The importance of democratic memory in the commemoration of victims of human rights crimes
Since 2009, the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism has been celebrated on August 23. The aim of this day is “to preserve the memory of the victims of deportations and mass exterminations, while at the same time rooting democracy more firmly and strengthening peace and stability on our continent”.
With this, it was intended to pay tribute to the victims of the regimes that plagued Europe in the 20th century, coinciding with the demonstrations that took place on the same day in 1986 in several cities around the world such as London, New York or Washington against the crimes against human rights under Stalinism.
Demonstrations continued in the Baltic countries during 1989 with the so-called Baltic Way. A 600-kilometer human chain took place along the length of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as a non-violent form of protest aimed at demanding their independence from the Soviet Union. These three countries became part of the Union precisely on August 23, 1939, with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany. Both countries, while agreeing not to attack each other, divided up territories in Central Europe. Thus, this pact led to the occupation of these countries, which came to be governed under severe restrictions for 50 years by the Soviet Union.
By including in the same day, the memory of the victims of two regimes politically opposed but with equally disastrous consequences, the exercise of historical memory that we are trying to practice is that of not forgetting the victims who suffered the repression of totalitarianism in Europe.
The European Parliament Resolution of 19 September 2019 on the importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe recalls that ” World War II, the most devastating war in the history of Europe, was the direct result of the infamous Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty of 23 August 1939, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and its secret protocols, which allowed two totalitarian regimes, sharing the goal of conquering the world, to divide Europe into two zones of influence” causing mass murders, genocides and deportations. Likewise, the resolution expresses its concern at the current increase in the apology of totalitarian ideologies and historical revisionism.
This same spirit is echoed by many European countries that have legislated to prohibit the glorification of dictatorships in their states. Since 2005, Germany has criminalized the glorification of Nazism as a crime of racial hatred. Similarly, in Italy, the use of fascist slogans has been prohibited since 1993. Austria and Poland also criminalize the advocacy of these regimes. European countries are always concerned about gestures that may encourage hatred, racism or xenophobia.
In Spain, the Law of Democratic Memory is a clear example of this. In its preamble, the law brings together the fundamentals of what was expressed in the Resolution of the European Parliament in 2019, stressing that “the promotion of democratic memory policies has become a moral duty that it is essential to strengthen to neutralize forgetfulness and avoid the repetition of the most tragic episodes of history”, encouraging with these policies citizen participation and reflection in order to repair and recognize the dignity of the victims of all forms of intolerant and fanatical violence.
Among the provisions included in this law is the removal of elements and symbols contrary to democratic memory. Likewise, the search for missing persons is established as an obligation of the State, corresponding to the General State Administration, and the relatives of the victim, memorial associations and any other person claiming a legitimate interest will have the right to request the exhumation.
The law, on the other hand, also mentions the reparation of the victims of the war and the dictatorship by the State. The Administration will work to investigate seizures made for political reasons. Likewise, with respect to the forced labor that took place during the post-war period and the dictatorship, the places related to this labor will be investigated for their identification.
One of the changes that have taken place thanks to the law and that has had the greatest impact is the resignification of the Valley of the Fallen. The place has become a civil cemetery (eliminating the character of a monument to the regime) and will be a place where only people who died because of the Civil War will be buried. Consequently, as the law states, it is forbidden to carry out in the place “acts of political nature or exaltation of the War, its protagonists or the Dictatorship”.
Since 2016, FIBGAR has been developing various activities through the Memorízate project in which a multitude of testimonies of victims of the Civil War are collected. In this way, it aims to raise awareness, especially among young people, of the history that runs through our country and our democracy. The practice of this memory is seen as the only possible way to build a healthy democracy capable of remembering its past, where remembrance is not seen as something individual but as a collective duty.
Similarly, from May to December 2023, FIBGAR is carrying out the Democratic Memory Academy, where young people from 18 to 30 years old can be part of the process of recovery of the Spanish historical memory acquiring the necessary tools to do so. Virtual meetings will be held, data will be collected on the victims of the Civil War and the Dictatorship, and interviews will be conducted with people related to the topics chosen by the participants. With all this, it is expected to create final products, either in the form of articles, reports or audiovisual content, which will be subsequently published through a dissemination campaign.
The existence of these projects is crucial not only when it comes to promoting historical memory as an exercise in remembrance, but also because of the influence it can have on messages of hatred and the apology for certain ideological positions. Not to forget in order not to repeat, this is the task of historical remembrance.
Laura María Cabello Pérez, FIBGAR collaborator.
