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Historical Memory CUBIERTA MEMORIA HISTÓRICA INGLÉS.qxp_Cubierta Memoria histórica 16/6/21 19:35 Página 1 Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Western progressi- vism has focused on cultural subversion and the anthropological revolution rather than the economic revolution. In this new era, the different versions of the historical interpretation constitute an added po- litical weapon. This is how “historical memory” has arisen, which seeks to reinterpret the past to domi- nate the present and reduce the complexity of his- tory to the dialectic of executioners versus victims. In Spain, the “historical memory” presents the 20th century and the early years of the 21st as a struggle between fascism and anti-fascism. The left not only wants to impose a mandatory interpreta- tion of history -with criminal and economic sanc- in Europe to Peace Threat a “Historical Memory”, tions for dissidents- but also to eradicate freedom of speech, and teaching. If such a strategy succeeds in Spain, the rest of the European left will copy it and the social confrontation already provoked between the Spanish people will spread to the rest of the continent. In this book, several historians analyze the main mythical slogans of the Spanish “memorialist” move- ment (the spontaneous nature of the violence against Catholics, the “slave” prisoners, the harshness of the post-war repression, the link between the “Historical Spanish regime and the III Reich, amnesty as a re- quirement of the Francoists, the pact of silence in the Transition, etc.) and dismantle them through Memory , data and facts. In addition, former minister of the ” first post-Franco democratic Government (1977- 1979), a writer imprisoned in the 1950s for his a Threat to Peace communist militancy, and another author descen- in Europe ded from an intellectual murdered in the genocide of Catholics perpretated by the left during the Civil War (1936-1939) share their testimonies in the pages of this book. EDICIÓN NO VENAL – NOT FOR SALE EDICIÓN NO VENAL – NOT FOR SALE 150-160 PEDRO FERNANDEZ BARBADILLO_Memoria histórica Parlamento Europeo 26/01/21 16:53 Página 160 001-004 PORTADILLA, CRÉDITOS, ÍNDICE.qxp_Memoria histórica Parlamento Europeo 16/6/21 23:36 Página 1 “Historical Memory”, a Threat to Peace in Europe Hermann Tertsch de l Valle Le rsundi Francisco José Contreras Stanley G. Payne Fernando Sánchez Dragó Pedro Carlos González Cuevas Ángel David Martín Rubio Alfonso Ussía Jesús Laínz Luis E . Togores Miguel Platón Javier Barraycoa Alberto Bárcena José Manuel Otero Novas Jesús Palacios Pedro Fernández Barbadillo 001-004 PORTADILLA, CRÉDITOS, ÍNDICE.qxp_Memoria histórica Parlamento Europeo 16/6/21 23:36 Página 2 Edición no venal. Not for sale. First Edition: December 2020 © of the Authors © ECR Grupo The opinions of the articles are of exclusive responsibility of their authors and the ECR group does not assume responsibilities necessarily All Rights reserved © Cover Image PCF © Images: agency Cordon Press and several private and public archives Design and Layout: PCF Printing and Binding: Raro S.L. Translator: Carlos Nolasco Moreno 001-004 PORTADILLA, CRÉDITOS, ÍNDICE.qxp_Memoria histórica Parlamento Europeo 16/6/21 23:36 Página 3 Index 1. Manipulated Memory or the Poison of Lies Hermann Tertsch del Valle Lersundi ..................................................................................................................... 5 2. History as a Political Weapon Francisco José Contreras ............................................................................................................................................... 10 3. “Historical Memory” and the Rupture of the Spanish Democracy Stanley G. Payne ..................................................................................................................................................................... 16 4. Historical Memory or the Ministry of Truth? Fernando Sánchez Dragó .............................................................................................................................................. 28 5. “Usable Pasts”, “Incomplete Memories” and Political Practices Pedro Carlos González Cuevas ................................................................................................................................. 34 6. Was the Left-Wing Persecution of Catholics Equivalent to Genocide? Ángel David Martín Rubio ............................................................................................................................................. 48 7. The Murdered Smile Alfonso Ussía ............................................................................................................................................................................ 64 8. Memory of Destruction versus the Destruction of Memory Jesús Laínz .................................................................................................................................................................................. 70 9. How Spain Avoided Entering the Second World War Luis E. Togores ........................................................................................................................................................................ 80 10. Was the Postwar Repression Relentless on the Vanquished? Miguel Platón ............................................................................................................................................................................ 96 11. Trial and Death of Lluís Companys: a Myth Javier Barraycoa .................................................................................................................................................................. 108 12. Did the Valley of the Fallen Serve as a Concentration Camp? Alberto Bárcena .................................................................................................................................................................. 116 3 001-004 PORTADILLA, CRÉDITOS, ÍNDICE.qxp_Memoria histórica Parlamento Europeo 16/6/21 23:36 Página 4 “Historical Memory”, a Threat to Peace in Europe 13. About Reconciliation and Memory José Manuel Otero Novas ............................................................................................................................................ 130 14. Was the Opposition to Francoism Democratic? Jesús Palacios ........................................................................................................................................................................ 140 15. Did the Francoists Demand Amnesty? Pedro Fernández Barbadillo....................................................................................................................................... 150 4 005-009 HERMANN TERTSCH .qxp_Memoria histórica Parlamento Europeo 16/6/21 17:58 Página 5 1. Manipulated Memory or the Poison of Lies Hermann Tertsch del Valle Lersundi Member of the European Parliament, elected to the XI Legislature by the Kingdom of Spain and integrated within the ECR he Spanish Civil War the arrival of the last refugees and tution’s weaknesses are apparent, deeply shocked the world the holding of free elections, the and the mistakes that have made Tfor its cruelty, heroism, and last wounds of that war, now dis- possible the task of those who had the immense tragedy of the Span- tant, were closed. to come decades after to under- ish people torn by ideologies, fatal take the blowing up of the national drifts, interests, and the omnipres- It was the so-called Spanish reconciliation and reopen an ideo- ence of hatred. Moreover, it was a Transition, a process that brought logical war among the Spanish prelude to the huge worldwide great interest and admiration people. The day Spain started its showdown that followed. After worldwide. The democratic re- political Transition, it received unan- the Second World War, in Spain, form, made under King Juan Carlos imous recognition and was emu- the dictatorship of he who won I, the heir designated by Franco, lated as a peaceful transformation the war, general Francisco Franco, who transferred all of his powers formula towards democracy in remained against so many fore- to the Parliament of the demo- Latin America and the entire world, casts. Furthermore, after the first cratic system approved by West- as the Hispanist Stanley G.Payne years of harshness, hunger, and re- ern democracies, was cherished by underlines later in the book. pression, the general knew how everybody. As much as the Consti- to restore the foundations, open After the dictator died in 1975, up to the world, find allies, and and the passing of the Constitu- enter the path of economic de- tion in 1978, Spain kept —already velopment, quite the opposite to in democracy and since 1986 in- Communist dictatorships from The Spanish Transition tegrated the European Union— a Eastern Europe. When Franco received unanimous development that had not been died, the authoritarian regime that recognition and was interrupted since the hard times he embodied self-dissolved in the emulated as a formula of the postwar, the economic sta- process of democratization, which bilization, and the opening to the of peaceful included a sizeable national rec- world from the regime before. onciliation pact between winners transformation towards This process led Spain to finish the and losers of the war and the democracy in South millennium as a country in pro- generations that did not experi- America and Eastern gress. Although still at modest lev- ence the fatality of the war.
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