Whilst he should be revered for his photography, it is the bravery which he demonstrated when stealing photos from the Mauthausen concentration camp that we must emphasise in posterity. Boix’s valour to provide us with photographic evidence of Mauthausen allows us today to view it (and other Nazi camps like it) for exactly what they were. His commitment to the truth means that the crimes perpetrated in Mauthausen can never be disputed and hopefully will never be repeated. For this, history owes him a great debt, and he deserves to be remembered far more widely than he is now.

Born in Barcelona in the working-class district of Poble Sec, Francesc Boix came from a modest family. His father, Bartolomé, was a tailor, but in his spare time collected old cameras. Bartolomé’s fascination for photography would inspire in his son a passion for taking pictures that would define the course of his life.

From an early age, the young Francesc would use his father’s cameras to capture the life around him developing his photos in the makeshift darkroom set up in the family kitchen. Inseparable from his camera, Boix soon grew to be skilled photographer and his aptitude behind the lens meant that by the time Civil War broke out in Spain in June 1936 (when Boix was just 15) he was already an adept photographer. Swept up by the currents of opposition to Franco’s coup Boix joined the United Socialist Youth (JSU) to work as a photographer with the Communist press on the Aragon and Segre fronts. At the age of just 16 he had his first photos published in the Unified Socialist Youth Magazine (Juliol). His work with the Communist press drew him close to the JSU cause and he became close friends with its leading figures Gregorio and Joaquín López Raimundo.