Antonio Sagardía Ramos (

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

, 5 January 1880 –

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, 16 January 1962) was a Spanish

military officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...

and war criminal who fought for the Nationalist faction in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. He became known as the "Butcher of Pallars" (''carnicero de Pallars'') because of the massacre committed under his command in

Pallars Sobirà Pallars Sobirà () is a comarca (comparable to a county or shire in much of the English-speaking world) in the mountainous northwest of Catalonia, Spain. The name means "Upper Pallars", distinguishing it from the more populous (and less mountaino ...

. Jaume Cabré (2007); ''De stemmen van de Pamano'', pág. 99

Biography

Sagardía Ramos was born in the

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

ese capital of

, in a Basque–Navarre family. He joined the

Spanish Army The Spanish Army ( es, Ejército de Tierra, lit=Land Army) is the terrestrial army of the Spanish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is one of the oldest active armies — dating back to the late 15th century. The ...

from a young age and in 1921 he rose to the rank of colonel. After the proclamation of the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...

in 1931, he accepted the of

Manuel Azaña Manuel Azaña Díaz (; 10 January 1880 – 3 November 1940) was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933 and 1936), organizer of the Popular Front in 1935 and the last President of the Repu ...

(''Azaña Law'') and retired from the Army.

Role in the Spanish Civil War

Once the

began following the Spanish coup of July 1936, Sagardía Ramos was called by one of the rebel leaders, General

Emilio Mola Emilio Mola y Vidal, 1st Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain (9 July 1887 – 3 June 1937) was one of the three leaders of the Nationalist coup of July 1936, which started the Spanish Civil War. After the death of Sanjurjo on 20 July 1936, M ...

, to rejoin the Army. He immediately commanded a unit of

Falangist Falangism ( es, falangismo) was the political ideology of two political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS) and afterwards the Fal ...

volunteers with whom he intervened in the

Campaign of Gipuzkoa The campaign of Gipuzkoa was part of the Spanish Civil War, where the Nationalist Army conquered the northern province of Gipuzkoa, held by the Republic. Background In late July Mola´s troops suffered a shortage of ammunition (having only 26,00 ...

. In August and September 1937, Sagardía Ramos took part in the

War in the North The War in the North was the campaign of the Spanish Civil War in which the Nationalist forces defeated and occupied the parts of northern Spain that had remained loyal to the Republican government. The campaign included several separate battl ...

and participated in the

Battle of Santander The Battle of Santander was a battle fought in the War in the North campaign of the Spanish Civil War during the summer of 1937. Santander's fall on 26 August assured the Nationalist conquest of the province of Santander, now Cantabria. The bat ...

, at the head of the so-called "Sagardía Column"; the unit exercised a harsh repression against the civilians and soldiers of the Republican faction, including numerous

extrajudicial killing An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution or extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whether ...

s. After the War in the North ended, the "Sagardía Column" was reorganized as the 62nd Division of the , at the head of which he took part in the

Aragon Offensive The Aragon Offensive was an important military campaign during the Spanish Civil War, which began after the Battle of Teruel. The offensive, which ran from March 7, 1938, to April 19, 1938, smashed the Republican forces, overran Aragon, and conq ...

. In April 1938, Sagardía's troops were deployed in the

Battle of the Segre The Battle of Segre is the collective name of a series of battles that took place along the Segre River between 4 April 1938 and 3 January 1939 during the Spanish Civil War, after the Nationalist Faction had broken the lines of the Spanish Repub ...

, in which they hardly encountered any resistance. Montse Armengou, Ricard Belis (2004); ''Las Fosas Del Silencio: ¿hay un Holocausto Español?'', pág. 143 But in the face of casualties suffered by his column after a Republican attack, he said: In May 1938, several extrajudicial killings took place that ravaged the Catalan ''comarca'' of

and resulted in 67 people shot, good part of them women, elderly and children. In January 1939, Sagardía Ramos participated in the

Catalonia Offensive The Catalonia Offensive ( ca, Ofensiva de Catalunya, es, Ofensiva de Cataluña) was part of the Spanish Civil War. The Nationalist Army started the offensive on 23 December 1938 and rapidly conquered Republican-held Catalonia with Barcelona ( ...

. A few weeks later he participated in the so-called " final offensive" of the war, and on 30 March he entered

Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish city in the Community of Madrid. Straddling the Henares River, it is located to the northeast of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated Municipalities ...

at the head of his unit.Monumento a una columna franquista
/ref>

Post-war career

After the Civil War ended, he was appointed Inspector General of the new ''Policía Armada'', Montse Armengou, Ricard Belis (2005); ''El convoy de los 927'', Plaza & Janés, pág. 277 and as such he was part of the delegation that visited

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in September 1940. Ignacio Merino (2004); ''Serrano Suñer: conciencia y poder'', Algaba Ediciones, pág. 70 The following month, he was one of the personalities that received

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

, during the . He subsequently served as military governor of Cartagena.

Bibliography

* — (1940). ''Del Alto Ebro a las fuentes del Llobregat. Treinta y dos meses de guerra de la 62 División''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sagardia Ramos, Antonio 1880 births 1962 deaths Spanish people of Basque descent People from Zaragoza Spanish military personnel Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (National faction) Spanish generals Spanish police officers Spanish anti-communists