Ekshumacje polityczne. Przypadek ofiar wojny domowej w Hiszpanii (1936–1939)

The Francoist victory in the Spanish Civil war (1936–1939), subsequent dictatorship and finally the democratic transition have had a significant influence on forms of remembering and commemorating the victims of the conflict. At first, only Francoist victims were exhumed and properly buried, while the bodies of defeated Republicans were deliberately left underground to exercise symbolical and psychological power and as one of the elements of the historical politics based on oblivion. However, the enforced erasure of those dead from society has not meant that they have been completely forgotten. The unmarked existence of mass graves has triggered different cycles of exhumation processes. The remains of Republicans were secretly and in small numbers exhumed by the families immediately after the war and during the dictatorship. In governmental efforts to fill the crypts of the monument located in the Valley of the Fallen, thousands have been exhumed since 1959, often without the knowledge and permission of surviving families. The number of private exhumations temporarily increased during the democratic transition, but the real ‘exhumations movement’ began in 2000. Only then were scientific methods deployed in the exhumations and identifications of the victims, and exhumations received wide media coverage lasting till today. Varied reasons for each phase of exhumations are critically discussed in the article to present a review of their social impact, symbolic dimension and political aim. The article further argues for the existence of a modern ‘Republican identity’ and ‘Republican nationalism’.