The founders of the Democratic and Social State is still missing. As this place has been turned into
believed that the improvement in the quality of life a museum, it lives especially from the immaterial
of the majority of the Portuguese would always drive heritage that has been reconstructed using police
away the “demons” of the past. However, the rela- records, the court records and especially those of
tive failure of this Social State showed how fallible some of the around 30 thousand political prisoners,
and ephemeral the foundations of life are, which (many of whom are still alive), who were held there.
we naively believe last forever - and also the histo- In fact, as the prison was closed in 1965, a large part
ry that we (re)construct on top of them. “The only of its “prison records and repressive contents” dis-
duty we owe to history – said Oscar Wilde one day appeared, as a result of abandonment or the banali-
– is to rewrite it” - in the dual meaning of rewrit- zation that resulted from the daily activities inherent
ing what is reconstructed. It will have been for this to its subsequent use as a building of the Ministry of
reason that dozens of “memory-joggers”, citizens Justice, with multiple administrative functions.
and organizations alike, strove to reconstruct the
always) an unfinished process. As a Museum that of the New State can never be a chest of curiosities
Aljube Museum and today continue to fight for a It is, therefore, a Museum that resorts to the first- focusses on historic content – showing the absence from which we nostalgically pluck out “stories of
National Museum of Resistance in Peniche Fort. In hand memory of those who passed through it and of rights and the struggle to obtain them in specific life”, like a voyeur or with literary and artistic in-
fact, Resolution no. 24/2008 (passed unanimously which uses History as a resource of validation and of and concrete situations of contemporary Portuguese tent. The heroism (and also the weakness, of certain
in the Assembly of the Republic) recommended the reflection on what it meant to be a political prisoner history, it is also a Museum with a strong political moments) of those who fought for Freedom helps us
“creation of a museum of freedom and resistance in during the dictatorship: on the reasons why someone component, where the approach to the topics and to understand how one fights, how one gives up and
the historic centre of Lisbon”, as a uniting factor of a was imprisoned, on the methods of the police and their interpretation requires a multifaceted inter- how the struggle for Democracy and for equality for
network of museums established to evoke and value political courts, using long preventive custodies and vention/mediation. Not only to see history in a plural the many requires us to keep a watchful eye on these
the struggle and resistance of thousands of men and torture to extract the “truth”, on the (lack) of reaction way, but to foster a critical view of the world today. major moments of History’s «return» to times that
women who, since the implantation of the mili- by society, in general, on the mishaps committed by Today we know that our grandparents – many of we thought impossible, after achieving heights of
tary dictatorship, in 1926, fought for freedom and justice and, especially, on the negative outcomes of whom lived through the hell of the years that fol- civilization of which we can be proud.
democracy – revolutionaries, reformists or simply these prisons on the private, professional and fami- lowed the end of War World I, and who participated advocates of the Rule of Law, violently dismantled as ly life of those who dared to fight the lack of political in the implantation of a “good dictatorship against In the Aljube we favour mediation with the groups
from 1926. and social rights. The latter is, without doubt, one of bad politicians” in 1926, did not imagine that the 48 that visit us – fostering dialogue (and even reconcil-
the museum’s main missions: to rescue the wound- following years would be under a dictatorship. We iation with the more traumatic memories of many of
Two years after the opening of the Aljube Museum ed memory of the combatants, all of whom were also know that many of the Germans who elected those who visit us). We encourage the public hear-
(in 2015), it is worthwhile taking a look at the reac- marked as “dangerous” for a regime and for a society Hitler could never have imagined what would later ing of testimonies of combatants, we choose special
tions of some of the Museum’s 40 thousand visitors where there tended to be an oppressive and tenden- be the Holocaust. moments of struggle (individual and collective) as
in this period: “When I was 18 years o ld I used to tially consensual silence, especially during some of work down from here, in Pathé Films. I’d walk along the more stable periods of the dictatorial regime. For We are, therefore, better informed. But are we really, and memories to make them known in our Docu-
the side of the prison. I knew that ‘bad things’ went many opponents it was a fight on two fronts: against or is the mass culture that is imposed on us and mentation Centre – to students, to scholars -, and
on here, but I tried to ignore it and walk on the other the dictatorial State on the one hand and, on the other, distracts us preparing to betray us? There are many we invite specialists (national and foreign) to debate
side of the street. We all did the same, you under- against the indifference of a significant part of people signs of backtracking from the “enlightened heri- lesser known or controversial aspects of the history
stand? Today I think that I wasn’t very brave at that who, only very late on became aware of the harm of tage”, both in the world and in “civilised” Europe: of the Portuguese authoritarian state and its transi-
time. You know… we tried not to know – and to isolationism, conservatism, the lack of liberties and the yesterday and today, egoistic forms of nationalism tion to democracy.
forget”. Today, this man is over 70 years old and is a impossibility of assuming public positions in cases as are always ready to appear to exclude the «other»: student in a Third Age University in Peniche – a city calamitous as those that occurred in the course of the it is no longer the communist, the freemason or the The future of the Aljube Museum will be, most cer-
to the North of Lisbon. long colonial war. Semite. Other “names” will appear, because we are tainly, what its visitors – represented by an Advi-
good at nominating the enemy. sory Board – define as what is most important and
spaces to commemorate freedom, we gather objects
It is, therefore, an uncomfortable, silenced and often We are therefore speaking of controversial memo- traumatic heritage that we speak about in the Aljube ries – almost as contentious as the facts and reasons Looking at the present day in Portugal and in the be a place of dialogue that helps to prepare “future
Museum. The Museum does not have a collection that gave rise to them at the time because, in a way, world – this is the Aljube Museum’s other funda- presents” of freedom and democracy.
– and not even a prisoner entry register, because it the transition to democracy is still (and perhaps is mental mission. The History of the Dictatorship and
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valuable. While we are able, the Museum will always
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49