rose and shortening the work day in response to the power crisis. the value. is a memorial that houses the tomb of spanish dictator francisco franco the site has become a shrine for the nationalists and right wingers. to explode with it's a fascist monument a metaphor for the division of our country and a disgrace for spain and for europe. and spain now plans to move franklin's remains and some victims of franco's regime are being examined from a mass grave to be given a proper burial. that got off the tragedy for them i'm not sad i'm glad to finally find out whether my brother is buried here he was executed a day or two years ago during a civil war or thought. about it. this

is the village of us in northeastern spain martina now was born in the village ninety seven years ago. and tomorrow workers will start digging at the site of a grave that contains the bodies of franco era victims martin believes that the remains of one of his brothers may be there two of his brothers were executed by pro franco militias in one thousand nine hundred thirty seven the bodies have never been found martin has fought for years to recover the remains and give them a decent burial. here are sponsored cited or not you know you're not a bit yet the up with my brother who so much. i'm just happy that i blew it long enough to see this i have wonderful memories of my brothers who are there they were

older than i was a source spent a lot of time together with a lot more toys and replayed together. but all of a sudden they disappeared. they were executed a few months after the civil war started and wished martins daughter who is preparing some food to take to the site tomorrow on the exhumation will be carried out by a group that's trying to get spain to come to terms with its fascist past. so . a lot of your friends and acquaintances will be there. i mean you know but the people from the village just staying away. that's the way it is in our country . people keep silent and look the other way they say it all goes back to the civil war. the right wingers say they won the war they're legal i've got a young man you know but some are there loose tomorrow no said.

martin found out only by chance where his brothers remains may be buried. some neighbors told him that there was a mass grave at the cemetery in whisker. the exhumation work will take nearly a week martin plans to be here to see all of it. it's a difficult time for him and his daughters. oh yeah couple here at c b o c forty seven he doesn't want any strangers around the house right now. who can only see why would you want so.

it's still not clear whether the remains of martin's brother will be found here. but witnesses say that he and four others were buried at this location. the d.n.a. tests will be carried out later to try to determine the identity of the remains. but. the spanish civil war took place from one thousand nine hundred thirty six to nine hundred thirty nine martina now was just a child at the time but his memories of the war is still clear. and yet you're still there for your revenue if you're on july eighteenth one thousand nine hundred thirty six it was quieter in our village absolutely it was a saturday. the young people went dancing. and they were just enjoying life or north of my lungs or we heard about the right wing coup against the republican government. but that was so far away from us to look at that. so i give i don't

miss it morning july nineteenth. there were street closures in our area and then you have this in my two brothers and some of their friends have been not sleeping in the fields. and when they came back on july twenty third the police arrested them in yemen where. the bodies of an estimated one hundred fourteen thousand civil war victims still lie in anonymous graves. a federal law passed in two thousand and seven includes provisions for the bodies to be identified and properly buried but government funding is in short supply so private groups like article have stepped in to try to fill the gap with support from donations our eco seeks to preserve the memory of the victims and to recover they remind us. much of a period pena's grandfather and a great uncle were buried in anonymous graves. period her husband miguel the

director of arica filed a number of lawsuits taking the case all the way to the european court for human rights. in twenty sixteen a spanish court finally ruled that the exhumations could take place. we fought for twelve years to get that decision. and even though permission has been granted for the exhumations we have no idea when they're going to start i mean i mean. you were no vision. we have no information at all. all we can do is hope. that the bad guys rather. win now northwest of madrid at the via. memorial. its name means valley of the fall and the site contains the remains of many civil war victims from both sides the dictator francisco franco is also buried here

the memorial often attracts right wing demonstrations. was. historian and activist antonio gomez once buying to deal openly and honestly with its divisive and violent past gomez supports the recent decision by the spanish government to move franco's grave to another location. he says this memorial should honor only the victims of the spanish civil war. this is the famous or infamous via their last chaos i'm going to think of it has the tallest cross in the christian world at about one hundred fifty meters is the basilica was carved into the rock face all of that. franco is buried here but this is also the biggest mass grave in spain. about thirty three thousand civil war

victims are interred here. supporters of the republic were buried anonymously in nations in the basilica the last one only franco claimed that this is a place of reconciliation. but it's not it's an insult to those spaniards who fought for freedom and democracy. via their last carried those is a fascist monument it is come to represent the divisions in our country. it's a disgrace to spain and to europe first they want their move many spaniards see this site as a monument to a dictator who ordered the torture and execution of hundreds of thousands of his opponents work on the project began in one thousand nine hundred forty and took eighteen years to complete some reports say much of the structure was built using forced labor including political prisoners. this video was shot by a tourist using

a hidden camera it shows the interior of the basilica it cost the spanish government about a million euros a year to maintain the memorial. a benedictine abbey on the site receives a share of that maintenance money the monks fear that if franco's body is moved elsewhere that funding may be cut side they've blocked the proposal. here antonio gomez meets a colleague who is a fellow member of. a spanish association that advocates the separation of church and state. and they're planning to confront the benedictine at about his opposition to moving franco's body out of via us. but the abbot refuses to make them. we return to madrid. antonio gomez has an appointment with maria another member of. they plan to attend

a rally organized by political conservatives and talk to some of the demonstrators . what parliament's decision to move franco's remains has divided the country and emotions are running high. conservatives and franco's descendants oppose the plan liberals say that franco's remains should not be kept in the same place as those of the victims. to the demonstration is being held at the plaza cologne in central madrid. many of the participants want socialist prime minister pedro sanchez to resign. that. many of these people support franco's legacy. antonio and maria want to find out more about the demonstrate his political views. it was

a little bit like the spain has so many problems right now that why should we focus on the past. no matter how much we talk about it we can change it take us if that matters to debase about franco's to load and labor strikes unemployment low wages and low pension us those are the problems that we should deal with it and it's almost out of work but i do know that if i can go to spain should focus on the living not the dead you know. we shouldn't spend hundreds of thousands of euros digging up the past it wasn't oh yeah there were some other funny that you still see now but what would you say if your own relatives have been buried anonymously in mass graves. on a saturday was it was. an estimated five hundred thousand civilians were killed in the spanish have. war. two hundred thousand others died in a campaign of repression carried out by franco's government after the war ended.

was i in one nine hundred seventy seven parliament approved a law that declared an amnesty for those who committed crimes during the civil war and lyta under franco's regime. accept that as an adult what's your opinion on moving franco's remains but i do think it's a small bit of the buy only arrows qaida is a sacred place when dead is dead for the year left or right don't act as though the only victims are leftists but it is not the idea that while we don't have a president. i the francisco franco national foundation was founded shortly after the dictator's death in one thousand nine hundred seventy six to promote a positive interpretation of his legacy at the foundation's office we asked the organizations director one charter or take whether this wasn't like having

a hitler foundation in germany. you know even if you're from the there's a fundamental difference hitler lost his war and he destroyed germany franco god wanted his war and he helped to lead spain to great there's a lot a lot of good. he'd let you know he was an atheist and got drunk oh it was a catholic let's be fair if you simply can't compare these two situations is this by us here so we're not you are a civilian deaths are concerned what was equipment how many germans died in world war two was december going to fall the bundle of money in which a million or in will give me eunice and in poland six millions is biased i want your screen we're talking about an estimated two hundred fifty thousand civilians who died in the civil war and then there was his remaining memories of mass graves is nothing but lies. haunted child ortega underestimated the number of civilians who were killed in the civil war the number is actually closer to five

hundred thousand and the question of how to deal with this bloody chapter of history continues to divide spanish society. at the cemetery in western or the excavators have made their first find. the bones were lying just a few centimeters below the surface. that indicates that the body was buried quickly. but it will be weeks before lab results can confirm whether martina onas brother roman was buried here. i don't think. some of the younger volunteers have taken a real interest in the civil war and its consequences. in the real numbers and the way paul like us and spanish society as a whole have

a duty to deal with what happened for him under a lot of people who fought and died for a better world deserved dignity for the irish i'm doing what i can here. we won't be able to identify all of the victims of your i.q. but we're going to try different that all of it but at the heart of. most spaniards believe that franco was a dictator. but many say that he was more moderate and less cruel than some others and i point out that spain's economy grew under franco's leadership. but in recent years many spaniards have adopted a more critical view. last year many madrid residents joined the city's mayor to demand that franco era symbols be removed and that some street names be changed but the franco foundation got a court order to stop the move later some of the street names were changed after

a higher court overturned the original order there were plans to read barry franco in his hometown of for all in glitzy up it was hoped this would also help stop pilgrimages to his grave but his grandchildren want him to be interred with full military honors at large in a cathedral in central madrid and tonio gomez hopes that doesn't happen that's according to any of the names spain has been a democracy for more than four decades. and during that time franco's grave it via data has been maintained by the catholic church here and now some say it should be moved to the cathedral in madrid opposite the royal palace. that would be a disaster especially for the government. of course the church thinks it's a great idea and franco's regime could not have stayed in power without the support of the catholic church.

the cathedral stands just south of the royal palace franco lived at the palace for a ton after the civil war. after their interviews at the rally antonio and maria stopped for coffee. and tony is researching the relationship between franco's government and the catholic church the church is the second largest property in spain after the federal government and antonio is preparing a report on its assets the church supported franco and in return acquired considerable new powers. when he was a little. bit with that girl financial new year the catholic church in spain is an earthly kingdom that's worth billions of dollars there but church lost its privileges during the second republican the one nine hundred thirty s. but its support for franco soon paid off. in one thousand thirty seven the bishops

announced that the civil war was a christian crusade in return franco approved legislation that allowed the church to register public buildings as private property for a small fee of all the bishops had to do was sign a few papers that i was going to have in this that happened here for the churches same barbara. thousand other building is. in fiasco motivated to leave the city on. the church's real estate portfolio is not limited to places of worship it also includes apartment blocks. antonio gomez says that here in the archdiocese of our villa the church owns up to two thirds of all property. some left wing city governments have questioned whether the church should own that much real estate church officials have promised to make a public inventory of their properties but that hasn't happened yet.

antonio has come to the office of the archdiocese of madrid to find out more about its real estate holdings officials declined comment but said he could submit a written request. antonio returns to the over a polite office to work on his church report. but his colleague solid added luke air arrives with news about a controversial decision. well and the high antonio was. when i. asked and it's an outrage have you heard what happened. yet mr no no what was there let's talk today like go. on that that was the prosecutors had demanded an eleven year prison sentence. but now the court has

ruled that the statute of limitations has run out. dr eduardo villa was the first person to stand trial for his part in one of the most notorious crimes of the franco iraq over more than four decades tens of thousands of newborn babies were taken from their parents many of whom were opponents of the regime and then placed with pro franco families the practice continued as an illegal trafficking network until the nineteen eighties in which doctors lawyers and the catholic church took part. in course at lot of ala denied any wrongdoing solid adds twin brother was one of the babies that was taken away but she still trying to find him. i mean this seems stunning and i'm just astonished at the court's decision that i have faced in the rule of law you know and that one voice and this was a crime against humanity there should be no statute of limitations on such crimes ok it's ok not to scream. and actually once again the catholic church is involved

in criminal activity with remember judicial system keeps covering it up. look at. many of those who survived persecution by the franco regime and now dead every thursday appointed those all square in madrid their relatives gather and demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice. was it. the photographs he depict those who disappeared joined the franco iraq. poor elope as his grandfather was one of the victims. were not then he really

didn't get involved in politics but if you didn't actively support franco you were considered to read. my grandfather was executed and that left my grandmother to support four children on her own only. the youngest was five and the oldest was eleven at and no one had pity for them in the village to the contrary. franco's men shave the heads of women who are married to leftists who would smell the liquid over them and paraded them like that through the streets leftists and their families were terrified back then because of the atrocities that were committed that they were too frightened to even talk about it and that was the start of the great sinus. i grew up believing that my grandfather had died fighting in the civil who but decades later my father told me the truth in son no i mean i will not that i'm allowed out for ten years piri has been trying to recover her grandfather's remains i mean we were both saying has the second largest number of

disappeared people in the world after cambodia. and this is in europe well you know much more of us in the last minute our. little girl save us i wish they had me in prison for six days a year. but the perpetrators still haven't been arrested or punished. she'll go the state can afford subsidies for all kinds of things but it does nothing for us victims the survivors of the dead. girl's the you would has demanded that the bodies of the victims from both sides being sued. and given a proper burial at state expense. but that hasn't happened yet or rather the good out doubts are until. at least they've made a start here in western. martin i'm now is convinced that his brother's remains

will be found here right now he's checking a list of those in his village who were executed and he's surprised that almost no one from the village has come here today to observe the exhumation work up there. for. any remains that are correctly identified will be given a proper burial lifestyle. that will have. a filmmaker named marco is making a video recording of the exhumation work marco and miguel kappa pay director of the article organization for victims of repression had hoped that some members of the spanish media would be here today to cover this story that. i'm out in the interview more like an eye that is so typical no local press coverage at all and out of the we have a t.v. crew from germany with us today but there's not a spanish reporter in sight. i studied history when i was at university but they

taught us almost nothing about twentieth century spain going to. nothing about the civil war or the repression as he would look for the anonymous graves. there today people just aren't aware of what happened back then so they can't relate to it and what you're going to is that they think it was their grandfather's war and that it has nothing to do with them again the focus of it all the stuff that i would only know about the remains of the dead cannot speak to us. but they can bear witness to what took place at that time span and she didn't ask if we don't and only women young cover all the details about that period you're not used to bias or you know i don't doubt that it will be able to say the civil war is finally over. the.

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