Rafael Gomez Niet, the last survivor of the NUEVE, Spanish battalion of the 2nd DB of General Leclerc who liberated Paris on August 24, 1944 died Tuesday March 31 in Strasbourg following the Covid-19.
Rafael Gomez Niet was born on January 29, 1921 in Adra, Andalusia, near Almería, to a professional military father loyal to the institutions of the Spanish Republic. At the age of 17, he joined the republican army in « la leva del Biberón » (raising the bottle), reserved for those under 18 years of age. He took part in the Battle of the Ebro (July-November 1938) which opposed the republican forces to the nationalists, after which he had to flee to France but was interned in a camp from which he escaped for Algeria. It was there that he joined General De Gaulle’s Free French Forces, made up of all the nationalities of the French colonial empire and volunteers. Engaged in the 2nd Armored Division (La Nueve) in 1943, he was assigned to the 9th company which had 160 men including 146 Spanish, mostly anarchists.
After having landed in Normandy at the end of July 1944, the tanks of the Nueve including that of Rafael Gomez Nieto called “Guernica” entered Paris on August 24, 1944 around 8 p.m. by the Porte d’Italie on the orders of General Philippe Leclerc, they were at the Hôtel de Ville an hour and a half later. The next day, Leclerc’s Sherman tanks entered the capital on the morning of Friday, August 25 from the south and west to liberate Paris from the Nazi yoke.
After Paris, La Nueve’s men followed General Leclerc to liberate Strasbourg on November 23, before being among the first to take « the eagle’s nest », Adolf Hitler’s second home in Germany, on May 5, 1945 Demobilized, returned to Algeria, before settling in Strasbourg in 1955. He died there Tuesday, March 31.
It was not until 2004 that the commitment of the men of the Nueve was recognized. All along the division’s route, medallions honoring it have been affixed. Rafael Gomez Nieto received the Legion of Honor in 2012. A garden in tribute to La Nueve fighters was baptized in 2015 by Anne Hidalgo who paid tribute to the last survivors.
“Rafael Gomez Niet has left us and I am very sad about it. He was the last survivor of the Nueve: these Liberation heroes, Spanish, were the first to enter Paris. It was an immense honor to know him. My emotional thoughts go out to his family and loved ones, ”said the Mayor of Paris.
« France will not forget its commitment and its sacrifices, it will remain with him and all of its combat comrades eternally grateful, » the Elysee said in a statement.
Rafael Gómez lived in Lingolsheim (Bas-Rhin) in a retirement home near Strasbourg and was due to celebrate his 100th birthday next January. Admitted to a clinic and tested positive for coronavirus, he died on March 31. Although still in good health despite his old age, the virus has conquered him. « It was the symbol of the Nueve, with it a part of the history of the liberation of Paris and the Spanish Republicans ».
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