Who are the killers? As it is often the case during genocides and civil wars, perpetrators of atrocities are just neighbors: those with whom one might have chatted the day before. They are normal people who resume their normal lives after the massacre. We know very well how mass killings work after the Armenian, Jewish and Tutsi genocides or the war in Yugoslavia. Once the slaughter is finished, responsibilities tend to vanish in collective guilt/innocence, in platitudes such as “those were dark times” or “it was collective madness”. This is a dangerous political strategy.
However, it is certainly difficult to distinguish between the instigator, the perpetrator and the complacent witness. There is a wide and uncomfortable gray zone. Who is the killer after all?
Jan Tomasz Gross tells the story of normal people killing normal people in his controversial and shocking Neighbors (2001, Princeton). In a small village in Poland, Christian residents voluntarily annihilated their Jewish neighbors after the Nazis entered the hamlet in July 1941. In a sense, Jedwabne, the Polish village of the pogrom, and Cerdedo are not so different. Just neighbors killing neighbors. Business as usual in the sad history of the twentieth century.
Manuel Gutiérrez Torres, chief of Falange (Fascist party), in the 1950s.
As a notorious member of the local fascist party, Gutiérrez is allegedly related in one way or the other to the atrocities commited by falangistas in Cerdedo during the war. After the conflict and during the hardest period of Franco's dictatorship, he was the mayor of a village buried in silence and fear.
Historian Dionisio Pereira is being prosecuted by Gutiérrez' relatives for publishing information on Gutiérrez' misdeeds during and after the civil war.
This is a tribute to all historians who, like Dionisio, are persecuted for writing about Spain's recent past.
Nobody will silence us. Never again.
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Manuel Gutiérrez Torres, jefe de la Falange, en los años 50.
Como destacado falangista, Gutiérrez está presuntamente relacionado, de una u otra manera, con las atrocidades cometidas por los falangistas en Cerdedo durante la guerra. Después del conflicto y durante el período más duro del Franquismo, fue el alcalde de un pueblo sepultado en el silencio y el miedo.
El historiador Dionisio Pereira ha sido llevado a los tribunales por los parientes de Gutiérrez por publicar información sobre las fechorías de Gutiérrez durante y después de la guerra civil.
Esto es un homenaje a todos los historiadores que, como Dionisio, son perseguidos por escribir sobre el pasado reciente de España.
Nadie nos va a hacer callar. Nunca más.''
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Manuel Gutiérrez Torres, xefe da Falange, nos anos 50.
Como destacado falanxista, Gutiérrez está presuntamente relacionado, dunha ou doutra maneira, coas atrocidades cometidas polos falanxistas en Cerdedo durante a guerra. Despois do conflicto e durante o período máis duro do Franquismo, foi o alcalde dunha vila sepultada no silencio e o medo.
O historiador Dionisio Pereira foi levado aos tribunais polos parentes de Gutiérrez por publicar información sobre as malfeitorías de Gutiérrez durante e despois da guerra civil.
Isto é unha homaxe a todos os historiadores que, como Dionisio, son perseguidos por escrever sobre o pasado recente de España.
Ninguén nos vai facer calar. Nunca máis.
