20th Autumn Memory Cycle Focuses on Nazi Deportations
The 20th edition of Cambrils’ Autumn Memory Cycle will commemorate the stories of two residents, Antoni Virgili Solé and Xavier Figuerola Gorga, who were deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1941. Their experiences, marked by vastly different fates, will be explored through a series of public events beginning 13 October 2026. This year’s programme, titled 'Cambrils in Nazi Camps: 85 Years of Forgetting', aims to recover and share personal histories with the help of descendants located in recent years. The initiative is led by the Municipal Archive and History Museum of Cambrils, in collaboration with the Reus Municipal Archive, the Generalitat’s Memorial Democràtic, the Diputació de Tarragona, Amical de Mauthausen, and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) Campus Extens.
Events Include Film, Exhibition and Guided Tour
The cycle begins on Tuesday 13 October with a screening of TV3’s 2004 documentary El comboi dels 927 at 7:00 PM, preceded by a roundtable discussion and testimony from local resident Rosa Cervera Navarro. The film examines the transport of Spanish Republicans to Nazi camps, including Mauthausen. On 17 October, the exhibition 'Fascism Never Again! From Baix Camp to the Hell of the Nazi Camps' opens at the Centre d’Art la Carrossa, curated by the Reus Municipal Archive. Relatives of both Cambrilenc deportees are expected to attend. A dedicated lecture on Virgili and Figuerola will be delivered by Juan Manuel Calvo Gascón, president of Amical de Mauthausen, while another talk will address the broader context of Republican deportations between 1940 and 1945. The series concludes on 14 November with a guided walk through Cambrils’ Old Quarter, highlighting locations tied to the two men’s lives before deportation.
We continue making culture a space for meeting, coexistence and identity in Cambrils.
Oliver Klein, mayor of Cambrils, reaffirmed the town’s commitment to preserving historical memory as part of its civic life, stating this goal at the launch of the autumn cultural programme running from September 2026 to January 2027.
Research Based on Official Catalan Database
The identification of Virgili and Figuerola was made possible by the 'Deportats catalans i espanyols als camps de concentració nazis' database, published in 2020 by the Memorial Democràtic in collaboration with Amical de Mauthausen and Pompeu Fabra University. It is the most comprehensive state-level registry of Spanish deportees, listing 9,161 individuals, around 2,000 of them Catalan. According to data from the Generalitat, the presence of the two Cambrilenc men in Mauthausen was confirmed through this research project, which cross-referenced archival records from Catalonia, Spain, France and Germany, along with oral testimonies collected locally. The full schedule and further information about the Autumn Memory Cycle can be found on the Cambrils Town Council website.
Primary sources: govern.cat, memoria.gencat.cat, TCPDF, upf.edu. Reported by reusdigital.cat, cambrils.cat, diarimes.com, ACN, Redacció Ebredigital.cat, La Guia de Reus, revistacambrils.cat, elpais.com, CCMA.
