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Enric Marco Batlle (12 April 1921 – 21 May 2022) was aSpanishimpostor who claimed to have been aprisoner inNazi Germanconcentration campFlossenbürg inWorld War II. He was awarded theCreu de Sant Jordi by theCatalan government in 2001 and wrote a book on his experiences. In 2005 he admitted his claims were false and returned his medal, after his deception was revealed by university researcherBenito Bermejo.
Marco was born inBarcelona on 12 April 1921.[1] He toldCatalan TV: "I wasn't in a concentration camp. I was held in captivity and the Nazis did impose penalties on me. But that does not exonerate me from being an impostor." He said he was released after being mistreated for several weeks and returned toSpain in 1943. Marco later admitted to having volunteered in 1941 to work inKiel for the Nazi war industry. In his made-up story calledMemoir of Hell Marco wrote he had been involved in theFrench resistance and captured by theGestapo in southern France.[2]
After 2001 Marco represented an association of survivors of the thousands ofSpaniards who had truly been deported to Nazi concentration campMauthausen.
From 1978 to 1979, Marco, a metal worker, had been the General Secretary of the Spanishanarchist Union CNT (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo), from which he was expelled in 1980.
Marco died on 21 May 2022, at the age of 101.[3]
