46 Arriba, Transmisiones. Madrid, 1936-1939. Abajo, Schellkorn, Walter. Aviador alemán prisionero. Madrid, 1936-1939. Archivo Rojo. Archivo General <strong>de</strong> la Administración, Ministerio <strong>de</strong> Cultura.
<strong>La</strong> <strong>Ley</strong>, <strong>de</strong> estimable carácter comprehensivo y con disposiciones en las que hay un tratamiento aceptablemente compensado <strong>de</strong> la memoria <strong>de</strong> las víctimas con in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>ncia <strong>de</strong> su i<strong>de</strong>ología y <strong>de</strong>l bando en que militaron, ha levantado, sin embargo, <strong>de</strong>s<strong>de</strong> que se conoció su proyecto, porfiadas oposiciones, resistencias a su contenido completo o a algunas <strong>de</strong> sus disposiciones, ha levantado acusaciones lejos <strong>de</strong> cualquier pon<strong>de</strong>rada consi<strong>de</strong>ración <strong>de</strong>l asunto. ¿Cuáles han sido esas resistencias, <strong>de</strong> dón<strong>de</strong> han procedido y cómo han intentado argumentarse? Existe una creencia no justificada pero bastante generalizada <strong>de</strong> que la oposición se enmarca únicamente en una u otra <strong>de</strong> dos posturas que vendrían a coincidir con la herencia histórica y memorial <strong>de</strong> los dos bandos a los que, con cierta simplificación también, se atribuye el origen <strong>de</strong> los gran<strong>de</strong>s enfrentamientos españoles <strong>de</strong>l siglo XX que tienen, como es sabido, su punto <strong>de</strong> partida en el periodo republicano <strong>de</strong> los años treinta <strong>de</strong>l siglo XX, que culminan en una guerra civil y que tuvieron como consecuencia más dura<strong>de</strong>ra casi cuarenta años <strong>de</strong> Dictadura sustentada por el bando vencedor en la guerra civil, o sea, aquel que se sublevó contra la legitimidad <strong>de</strong> la República existente entre 1931 y 1936. Más <strong>de</strong> dos tercios <strong>de</strong> siglo <strong>de</strong>spués, la relevancia histórica y memorial <strong>de</strong> aquel periodo <strong>de</strong> nuestra Historia, <strong>de</strong>l que apenas quedan testigos vivos, sigue teniendo una virtualidad que no es preciso <strong>de</strong>stacar. Cabría preguntarse, pues, y esa sería la pregunta más pertinente cuando se aborda un conflicto como éste, por las razones <strong>de</strong> su persistencia en la <strong>Memoria</strong>. Una respuesta a esta pregunta sería mucho más clarificadora que muchas resistencias <strong>de</strong> oscuro origen… En <strong>de</strong>finitiva, una <strong>de</strong> esas oposiciones está representada por quienes mantienen que transcurridos setenta años <strong>de</strong>s<strong>de</strong> la contienda central y más <strong>de</strong> treinta <strong>de</strong>s<strong>de</strong> el final <strong>de</strong> la Dictadura, la <strong>Ley</strong> no hace sino reabrir una memoria traumática, y un conflicto histórico que se supone, a<strong>de</strong>más, que el carácter y las disposiciones concretas <strong>de</strong> la época <strong>de</strong> tránsito a la <strong>de</strong>mocracia constitucional en los años setenta <strong>de</strong>jó sustancialmente reparados. <strong>La</strong> reconciliación <strong>de</strong> los españoles, el olvido <strong>de</strong> las tragedias, la amnistía para los culpables <strong>de</strong> ellas, habrían marcado, entre los años 1975 y 1982, aproximadamente, el momento <strong>de</strong> una nueva historia y una nueva consi<strong>de</strong>ración memorial, la <strong>de</strong> la superación <strong>de</strong>l conflicto, el reconocimiento <strong>de</strong>l error colectivo y el propósito, colectivo también, <strong>de</strong> su no reproducción. Normalmente, esta posición tan confortable es mantenida por sectores sociológicos e i<strong>de</strong>ológicos <strong>de</strong> la población española que, incluso say (it bears repeating once again), the victims of the victorious si<strong>de</strong> were immediately recompensed, while the vanquished si<strong>de</strong> were repressed or were in exile. A first section, in which the very Preamble of the disposition could also be inclu<strong>de</strong>d, concerns itself of setting a doctrine of the reparation. This takes up the <strong>La</strong>w’s first four articles, of which the 4th treats the theme of the “<strong>de</strong>claration of personal reparation and recognition”, object of much previous discussion in the search of the mechanism by which this recognition should be expressed. A second group concerns the type of personal reparations that are established. Thus, it speaks of in<strong>de</strong>mnifications and assistances, of augmenting those previous already approved, in particular that the <strong>de</strong>finition of victim of past conflicts be expan<strong>de</strong>d to inclu<strong>de</strong> those who were victims from later processes after the Civil War such as the victims killed in the “<strong>de</strong>fense of the <strong>de</strong>mocracy” between 1968 and 1977; in other words, those who were victims in the critical period at the end of the dictatorial regime and the process of the Transition, who were victims because of repressive actions of the state or through terrorist activities directed at stopping the process of <strong>de</strong>mocratic change. In the third place, the <strong>La</strong>w inclu<strong>de</strong>s a series of dispositions directed at the recovery of the bodies of victims which were interred in mass graves, in places neither ready nor prescribed for such burials, with full absence of legality and lack the most minimal consi<strong>de</strong>ration of the rights of the people. The Civil War is full of acts of this type which took place in the territory of both factions. Finally, another series of dispositions, also memorial in nature but with greater instrumental content, are unfol<strong>de</strong>d. The elimination of the material symbols and commemorative monuments of the “victory” or of the Dictatorship and of the exaltation of any of the factions in the Civil War. Nonetheless, the <strong>La</strong>w only has an imperative nature in this sense for the Heritage of the State, not for that of other institutions. Finally, dispositions so that all information about these historic occurrences are ma<strong>de</strong> accessible to all the citizens without barriers of any sort are inclu<strong>de</strong>d. These therefore concern dispositions about the availability and maintenance of archives, the right to the information, the recognition of memorial associations, and the creation of a Documentary Center of the Memory, among other things. The <strong>La</strong>w, of consi<strong>de</strong>rably comprehensive nature and with dispositions in which there is an acceptably compensated treatment of the memory of the victims in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nt of their i<strong>de</strong>ology and of the faction for which they fought, has nonetheless awoken, since the project was ma<strong>de</strong> known, obstinate opposition: resistance to its full content or to some of its dispositions, it has raised accusations far from any thoughtful consi<strong>de</strong>ration of the matter. What have these resistances been, where do 47