Week 9 Notes

Week 9: 3/15-3/17

Monday, 3/15:

Takeaways from France and Algeria:

  • difficulty mastering the memory of colonialism
  • divergent memories of the war in Algeria and France, Algerian diaspora, pieds-noirs, harkis, beurs, immigrants in France
  • currents of decolonization and its modern implications
  • French memories are politicized
  • Some recovery of memory with Days of Glory (2006).
  • difficult memories? France has a few that layer on top of each other; Vichy France and the Holocaust, colonization, the French Algerian War, the Indochina War.

Introduction to spanish History and Memory

  • Fighting occurred from 1936-1939
  • victory of Franco and the Fascists, Franco would rule for the next 30 years
  • “pact of forgetting” from the 1970s onward- refusal to acknowledge the crimes of the Civil War or Franco
  • 1977 Amnesty Law prevented crimes from being investigated
  • 2004-onward: Spanish “memory boom”: Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, governmental action to investigate the memory of Francoism, takedowns of Francoist memorials, streets, buildings.
  • 2006 Historical Memory Law

Discussion of Faber:

  • victim-centered memory of the Spanish Civil War
  • a nuanced analysis of the differences between history and memory- no historian is entirely subjective.
  • two parties with irreconcilable memories: memory depends on political ideology, geographic area, age.
  • the right: “don’t open up old wounds”, the left: “recover historical memory”
  • what are the problems with these two tropes? things can get politicized and history can be overshadowed.
  • what are the limitations of the idea of victimhood? what are the benefits of the idea of victimhood?
  • an ethical memory should not only be about the victims, but about the inhumanity within us.
  • was the Spanish transition an ideal transition to democracy? in the last 20 years, historians have been far more critical of this period.
  • is it best to reopen these wounds, is restorative justice possible?

Questions to consider with Faber: 

How has the memory of Francoism and the Spanish Civil War evolved over time? ​

Faber claims that the “pastness” of Francosim has not yet occurred to the Spanish people. Based on what we have read, would you say this is so? ​

How has historical memory been expressed in academia, politics, and in popular culture? ​

What place do the individual victims of the Spanish Civil War and Francoism hold in Spain’s collective memory? Or, rather, what place does Faber believe they should hold? ​

Do you think ‘pacts of forgetting’ are necessary for moving beyond trauma, or do they inhibit the formation of a “just memory?

On Wednesday… watch the Silence of Others (found on Course Schedule )

Wednesday 3/17

Discussion of Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory:

Thoughts on The Silence of Others: 

  • The film explores what justice could look like, especially internationally, despite the Spanish Amnesty Law of 1977.
  • explores the potential of universal jurisdiction and international trials for crimes against humanities (international humanist narrative)
  • gave a personal testimony for a larger historical debate, making history personal

generational amnesia – younger people were not taught this history, older people often choose to forget

  • explores the meaning of justice – is it revenge? is it being able to see your loved ones again? is it getting answers? is it restorative?
  • the need for truth and reconciliation – Cambodia, Rwanda, etc.
  • solidarity between victims who had similar emotional experiences
  • the continuation for Francoist beliefs
  • what about street signs and monuments?
    • leaving them up is a continued threat to the victims
    • remembering vs. memorializing
  • Memorials: miridor de la memoria vs. the valley of the fallen
    • Miridor de la memoria is far more modest than the valley of the fallen

Peter’s primary source presentation

  • International memory of the Spanish Civil War through the perspective of British antifascist, Johnny Longstaff and his archives interviews
  • International perspective was often limited to ideological dimension, not specific regional or religious contexts.
  • View the archives here

Next week…

  • Denial of the Holocaust and Deborah Lipstadt