Valencia Civil War ‘truth commission’ set up
Bid to give ‘decent burial’ to victims and closure to their families
A LIST of all the victims who died in the Valencia region during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and Franco’s subsequent campaign of terror will be drawn up by the regional government.
The regional parliament last week approved the statutes for the Valencia institute for the historic memory, human rights and public freedoms (Instituto Valenciano de la Memoria Democrática, Derechos Humanos y Libertades Públicas).
This new body will be based in Alicante, one of the last cities to surrender to Franco’s fascists in 1939 – and the site of a number of atrocities and post-civil war concentration camp.
A spokesman for the regional justice department explained that the goals of the institute include the ‘study, investigation and the setting up of measures’ which are ‘in line with the recommendations of the United Nations referring to the right to the truth, justice, mending and memory’ for family members of victims of the Civil War and subsequent repression.
Its members will be drawn from regional universities, political parties, the regional government, the federation of municipalities, and historic memory associations.
One of their tasks will be ‘the elaboration of a census of the victims’.
They will also carry out the ‘recovery and identification of the remains which lie in mass/common graves which have been located around the Valencia region’.
The institute will also investigate the ‘forced disappearance’ of children during the Civil and the dictatorship up until 1978 when Spain became a democracy.
According to a decree from the regional parliament, the institute must be up and running within a month.
Mass graves
A number of mass graves have been found around the Valencia region which contain the bodies of victims of Franco’s repression.
One of these which is currently being excavated is in Paterna cemetery in Valencia province.
According to Europa Press news agency, 2,388 bodies lie in the grave.
The victims were shot and interred after the Civil War in the period between 1939 and 1956.
Family members have called for their loved ones to be given a proper grave and a ‘decent burial’.
Carmen Gómez, president of the association which represents the families interests, said that all the victims should be identified ‘so everyone can know the truth and we can heal the wounds which are still open’.
She stated that the truth ‘had been hidden from the younger generations’ and that the victims had been killed during the dictatorship because they had chosen not to flee the country and go into exile.
“They gave their lives to defend democracy and freedom,” she said.
A mass grave has also been found at the remains of the post-Civil War concentration camp of Albatera, which lies in an area that is now in the municipality of San Isidro.
Although official records claimed there were 1,600 prisoners at the camp and none died, survivors claim there were up to 10 times that number and many deaths.
Estimates indicate that up to 30 people were shot but the most common causes of death were illness, dehydration and hunger.
The Spanish Holocaust
In his ground-breaking book The Spanish Holocaust, Paul Preston – the world’s foremost historian of modern Spain – explained how Francisco Franco and the army generals who rose up against the Republican government in July, 1936 were intent on cleansing the country of their enemies, who were leftwing intellectuals, teachers, free masons, Socialists, and egalitarians.
During his talk at Orihuela’s cultural casino in 2011, he explained: "Franco wanted a slow war so he could eliminate as many people as possible who opposed him.”
The Fascists drew up death lists, intent of wiping out those who had a different vision of Spain to them.
"He wanted to destroy the enemy within," noted Preston.
He described this massive massacre of people as a 'holocaust'.
"Franco created a false historic memory,” he explained.
“There was national brainwashing during Franco's time; in the schools, from the pulpits, etc.
"The fascist ideas continued and were not cleared away."
After the dictator died in 1975 the country did not face up to its past.
Preston estimates that at least 150,000 people were murdered by Franco-ists, although he concedes the number could be far higher.
Add to this the number of men and women killed on the battlefield and it is safe to say the military uprising in 1936 led to deaths of at least half a million people.
"They said the uprising was to save Spain. How can you save a country by killing 500,000 people?" he questioned.
Preston explained that it is 'not harmful to stir up the ashes'.
On the contrary, it is vital to erase the lies which Franco perpetrated and to reverse the brainwashing.
"The work of the historian is to discover the truth," Preston stated.
And reconciliation only be built on truth. can