Ghosts of the Holocaust in Franco’s mass graves: Cosmopolitan memories and the politics of “never again”

Abstract

This essay presents a sociological analysis of what is known in Spain as the "recovery of historical memory" and the politics deriving from this recovery. This process was catalyzed by the exhumations of the remains of victims of Francoism that have been under way since the beginning of the twenty-first century. In order to do this, we will use the literature on cosmopolitan sociology and provide a dialogue between this sociology and recent developments in the study of social and cultural memory using concepts like postmemory, multidirectional, and cosmopolitan memory. The article moves beyond the national context and looks at Spanish memory politics through the theory and praxis of Holocaust memory on the one hand and the memory of the Argentinean victims of the military dictatorship on the other hand. This will enable us to identify the components and problems of a culture and politics of globalized memory.He cavado la fosa de mis muertos en el aire, donde sus huesos ligeros

The Creation of Transnational Memory Spaces: Professionalization and Commercialization

“…Bavidge 2012; Buckley-Zistel 2014; Erll 2011). Baer and Sznaider (2015) remind us that the universalization of the "never again" discourse originates from the significance of the Holocaust memory and its transnational communication (pp.332), transcending "the communities, nations, or groups involved in the events as victims, bystanders, or persecutors" (p.331).…”

The resilient memory of the Spanish Civil War and Francoism

“…Indeed, the socio-political representation of the victims or descendants of victims transcends their personal experiences, as the process of "victimization" permeates their memories, their remembrance, and expression of these memories in the present (Aguilar Fernández, 2008). In this sense, the social and political perception of the victims is influenced by other international processes, most notably by the impact of the historical memory of the Holocaust (Baer and Sznaider, 2015;Gómez López-Quiñones, 2012). The result is the recombination of these memories in a postmodern discourse (Renshaw, 2011), in which the diversity of experiences of repression are blended but are then oriented and connoted depending on the political perception (Aguilar Fernández, 1996Fernández, , 2007.…”

“…In this regard, the period of transition to democracy opened new possibilities to restore or redirect the political ideas, but it also brought new discontentment and new conflicts. The leitmotivs of the transition to democracy was nunca más (never again) and “to look ahead in order to overcome the past, but the memory movement reverses this relationship and recommends looking back” (Baer and Sznaider, 2015: 8). However, this hindsight is influenced by the present political and social context and, consequently, some interviewees expressed disappointment with the new political parties and trade unions, as some of them had previously fought and acted clandestinely with ambitious targets, but, in the new scenario, they considerably reduced their political aspirations, especially in terms of recognition of the victims.…”

“…These new actors have the possibility of debating about the past with a different, re-signified, conception of the suffering and the victims. Their responsibility is not to re-judge the original crimes, but to recover the dignity of those who were labeled as criminals, and simultaneously to provide a scenario for their descendants to deal with the memories in a different manner (Baer and Sznaider, 2015; Bevernage and Colaert, 2014). One interviewee, whose grandfather was executed during the Civil War, asked for the restoration of his honor and dignity.…”

Generational dynamics in Spain: Memory transmission of a turbulent past

“…Renshaw has summarized the main differences between the two major memorial associations: ARMH and Foro por la Memoria. Whereas the first prioritizes family bonds and relatives’ needs in exhumation processes, the second considers exhumations “an opportunity to represent the political identities of the dead, their biographies and their ideology” (2011: 230).Some authors have considered this appropriation of human rights language as a sign of depoliticization (Baer and Sznaider, 2015; Gómez López-Quiñones, 2012). However, we would argue that there is no incompatibility between the use of such language and the defense of ideological positions.…”