“When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.”
Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko
The mid 1970’s marked a period of huge transition in Spain. Franco was dead and many of those who had worked for him suddenly donned democratic hats and got busy scribbling the new constitution. However, democracy brought dilemmas for the former thugs. One aspect they were particularly concerned about were repercussions for the crimes committed under Franco, especially during the Civil War 40 years earlier. It was therefore seen prudent to include a convenient new clause in the constitution – the “pacto de olvido” (pact of forgetting). In the words of documentary maker Montserrat Armengou, “Spain chose silence and memory loss” over justice for tens of thousands of its missing or disappeared victims on both sides of the conflict. There was to be no truth commission, no investigations and no search for the bodies. Until now that is.
President José Luis Zapatero – whose own grandfather was shot by nationalist troops during the civil war – has broken the 30-year-silence by passing the Ley de la Historia de Memoria (Historical Memory Law). It involves several initiatives to help right the wrongs of the past and rid the country of the last vestiges of Francoism. It is, in the government’s words, an attempt to, “Repair the dignity and restore the memory of those people who underwent jail, repression or were killed defending the democratic values we enjoy today.” One part of this plan is allowing families to locate and exhume the bodies of their relatives lying in the hundreds of common and mass graves that remain littered across the country. Many thousands of victims of Franco’s army were dumped into roadside ditches, fields or simply thrown off cliffs. Victims of battles on both sides also often ended up being dumped into mass graves in the most remote areas.
Following the government’s lead, the Generalitat is debating its own official law that will give financial and logistical help to families who wish to exhume their dead. Manel Perona is President of the Associació per a la Recuperació de la Memòria Històrica de Catalunya (ARMHC), an organisation campaigning for the exhuming of civil war graves here, explains why its taken so long. “This law would never have been possible under the previous government,” says Perona. “Not just under the PP in Madrid but even with the previous CiU government in Catalunya there was little chance of seeing it taken seriously. It’s thanks to the influence of more left-wing support both in Madrid and here in the current coalition government that we’re finally seeing justice done.”
Manel Perona is President of the Associació per a la Recuperació de la Memòria Històrica de Catalunya (ARMHC): "Not just under the PP in Madrid but even with the previous CiU government in Catalunya there was little chance of seeing it taken seriously. It’s thanks to the influence of more left-wing support both in Madrid and here in the current coalition government that we’re finally seeing justice done.”
However, such landmarks haven’t just come about as a result of political sympathies. It’s thanks to men such as Perona himself that such a proposal has ever seen the light of day. His organisation has been awarded one of Catalunya’s top honours – the George Cross – for its work in helping families locate common graves. Perona isn’t resting on his laurels though warning though there is still a long way to go and time, in this case, is not on his side. “The bill proposed by the Generalitat could take years to be finally passed. This is a serious problem for us mainly because those that know where the graves might be are simply dying out. For those that are alive, their memories are failing quickly too which makes finding exactly where bodies are very difficult. Its not easy to pinpoint the exact point in the ground where a body might or might not have been buried 50 years ago.” Perona reveals other obstacles too which can prove equally as tricky to deal with. “Fear still stops many elderly people speaking out about where the graves are,” he adds. “You have to understand that there was terrible persecution during Franco’s time and even today, many old people live in fear of speaking out.”
So far, the ARMHC has located around 100 graves in Catalunya although the Generalitat claims it knows of at least 150. The size of the graves remains unclear though and could contain anything from a handful, to up to a few thousand bodies. Director General of the Memòria Democràtica de la Generalitat, Maria Jesús Bono says, “It’s impossible to know exactly how many bodies are hidden within these graves until they are unearthed. In Catalunya, we’re still at an early stage since we’ve only opened one grave in Puigvistós near Prats de Lluçanès. Seven bodies there were exhumed, six of them Republican soldiers and a civilian. They were all given a proper burial by their respective families in their hometowns.” The ARMHC meanwhile has also opened three more graves in Òdena, Olesa de Montserrat and in Dog Maçana Bruc but without luck. “In the rest of the Spain, there has been more exhuming because it’s done mainly by associations and organizations,” adds Bono. “Only here, the Basque Country and Andalusia is there some regulation and support as far as such matters are concerned.”
Director General of the Memòria Democràtica de la Generalitat, Maria Jesús Bono: “We’re seeing that it is the grandchildren of victims that are seeking to find the graves rather than the children of victims.”
One of the biggest problems is locating the graves. Some of the whereabouts remain classified in military records whilst others rely on the testimony of witnesses. “The majority of the graves are located where the most intense battles were,” says Bono. “The Republican front stretched from the borders of the rivers Noguera, Pallaresa, Segre and Ebre, and there were ongoing battles along there. In December of 1938, once Nationalist troops had breached the front and initiated their progression towards the French border, the intense confrontations left hundreds of dead which farmers often ended up having to take to cemeteries or simply bury on the spot. There are also of course many civilian graves too, victims of bombings and atrocities by Franco’s troops.”
As awareness of the new law grows, and people feel safer about speaking out, demand from families looks set to grow. Perona says, “Demand is steadily increasing – we now receive at least two or three calls a day from families asking us to help them locate a grave.” Interestingly however, Bono says the Generalitat’s experience is that it is the younger generation that is spearheading the drive for justice. “We’re seeing that it is the grandchildren of victims that are seeking to find the graves rather than the children of victims.” For the millions of young Spaniards that remain ignorant of the revolutionary events that took place in their country, the opening of the graves could provide an opportunity to revive these lessons.
Of course, not everyone is happy with this attempt at righting the wrongs of the past. The right-wing opposition PP party has been particularly angered by the government allowing families to rebury their dead accusing the government of wanting to “rewrite the past in their favour”. However, by continuing to ignore the situation, Spain was effectively breaking international law. Montserrat Sans, the lawyer who took the case of victims families to the UN, sums up the moral and legal issue at stake. “Spain’s transition to democracy was carried out leaving aside the internationally recognised duty of all states to investigate serious and systematic violations of fundamental rights”. Even though there are no plans to met out justice to perpetrators of civil war crimes, the exhuming of bodies will provide peace of mind that they’ve waited almost a lifetime for. In the words of one victim’s daughter, “”I have no memories of my father. I have suffered all my life because of what happened and I can only put that behind me and grieve properly when I find him and give him the burial he deserves.”
