DAMNATIO MEMORIAE - THE BOOK

More than three-quarters of a century after the end of the war, the book is the product of the collaboration between an eminent Spanish historian and an English language specialist, a historian in her own right, to bring one aspect of this tragic episode in the history of Spain to the attention of the English public worldwide. This study of the Francoist Genocide in Cordoba is a powerful, restructured and annotated version that goes well beyond the realm of the simple translation of the original work in Spanish.

The Spanish Civil War that began 17 July 1936 with Franco’s military coup, did not end with the defeat of the supporters of the legal government 1 April 1939. From the moment the first shot was fired, the military insurgents embarked on a wave of massacre, torture and repression against half of the Spanish population that was terrorized, helpless for 40 years, until Franco’s death in 1975.

Aside from a brief lifting of the forced lid of silence in the 1950s, the rest of the world remains ignorant of the genocide that, closely modelled on Hitler’s methods in Nazi Germany, led to the post-war slaughter of tens of thousands by firing squad or extra-legal methods and buried, by the hundreds in mass graves, many of which are only now being uncovered.

Today, the surviving relatives of this half of the Spanish population, especially children who were taken from their parents to be re-educated, are attempting to identify the remains of the lost members of their families, give them some dignity in death, and obtain some closure to their pain.

THE BOOK IN THREE VOLUMES

Originally published in a single, 776-page edition for researchers and students of the Spanish civil war, the increasing public interest in present-day multiple cases of political unrest in Spain, largely attributed by the press and general media to a strong right-wing movement that appears to remain faithful to the fascist policies of Franco’s government, led the author of the annotated translation to publish a 3-volume edition that would be more attractive to the general public.

Note: In February 2022, the author instructed the publisher of the single book edition to remove all sales of this edition due to printing errors that she feels seriously affect the quality of the book which therefore falls short of the desired quality. She recommends the 3-volume edition as published in the USA by New Leaf.

Published by Author House. www.authorhouse.co.uk 2018. 776 pages. Withdrawn February 2020.

The author has withdrawn this edition of the book due to printing errors that she feels fall short of the desired quality of this edition. She has instructed Author House to remove all mention of t copy of this edition from all marketplaces.