The bodies of six people who were victims of the Franco prison in Orduña have been identified: Antonio Bootello Negrete from Pizarra (Málaga), Aquilino Flores Bautista from Valencia de las Torres (Badajoz), José Gómez Narváez from Castuera (Badajoz), José Pozo García from Aceuchal (Badajoz), Torrenueva (Ciudad Real), Zoilo Villar or Tolbaviz Fernández Jovas (Badajoz).

Between 1937 and 1941, it was a concentration camp and prison in the Jesuit Fathers’ College of Orduña: a concentration camp for the first two years, and once the war was over, a prison. A total of at least 225 people died there, 24 of them in the concentration camp; according to data from the Evento Institute. The captives were classified according to their pro-republican involvement and had poor living conditions such as overcrowding, humiliation, hunger, cold, disease and death.

Although most of the concentration camps in the area were closed in 1939, the one in Orduña continued to function as a prison until 1941. Urduña became a cornerstone of Franco’s prison policy and, as a result, the profiles of the detainees began to change. They stopped receiving prisoners from the South Basque Country and began to lock up prisoners from certain territories of the Spanish State: More than half of the 225 people killed in Orduña were from Extremadura (125 from Badajoz and 2 from Cáceres).

Researching the memory

The data are known thanks to the work of Joseba Egiguren, as well as the surnames of the deceased. DNA samples from the descendants of the deceased are compared to those from the remains. The President stressed that the process was difficult. The passage of time often prevents the discovery of relatives, and in addition the DNA loses its quality, making it difficult to determine the levels of kinship. The work of recovery and identification of the 93 people of Orduña is a program created by the Evento Institute with the support of the Aranzadi Science Association and the Biomics genetic laboratory of the UPV/EHU, the first is in charge of forensic analysis of the remains, the second is in charge of comparing the samples and carrying out the genetic identification.