Archives have prominent roles in memory work. They do not preserve or carry memories per se but provide documentary and material sources for collective memory creation and, increasingly, space for memorialization. A 2020 UN report on memory practices in the aftermath of grave human rights abuses explicitly relates the effectiveness of memorialization—the “fifth pillar of transitional justice”—to the existence of and access to relevant archives.
On 27 April 2024, the doors of the new national museum were opened. The President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, presided over the official ceremony as part of the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the Carnation Revolution. Half a century after the prisoners were freed, the terrible Peniche Fortress has finally become an essential museum for understanding the longest dictatorship in Western Europe and celebrating the Portuguese people’s fight for freedom.
In his work Voices from Chernobyl (2015), in the chapter ‘Monologue on Why People Remember’, the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich presents us with the testimony of the psychologist Piotr S., who asks, why do people remember? “Is it to restore truth? Justice? To free themselves and forget? Because they realise they have been part of a great event? Or because they seek some form of protection in the past?” This is the account of an ‘ordinary’ man, reflecting on one of the human tragedies that, beyond the intention to quantify it through the force of its death toll, impacts as profoundly as the Holocaust, the repression and disappearance of people during the civil-military dictatorship in Argentina, or the more than nine million people recognised as victims of the social and armed conflict in Colombia.
This edition highlights issues like the Samudaripen/Porrajmos memorialisation, transnational heritage projects, and Argentina’s ESMA Memory Site Museum. Through diverse articles and reviews, we explore the role of archives, cultural heritage, and multidisciplinary approaches to memory. We remain committed to fostering critical reflection and collaborative action for a more just society.
José Miguel Gastón Aguas and César Layana Ilundain, Navarre Institute of Memory, Government of Navarre
Carolina Astudillo writes about her latests feature film, Song to a lady in the shadow (2021)
Franco’s secret police. The Political-Social Brigade during dictatorship, by Pablo Alcántara (Planeta, 2022). Reviwed by Ricard Conesa, Historian and project manager at he EUROM , editor of the magazine Observing Memories
Dasa Duhacek, Professor, political science department of Belgrade University on the book by Orli Fridman (Amsertam University Press (2022)
Celeste Muñoz, historian, professor at the UNED and EUROM collaborator; Sarai Martín, anthropologist, University of Barcelona
Thomas Reider (scriptwriter) and Bernhard Steinmann (filmmaker) write about the movie “Great Freedom” (2021)
