In 1969, a taxi driver from Barcelona who was providing a service recognized the geographical origin of a family by their accent. Where are you from? he asked them. From Moncofa, they responded. It was then that he explained to them that, during the Franco regime, he had been held in the concentration camp in this coastal town in the province of Castellón and that, one night, they forced him to drive a van with four prisoners to a field in the town. neighbor of Nules. There, they were executed without prior trial.
The story is told by Juan Luis Porcar, researcher and member of the Grup per la Recerca de la Memoria Històrica de Castelló, who now supervises the work on a grave popularly known as the driver's grave, given that the track of this Barcelona taxi driver - united to the oral testimonies of Nules residents - helped locate the possible place where at least four bodies were buried.
A few weeks ago, archaeologists have begun to excavate in the area, in a project, explains Porcar, that has not been easy at all. In fact, he tells how, after having almost signed the agreement with the Castellón Provincial Council - with all the documentation already presented -, the new provincial corporation that emerged from the municipal elections of 28-M, chose not to grant any subsidy. A hard blow, explains Miquel Mezquida, archaeologist and director of the project who has been working since 2020 to find out what happened in this field between the municipalities of Nules and Moncofa.
With the previous work already carried out, the memorial entity, without the financial support of the Provincial Council, used its own resources and private donations to rent a backhoe and carry out the exhumation. However, the days passed, the money ran out and the search was fruitless.
“We had lost hope,” Francisco Canós, who is looking for one of his uncles in this grave, explains to La Vanguardia. Two of his mother's brothers were shot during the first post-war years. They had located one in Castellón, where he was executed after a quick trial, but the other could not be located until they found the clue to the Nules/Moncofa grave where, in addition to his uncle Manuel Arnau Canós, they are expected to be Amadeo Martí Vila, Esteban Alavés Millán and José Belloti Palmer.
As Porcar explains, the four were victims of the so-called extrajudicial repression “typical of the first days of the postwar period, when the Franco apparatus was not yet installed and, without any trial, certain people were taken out and shot.” Francisco Canós says that they told him that they took his uncle out of the concentration camp one night, beat him and forced him to dig his own grave before killing him.
The work began in September, but the days and weeks passed and the remains were not found. When they already thought they would not find the bodies, Porcar and Canós tell this newspaper, last week they found the first bones in a corner of the plot where they worked.
The surprise was this week when they found more remains, making a total of six bodies. This circumstance has made Francisco Canós doubt whether the bones are indeed his uncle's, since it was not just the four who were looking for who lost their lives in this field between the towns of Nules and Moncofa.
The reason is explained by the investigator of the search group who points out that, although the bodies searched were those of the townspeople, there were others from other towns who were captured and taken to the detention camp and from there, executed and buried in the driver's pit.
Mezquida shares this thesis. "When we started excavating, a local historian approached us and predicted that we would find more than four bodies," he says. Thus, last week they found four and this last week two more. The member of the ArqueoAntro scientific association explains that the Moncofa concentration camp was in operation for three weeks, so it is most likely that more remains of soldiers from other areas of Spain who surrendered on the Levante front may appear. that no one has claimed until now.
Therefore, the analysis of the DNA remains is now necessary. Mezquida says that some approximations can be made by examining the biological age of the remains, but that if they are all of similar ages, it would be difficult to know the identities without a DNA analysis. This genetic analysis, regrets the director of the exhumation, was included in the agreement that was going to be signed with the Castellón Provincial Council.
However, Porcar warns, after the exhumation expenses there is no more money, so they ask for the support of citizens through their donation campaign or the participation of public institutions to finish a job that, only for the stubbornness of relatives and memorial organizations, has been able to see the light.
