Burgos 1938, the Monastary outside Burgos in the heart of Franco occupied Spain was used by the Fascists as a prison camp for arrested volunteers from the International Brigades. This picture is of a group of these prisoners, Frank Ryan the Irish Republican who was an officer in the British and Irish battalion (XVth International Brigade) is the tall man second from the left in the front row, I believe given the group captured with Ryan that it is very likely that the late Maurice Levitas, and George Wheeler are in the photo too. It is also likely that Bob Doyle, still thankfully very much amongst us is there somewhere too.. I visited this place a few years ago with Don Watson, and it is now primarily a tourist attraction. The priest who was conducting tours agreed to show us the area where the prisoners were held, and there we were conducted to the courtyard where in all likelihood this photo was taken, it still was recognisable from the descriptions of Burgos given to us by IB veterans such as Maurice Levitas. Maurice recounted to me on numerous occasions that he received appalling treatment there at the hands of his Fascist captors, as well as suffering the indignity of having to undergo pseudo-scientific skull measurements from so called 'experts' visiting from Nazi Germany, who were, sinisterly, particularly interested in Jewish Communists.
