The Pact of Forgetting (pacto del olvido)

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Tens of thousands of people went missing during the Spanish Civil War. There are thought to be hundreds of unmarked mass graves all over the country. Almost half a million people were forced into exile and around 30,000 children disappeared.

Since the beginning of the new century, some work has begun to identify and open up the mass graves. But this is a recent, and slow-moving project.

In Latin America, by comparison, associations have been working furiously to bring justice and clarity to the awful events that have taken place in several countries. Mass graves are being dug up and DNA testing is being used to identify victims. Why should Spain be so far behind Latin American countries completing a similar task?

During Spain’s transition to democracy after General Franco’s death in 1975, politicians agreed to enter into a Pact of Forgetting. Essentially, this provided an amnesty for those who had served under Franco’s regime. Both sides agreed that there would be no investigations or recriminations regarding anything that had happened during the Civil War or in the years following it.

But why were Spaniards willing to accept this unwritten pact? There are probably many reasons behind this.

  • When Franco gained control of the country, his first years were spent doling out harsh punishments to those who had fought for the Republican side. He was vengeful and cruel. So, when his rule came to an end, nobody wanted a repeat of this vengeance. Apart from that, the democracy was fragile, and politicians had to tread very carefully to push it forward.
  • The Spanish Civil War is often described as a fratricidal war. Before the war, a large proportion of Spanish society was rural. People lived in small communities where families grew up together. Despite the war being “political”, many people died in the civil war for reasons that had nothing to do with politics. People turned in their neighbours to protect their own family members from being killed. Sometimes, an entire village was swept into a particular “bando” just because militia from that side and come and recruited (sometimes by force) everyone in the village. A sense of shame and fear has rested on Spanish families and communities ever since. You will find this is not a topic that you can broach easily with people in Spain. It continues to be highly sensitive and sometimes painful.
  • Finally, Spanish people had endured three years of a horrific and gruesome civil war followed by nearly 40 years of dictatorship, during which time they had endured starvation, poverty, unemployment and censorship. Now, there was an opportunity to leave all that behind and move ahead to be like the rest of Europe. Many people preferred to leave the past behind them and strive towards a future with freedoms enjoyed by other neighbouring countries.

I have produced several Spanish A Level resources on the Spanish Civil War and the Franco Dictatorship which can be purchased individually or in a bundle: