Republican prisoners in the Santiago Castle, Sanlúcar de Barrameda

This photo is unique, the only one to show the inside of a prison in the first months of the Civil War, at a time when mass executions were taking place in the rebel zone. We see a large group of prisoners, most of them anarchists belonging to the CNT and socialists, in a basement room in the Santiago Castle in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.  Most were peasants or sailors. The faces of these twenty men reflect their anxiety and fear of a future that was truly uncertain. Most, perhaps all, of the men in the photo were executed. 

The photo was taken by German visitors. On 29 September 1936, the Andalucía edition of the newspaper ABC reported that,some time after 10:00 the previous morning, the German torpedo boat Wolf had arrived in Sanlúcar and that Captain Hans Erdmenger and his crew went to the city hall, where they were received by the local authorities. Grateful for Germany’s support for the military revolt against the government of the  Republic, the city council—led by mayor José de Argüeso Gutiérrez and the military commander and head of the local Falange, Francisco Ariza—gave them a fulsome welcome. The Wolf’s officers were given a tour of the city, including stops at a number of wineries where they were grandly feted.  

At the end of the day, the Germans were taken to the castle, where one of the crew took this photograph. It measures 12 x 8.5 cm and is printed on high quality photographic paper. On the back, someone who identified himself as “Jacks” wrote: “Communists behind lock and key in the old castle of Sanlúcar” (Kommunisten hinter Scholß und Riegel im alten Kastell von Sanlúcar).