TheAssociation for the Recovery of Historical Memory (Spanish:Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica,ARMH) is a Spanish organization that collects the oral and written testimonies about theWhite Terror ofFrancisco Franco and excavates and identifies their bodies that were often dumped inmass graves.[1]
Emilio Silva and Santiago Macias founded the ARMH in December 2000.[2] It is a group of about 50 Spanisharchaeologists,anthropologists andforensic scientists. The group tries to identify the places of execution through records and interviewing the locals. Sometimes they also receive anonymous information about them.Volunteer group members gather in a decided place to excavate the mass grave found. They try to exhume the bodies and identify the remains of the victims withDNA tests and other forensic methods.
As of September 2006, ARMH had conducted 40 excavations and found remains of 520 victims.[3] As of October 2009 the group had identified the remains of 1,700 victims.[4]
The excavation of one of the mass graves in 2004 atVillamayor de los Montes nearBurgos was the subject of a photo-documentary entitledDark is the Room Where We Sleep at theInternational Center Of Photography inNew York, New York.[5]
Opening mass graves has been politically controversial.In 2007 the work of the Association was given state support by theHistorical Memory Law, an initiative of theZapatero administration. However, the Spanish government underMariano Rajoy (2011–2018) was less cooperative and, for example, refused to open historical archives that would allow experts and historians to throw light on the fate of victims of theFrancoist State.[6]In 2020,El Pais reported that theSecond government of Pedro Sánchez was working on the draft of a new law that would include aDNA database and an official list of Civil War victims.[7] This legislation came into effect in 2022 as theDemocratic Memory Law.
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