Editor's Abstract
- As one of the only Black men known to have been imprisoned at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, the life of José Carlos Grey-Molay has, for decades, been of interest to historians of the Second World War and the Holocaust. The historic archive contains two pictures of the young José Carlos dressed in formal-looking attire at the camp, as well as stories of a Black man from Barcelona – described as ‘not only handsome but also cultivated’ – who confused the prejudices of his Nazi captors, but little else was known about him.
- In this short film, his daughter Muriel now tells her father’s improbable life story, from his childhood in Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea), to his years as a freedom fighter in the Spanish civil war and the French resistance, to his time in Mauthausen, to his postwar years as a family man in France, when he rarely spoke of his past.
- Into her narrative, the Spanish director Enric Ribes weaves recreated home movies, family snapshots and archival records, creating a deeply moving film and meaningful historical document from what is, above all else, a daughter’s love letter to her beloved late father.
Notes
- This is an interesting video, but leaves lots of questions. Maybe some of them are answered by a more attentive viewing than I gave it.
- Strangely, for a piece raising so many issues of contemporary interest, there are no Comments on Aeon, even though it is open for such.
- While one can see the connection between a Spanish colony and Barcelona, it's not fully clear how and why José Carlos got to fight in the Spanish Civil War, nor on which side, though one presumes that - as he ended up in France, as well as on likely ideological lines - it was on the side of the Republicans.
- I don't think there's anything in the video about (as the blurb says) his time in the French resistance, nor how he got to Mauthausen. Lots of the gaps are doubtless down to his reticence about his past.
- While he suffered some fairly low-key racism in Mauthausen, by the standards off the time and place, it doesn't look as though he suffered anything like as much as other - less exotic - prisoners. The narrative expatiates at length about 'not sleeping with a former concentration-camp prisoner', on account of their nightmares - and how José Carlos worked at night, so that he could sleep during the day when there are comforting sounds. No doubt he would have witnessed many horrific scenes, but it’s not clear that he suffered the deprivations to be expected in a concentration camp.
- There are a couple of passages where José Carlos refuses to undress on the beach or go swimming - as maybe he bore physical scars from Mauthausen or elsewhere (as well as the initiation ceremony in Spanish Guinea, which his daughter discovered).
- There's no reference at all to how he met his French wife, nor whether they encountered any racist abuse, nor how their mixed-race children were received. They all seem to have been happy. Looking at the family photos, some of the children didn't look mixed-race, though whether they were the wife's children from an earlier marriage or simply French friends isn't explained.
Comment:
- Sub-Title: "The extraordinary story of a Black Holocaust survivor, as told by his daughter"
- For the full text see Aeon: Video - 4124.GreyKey.
- Aeon Video.
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2023
- Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)