A group of archaeologists from the University of Granada has begun exhuming the mass graves of Franco's victims in Órgiva and identifying them.
The group is led by the Head of the Prehistory and Archaeology Department, Professor, Francisco Carrión Méndez and the project was approved by the Board of Tourism, Culture & Sports, belonging to the Junta de Andalucía as part of the Plan de Recuperación de Memoria Democrática.
The work is centred upon the Barranco de El Carrizal, which is recognised as a Lugar de Memoria Histórica de Andalucía, as it was used for summary executions: lorries loaded with prisoners arrived regularly, who were shot and thrown down the barranco.
It is estimated that 5,000 people perished this way at the hands of Franco’s troops, both during the Civil War and afterwards in the years of repression. The victims were men, women and even young children.
Some historians say that there are up to six fosses, all of which will be undergo ‘magnetic prospecting,” which will allow volunteers to find the bodies. They will also be using a drone to establish the perimeter of the area.
The political group, Electores P’Alante Órgiva, are very glad that the work has begun, which, they described as, “The first page of history that tells of the tragic events that happened in this place.”
All of this is part of a wider campaign, approved by the Junta to exhume the remains and identify them from twelve fosses around Andalucía: Cádiz, Granada, Huelva, Málaga and Sevilla, thanks to a budget of 436,328 euros.
(News/Noticias: Orgiva, Alpujarra, Granada, Andalucia)
Exactly Martin, of course humans don’t always learn from their mistakes but there is no chance of doing so if the whole sordid episode is buried from history. Fear of reprisal only went away 30 years after the war ended…… The Endless Trench is a harrowing film of what lengths a few Republicans , who could not escape from Spain, had to resort to.
Fred: The winning side got to give a decent burial to all their loses but not only did those that fought for the Republic, including the International Brigades, not get more than cold, unmarked mass graves, but the victims’ family for decades afterwards, were totally forbidden from doing so, under the threat of ending up in a grave themselves.
The Spanish right-wing, especially VOX, says, “Don’t dig up the past, we have enough problems in the present,” but what they are really saying is, “Do not uncover our shame.”
The darkest of histories and its taken an age to repatriate the murdered with their families. Sure many falangistas , priests were executed/ murdered,normally through spontaneous actions of certain groups who were seething over decades of injustices, rather than sanctioned by the Republican Government, and nowhere near the number murdered by the rebels. On the other hand Franco made it clear from the outset of his murderous campaign that he would eradicate all ‘reds’ which was a big selling point to his allies….. of course reds extended to hundreds of thousands of landless peasants, teachers, gays , indeed anyone who was not considered a falangist/ Christian nutjob