Abstract
A new, settled account emerged during the transition to democracy. The narrative of “we are all guilty” attempted to equalize responsibility for past atrocities. Disturbing confessions on both sides of the Spanish Civil War emerged, however, and they unsettled the accounts of the past. This chapter examines the confessions of perpetrators who live with the trauma of witnessing and committing violent acts under orders or for a cause. It explores the complex layers of complicity in the violence and avoids simplistic notions of good and evil.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Lourdes Heredia, “Church sorry for role in ‘dirty war,’” BBC News, 9 September 2000, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/917266.stm (Accessed: 22 October 2015).
- 3.
Beginning in the 1960s, however, some sectors within the Spanish Catholic Church, mainly at the grassroots level, began to register some criticism of the Franco dictatorship. In 1971 the only attempt by the Church to apologize for their mistakes in the war occurred but failed due to insufficient support (Aguilar 2008a).
- 4.
There is some controversy over the responsibility of the violence during this period. The violent activities of the maquis, particularly in the 1940s, and terrorist activities from the late 1960s of separatists and/or radical left groups, particularly ETA, has been presented by the conservative forces as a challenge to the notion that the Francoist side was exclusively responsible for violence.
- 5.
Although the protagonist’s name was not revealed in the book, it is assumed to be Josep Serra.
- 6.
We have already noted the reference to alcohol as a motive (or excuse) for carrying out atrocities. It is often implied that perpetrators need the indispensable help of alcohol to carry out their actions. This is something that also appears in the unsettling film on the Auschwitz crematorium, The Grey Zone (2001).
- 7.
For a good example, see the article by historian and journalist Jorge M. Reverte (2010).
- 8.
“El anarquista que fusiló a 45 beatos,” El Mundo, 14 October 2007. Available at: http://www.elmundo.es/suplementos/cronica/2007/625/1192312801.html (Accessed: 24 March 2013).
- 9.
“Así me salvé del pistolero,” El Mundo, 21 October. Available at: http://www.elmundo.es/suplementos/cronica/2007/626/1192917605.html (Accessed: 24 March 2013).
- 10.
It seems evident that perpetrators’ confessions can be crucial to counteract official versions of the past. The importance of oral testimonies to document the repressive apparatus under dictatorships proves to be, once more, of fundamental importance.
- 11.
This documentary, filmed between 1971 and 1973, was not shown until 1977. The brutality of the testimonies, Franco’s death in 1975, and thus the prevailing fear over reliving the past, likely explain the delay in presenting an otherwise unique film. See “Nosferatu abre con ‘Queridísimos verdugos:’ un ciclo sobre cine y derecho.” [Online] 18 January 2000. Available at http://elpais.com/diario/2000/01/18/paisvasco/948228015_850215.html (Accessed: 24 March 2013). The film was inspired by Daniel Sueiro’s work (1971). Capital punishment under the dictatorship is a theme dealt with in the magisterial dark comedy El verdugo (1963) by filmmaker Luis García Berlanga.
- 12.
As a later report revealed, based in part on the testimony of children of the executioners, “More than one attempted to get the monthly salary, in an era in which there was much poverty, with the hope that the moment to carry out the execution would never arrive.” The son of one of the executioners, who knew that his father imbibed alcohol when he had to carry out an execution, says that “I don’t remember any emotion of guilt or shame in him.” But he remembers that after returning from the execution of a young woman he said to his son: “This is the worst thing I’ve done in my screwed up life; worse than killing 100 men.” “Mi padre era verdugo,” El País, 27 November 2011, available at http://elpais.com/diario/2011/11/27/domingo/1322369561_850215.html (Accessed: 21 October 2015).
- 13.
For example, it received the Cariddi d’Oro in the third International Festival of Taormina. “Éxito en Italia de ‘Queridísimos verdugos,’” El País, 31 July 1977, available at http://elpais.com/diario/1977/07/31/cultura/239148008_850215.html (Accessed: 24 March 2013); “Queridísimos verdugos’ Premiada en Taormina,” 2 August 1977, available at http://elpais.com/diario/1977/08/02/cultura/239320804_850215.html (Accessed: 24 March 2013).
- 14.
“El terror cotidiano,” El País, 22 April 1977, available at http://elpais.com/diario/1977/04/22/cultura/230508008_850215.html (Accessed: 21 October 2015).
- 15.
Quoted in Castilla del Pino (1997: 530).
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Payne, L.A., Aguilar, P. (2016). Unsettling the Balance. In: Revealing New Truths about Spain's Violent Past. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56229-6_5
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