The first cycle of Exhumations and Tributes to Executed Republicans in Navarra

Abstract

During the Spanish Civil War and postwar period, tens of thousands of supporters of the Second Republic were shot and thrown into common graves, whereas their friends and relatives were not allowed to pay them tribute or carry out a proper burial. After Franco’s death, and despite the killings having happened a long time ago, the desire to dig up those relatives’ remains, perform a proper funeral service, and bury them in a cemetery had not changed. It could even be said that the chances opened up once democracy was reestablished heightened such wish. In many towns and villages republican’s relatives managed to find out where the illegal graves were, to hold massively attended funeral services, and to move their kin’s remains to cemeteries, but no Spanish province witnessed a process of moving and reburial as organized and efficient as Navarra’s. Our aim here is to explain why this was so, taking into account both the factors which favored the coordination of such bold initiatives, and also the many obstacles found by their organizers.