Next Saturday, April 18, at 7:30 PM, the Town Hall building in Benialí, in La Vall de Gallinera, will be the venue for the presentation of the book El Kapo. The author, Guillem Llin, will be in charge of revealing new details about the life of César Orquín Serra, the most famous Spanish kapo of Mauthausen.

Orquín, an anarchist born in 1914, was the unrecognized son of a Valencian aristocrat, a fact that later led to a connection with La Vall de Gallinera. In 1936, he volunteered to defend the republican democracy against the military uprising. He was part of the Lincoln Brigade and was deported to Mauthausen, where, from 1941, he served as a kapo and managed to save the lives of approximately 300 people.

Kapos were prisoners who helped the SS maintain discipline and direct forced labor. Although many committed crimes, some, like César Orquín, used their position to save lives. After the camp's liberation in May 1945, Orquín was accused by some deportees linked to the Communist Party, but his integrity was defended by compatriots who had worked under his orders, attributing the accusations to traditional political rivalry. Ultimately, Orquín ended his life in Argentina.

With this presentation, the La Vall de Gallinera Town Hall joins the annual actions around democratic memory, coinciding with the 95th anniversary of the proclamation of the Second Republic.