Validity of the Damnatio
memoriae
projected memorial monument of the cemetery
(4). The argument used by Ciudadanos and the
Popular Party is that sectarianism has prevailed
Only in 2018, on the initiative of the Office on over dialogue, suggesting their position would
Human Rights and Memory of the Madrid City be the most objective and equidistant, as an
Council, which commissioned a list of victims to a opinion sanctioned by the historians present at the
team of historians by consulting the records of the Commissioner, who, more or less tacitly, would have
cemetery - which was closed again to researchers shared it.
since the end of the 1990s-, it has been possible to
publish an exhaustive list of the people executed in In fact, as noted elsewhere in the heat of the
Madrid during the immediate post-war period: the controversy (5), the presence of these names in the
2,937 persons mentioned, including 80 women (1). memorial was a result of two situations: the decision
The ultimate goal of this list from the beginning was approved months ago by that same Commissioner
to build a memorial monument in the cemetery area (somewhat forgetful of what approved by himself)
“in memory of the victims of Franco’s violence”, and a flawless logic about the recognition of a
where all the names would be included (2). It group of victims homogeneous and perfectly
would be easy to think that this was a praiseworthy differentiated from the historical point of view: the
legitimation, immune to any questioning, especially people executed after the trials which took place
in view of the “deficit” of memory regarding during the post-war in the Franco’s dictatorship.
the Franco repression that has characterised the An evaluation of the reasons that brought to each
municipality of Madrid for decades. A city which still execution would have been like submitting them to
has to fight against political forces and even judges a new trial by supporting and therefore validating a
to assert its decision to rename its streets. Let’s not few irregular procedures given the lack of any legal
forget that the names of well-known generals of the guarantee whatsoever in their military processes.
1936 uprising are now displayed in many streets of The solution suggested by some of the members of
the capital. the Commissioner when proposing an anonymous
memorial would have resulted in an anonymous
And yet, even today, some relevant voices have a memorial instead of a place to remember, by keeping
position against the memorial to include the names in the oblivion the whole group of victims of the
of those 2,937 people even when they are part for immediate post-war period, something that would
example of the Historical Memory Commissioner be impossible at a technical level. A memorial
created nearly a year ago by the Madrid City Council. without names for these victims would have an
Their recommendation was based on the fact that effect opposed to a memorial, a forgetful memorial
this list allegedly included the names of agents of of the victims of the Franco’s regime in the city of
the political violence committed during the civil Madrid.
war in Madrid, calling them “chequistas”: a name
that is as inaccurate as infamous and constantly This hypothetical memorial of erased names would
used during the dictatorship. In mid-June 2018, the also have been an affront to the relatives of those
Commissioner concluded his advisory work with victims, who for almost twenty years have been
the City Council in terms of policy memory, but fighting for the recognition of this episode through
not before some of its members - i.e. The writer the group Memoria y Libertad, and for the full
Andrés Trapiello, proposed by the regional political names of their relatives to be engraved in stone or
party Ciudadanos, expressed their criticism on the bronze. At a practical level, it would have implied
decision, approved in the plenary session (3), to a new twist to the policy of damnatio memoriae
include all the names of the people executed in the prevailing in the dictatorship, also representing
68
Observing Memories
ISSUE 2