 100 villagers who lost their lives have finally been discovered.

Following a month of fieldwork, a team of researchers have located two mass graves in the Campillos cemetery, each around 15 metres long and two metres wide. The project was made possible by an agreement between the University of Malaga (UMA) and the Andalusian Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

"The research indicates that on 13 September 1936, the rebel troops occupied Campillos, and on that day the village's cemetery saw the clandestine executions and burials of those who opposed the rebellion against the legitimate Republican government, whether or not they had participated in the murders committed between July and September 1936," María José Berlanga, a lecturer in the Department of Historical Sciences at the UMA and one of the project's coordinators, told SUR.

The state in which the city of Granada was left after the coup d'état in July 1936 would influence the rebel army's actions in the north of Malaga province. In the summer of 1936, several operations took place from Ronda to Loja to connect Granada with rebel territories. It was at this point that General Varela began the advance of his troops into the Antequera region, occupying Fuente de Piedra, Humilladero and Mollina. He established his headquarters in Antequera and subsequent advances departed from there.

According to Berlanga, from 20 July 1936 onwards, a number of right-wing residents were arrested in Campillos: some were taken to the municipal morgue while others were brought to the Civil Guard barracks and executed. In this context, on 12 September 1936, the Captain of the General Staff of the Operations Bureau issued the general order, from Seville, to occupy Campillos.

"Thus, the El Saucejo division was ordered to occupy Campillos on the 13th, where the troops spent the night, and on the same day that they took the village, the Campillos cemetery became witness to the executions and burials of the victims that we have located," explained the coordinator of the work.

At the moment, the agreement between the UMA and the Andalusian government only involves locating the two graves. The next step will be the exhumation of victims, which will likely take two years to complete.

"We have the names of the people who died from archival studies but we still can't match the names to the bodies, we will do that in the next phase. We are still studying the findings, although we were able to determine that these were graves from the Civil War because there was one victim with bullet wounds, and other bodies with fractures from beatings, and hands in a position which indicates their arms were tied," said Berlanga.

The researchers have documented the bodies of more than 120 people murdered in July 1936 - some for being pro-Nationalist and some for being pro-Republican. They range in age from young people to people over the age of 69, with ten per cent of the bodies being those of women.

"This figure is above the average number of women found in Andalusian graves, which is around three to five per cent," said the UMA lecturer. She explains that the professions of the victims can also be deducted from the study of archives and the oral testimonies of relatives. They have identified people in the graves who were labourers, bankers, railway workers, bakers and lawyers.

The investigation began a year ago, as the possibility of the existence of a mass grave in the town was a continual topic of conversation there. Different archives, both civilian and military, were studied, including the Archives of the Second Territorial Military Tribunal of Seville and the provincial historical archives of Malaga. Surveying of the area also took place using a ground-penetrating radar. Following four weeks of work on the ground, the experts have now concluded the first phase of the project.

The team who located the graves was made up of Berlanga, Encarnación Barranquero, from the UMA's Department of Modern and Contemporary History, a forensic anthropologist and two archaeologists. The project is part of the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory's exhumation plan.