RailEnquiry

In a remote Spanish village on the foot of the Pyrenees, a railway station holds frightening and heroic memories from World War II.It was through the railway station of Canfranc, which has 600 residents, that the Nazis transported stolen gold to Spain and Portugal, that Jews fled, and that spies took radio equipment to the French resistance movement.The railway station, a modernist marvel made of glass and iron, was once billed as being “bigger than the Titanic.” The site even set the stage for some of the scenes in David Lean’s 1965 movie Doctor Zhivago.The Canfranc railway station is eight kilometres from the French border. A tunnel was drilled into the mountain, a river was diverted and forests were cleared to create a rail line intended to become an important link between Spain and France.

Inauguration
The railway station was solemnly inaugurated in 1928 by Spain’s then king Alfonso XIII and French president Gaston Doumergue. However, the rail line only took on a major international significance during World War II.In 2000, a local bus driver came across documents that had been scattered on the rails. They revealed that the Nazis had used the rail line to transport gold. It amounted to more than 86 tons between 1942 and 1943, according to researcher Ramon J Campo.

Stolen gold

The gold had been stolen from European central banks and from Jews in concentration camps. A part of it was used to buy wolfram from Spain and Portugal for the German weapons industry.

Spain’s dictator Francisco Franco had links with Nazi Germany, but he was also dependent on oil deliveries from the Allies, and allowed the Canfranc border to remain porous so refugees could pass through. Jews and others pursued by the Nazis travelled through Spain to Portugal and North Africa on their way to the Americas.

Researchers have discovered characters such as Madelaine Wayemus, a French woman who was detained when trying to join her Jewish husband in Spain, and French spy Albert Le Lay, who staged a spectacular escape.

Two trains

Currently, the station is in dilapidated state. The connection with France has been closed since 1970, when a train accidentally knocked down a bridge. Two trains still circulate daily on the Spanish side of the border, carrying tourists. The Aragon regional government announced recently that it would purchase the station from the rail company Adif. There is a project to reopen the connection with France and to turn the station into a complex housing a museum, a research centre, a hotel and shops.DPA