King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain traveled to Austria over the weekend to attend the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, organized by the Mauthausen Austria Committee successor to the Austrian Association of Survivors of Mauthausen. The King and Queen joined over 20,000 attendees to honoured the victims of the Nazi regime, particularly the thousands of Spanish Republicans who suffered and perished there.
At the camp site nearly 190,000 prisoners suffered under Nazi brutality, including 7,500 Spanish Republicans. King Felipe and Queen Letizia were accompanied by the Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen and other dignitaries. After the Spanish Civil War, thousands of Republicans who fled Franco’s regime were captured in France and deported to Mauthausen, branded “Red Spaniards” by the Nazis. Of the 7,500 sent there, some 4,700 perished. The camp’s liberation by U.S. forces on May 5, 1945, brought freedom to the survivors, but the scars of their ordeal endure in Spain’s collective memory.
The ceremony, themed “Didn’t we say never again?”, was a call to vigilance in an era of rising intolerance. King Felipe and Queen Letizia laid wreaths at the central memorial, the Spanish Republican monument, and the French Republican monument, symbolizing solidarity across borders. Queen Letizia’s handkerchief, embroidered with an “S” in a blue triangle—the badge worn by Spanish prisoners—was a subtle but evocative tribute. In the Golden Book of Mauthausen, the royals wrote, “80 years later, we reaffirm our collective and personal commitment to democracy and the defense of human rights.” Their visit to the Wiener Graben quarry and the “Stairs of Death,” where prisoners hauled stones under lash and gunfire, underscored the horrors endured.
What Queen Letizia wore to the anniversary
- Mango Structured Suit Jacket – New
- Mango Wide-leg Suit Trousers – New
- Uterque blouse – New
- Gold & Roses Shewel Triple Hoops – Repeat
- Coreterno Ring – Repeat
- Carolina Herrera Victoria Insignia Bag – Repeat
- Massimo Dutti Heeled Loafers – Repeat
