In October 2000, in the remote village of Priaranza del Bierzo, in Spain’s northern region of León, a small group of people gathered at the site of one of the Spanish Civil War’s bloodiest civilian massacres.
They were there to locate and exhume a mass grave containing the remains of 13 Republicans, known to history as the Priaranza 13. They were executed by a group of the Falange, the pro-Franco fascist movement, on 16 October 1936.
The exhumation broke the silence surrounding the fate of thousands of civilians executed during the 1936-39 Civil War and the 1939-75 Franco regime.
As word spread, other family members came forward to ask for help finding their missing relatives. A group of people decided to provide this assistance, and so the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory came into being.
Since then, with the help of many individuals, we have been able to assist dozens of families to recover the remains of their loved ones, and hundreds more to learn the fate of their relatives.
To learn more about our history, go to About us
