The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-09-01
Eye Witness Of Spanish Atrocities ArriDes Here
 With HdrrolDing Stories
Joe Fernandez Medical Student Saw Priests Nuns Burned Ave Viewed DespOLatiOn of Churches Flees to France
 on British Destroyer; Physically Affected By Scenes

A tale of horror, cruelty and bloodshed in 2oth century Spain that even the darkest ages ofNbar- barian supremacy can hardly equal was told today by Jose Fernandez Cuiroga, Waterbury resident who has returned after escaping from gore-spattered Barcelona, where he had been making advanced studies In medicine. Quiroga, known to many Waterburians as "Joe Fer nandea," and who left here in 1881, related scenes of savage butchery that he witnessed in Barcelona, of priests and nuns being burned alive, of magnificent cathedrale being despoiled and ravaged by commun- ists and anarchists, and of suspect- cd rebel synpathiSers being shot down in cold blood.
 Escapes
 Cuiroga was taken from Barce- Iona, August l6, after he had worked for nearly three years at the Hospital Clinico dc Barcelona. He was brought to Marseilles, France, aboard the British destroyer Gallant, and proceeded thence to Havre, and Southampton, embark ing at the latter port on the French finer Lafayette, which brought him to New York.
 1T saw brought into the hospital" [" said Quiroga, priests and nuns whose bodies had been almost cut to pieces with bayonets and swords. aaw the bodies of others who had been burned alive, and I saw their terTor-marked, torture-lined faces that told only too well of the cruelty which they had undergone. I saw young boys and girls shoot and stab members of religious orders, shoot bullet after bullet into their dead bodies and then spit on their pros- trate fcrms."
 Mob Rules
 "The people In America" said Quiroga, do not realize that the rebels as they call them arc tho ones who favor an orderly, just govern ment for Spain. It is the present government, with it's communists, It's anarchists, socialists and its syn dicalists, who stand for cruelty and torture, and who are making tools of many of tho innocent people of SpOin. The Spanish government is not government; 1t is rule by Q blood- -thirtsy mob"
 The revolution began in Morocco July l0. At 4:lb on the following morning, Quiroga, who made his home with a French family, was awakened by shots and screams. The civil war had come to Bar celona. Only Q few hundred feet from his sitting room was Univer- Sity Place, where the early fighting centered. The rebels held their own for Q time, then they were forced back. Women and children, singing the communist anthem, tho Intsrnationale, joined the Hnilitia's ranks. aa.
 Escapes Bullets
 The mob then turned to pillaging and footing churches and convents. A dozen stray bullets struck tho house where CuigogA lived, but he escaped unharined. Priests and sis- ters were dragged into the streets, and many of them were slaughter. cd.
 Paintings Destroyed
 Said Quiroga: T saw Q mob enter ono of the cathedrals, where they gathered all the precious altar ves- sells and piled them into bags. Then they ripped the beautiful paintings from the walls, and smashed price, less statues. Then the paintings, tho beautiful carvings and the pows of tho church were ell piled In q heap and set afire while c shouting mob danced around the blazing pile. And the priests were led to the edge of the fire, and bayonets were thrust into them 50 that they had no choice, but look on while the treas- ures which they loved were de- vtroyed. When the blaze died down, the priests were shot, and tho mob left for the next church."