Memorial Democràtic

Reviewed by: Brianna Caszatt
Review started: March 3, 2021
Review finished: April 11, 2021

Site Links

• Memorial Democràtic: http://memoria.gencat.cat/ca/inici/
  
• Banc de la Memòria Democràtica: https://banc.memoria.gencat.cat/ca/app/#/
  

Data and Sources

• Video-recorded interviews, including the name, residence, and birth date and location of the interviewee
  
• Records of deportation to Nazi camps
  
• Records of political prisoners
  
• Media published or released on the relevant historical periods
  
• List of Francoist symbols still in existence in Catalonia
  
• List of historical memory sites
  
• Spanish Refugee Aid records
  
• All data and sources pertain to the historical period from 1931 to 1980 in Catalonia
  

Processes

• Interviews have been transcribed and given categorical tags; the videos have been broken down into excerpts, and automated closed captioning has been applied, all of which appears to be automatically translated
  
• Deportation records have been digitized and made searchable by name, gender, birthplace, date of birth or death, by deportee status and location, by Nazi camp and subcamp, and prisoner number
  
• Prisoner records have been digitized and made searchable by name, whether the person died in prison, name or municipality of the detention center, and birthplace
  
• Media have been digitized and made searchable in their library by title, author name, publisher, publication year, type, period, and subject
  
• Francoist symbols have images and are assigned multiple tags for categorizing and search purposes, and their locations have been mapped
  
• Memory sites have images and are assigned multiple tags for categorizing and search purposes, information about the site and the historical context in which it was created have been written up, and all locations have been mapped
  
• Refugee aid recipient records have been digitized and made searchable by name, birthplace, and exile destination
  
• Multiple maps have been created to help visualize the locations of each set of collections in relation to one another
  
• Major political events within the scope of the project have been displayed in a timeline for users to find content related to and/or coinciding with them
  

Presentation

• Website and searchable digital archive
  

Digital Tools Used to Build It

• Dédalo “intangible heritage management” system and platform
  
• Wappalyzer analysis of https://banc.memoria.gencat.cat: Sectigo SSL/TLS; Angular and Zone.js JavaScript frameworks; Bootstrap user interface framework; OpenSSL web server extension; jQuery UI, jQuery, and Modernizr JavaScript libraries; Apache web server; webpack JavaScript module bundler; Leaflet maps; Google Tag Manager; CentOS operating system; PHP programming language
  

Languages

• Website exists in Catalan, Spanish, English, and French
  
• Review is of the English site only
  

Review

Memorial Democràtic (in English: Democratic Memorial) is an institution within the Government of Catalonia that aims to recover, commemorate, and promote “democratic memory” of the people of Catalonia between the years of 1931 and 1980, which covers the Second Republic, the Civil War, the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and the transition to democracy after Franco’s death in 1975. The institute appears to work closely with the Department of Justice to fulfill their mission. Given the dictatorship’s repression of general freedoms as well as the Catalan language and culture, the institute foregrounds the recovery of memory from people who were victimized by Franco’s government and people who pursued anti-Francoist activities. “It puts at the center of its activity the dignity of the person, democratic values, and respect for human rights so that barbarism is not repeated here or anywhere.” (Translated by Google from: “Posa al centre de la seva activitat la dignitat de la persona, els valors democràtics i el respecte pels drets humans perquè la barbàrie no es torni a repetir ni aquí ni enlloc.”)

The Banc de la Memòria Democràtica (Bank of Democratic Memory) serves as their digital archive for these recovered memories. It features a search engine, maps, and a timeline, as well as a thesaurus including vocabulary about the historical period and memory spaces. The bank is divided into the following collections: audiovisual bank of testimonies, Catalan and Spanish deportees to Nazi camps, former political prisoners, human cost of the Civil War (a database with all the people who died in the Civil War in Catalonia), library, list of remaining Francoist symbols (in Catalonia), network of historical memory sites, and Spanish Refugee Aid (an organization founded in 1953 to help Spanish refugees who fled the country and could not return to Spain because of their status as republicans). For users who want to search for content related to each of the different political periods covered in the project’s overall scope, there is an option to click on “Periods” and be taken to a timeline where the bank’s content can be filtered within a smaller range of years. Furthermore, for each category that contains data that can be geocoded, there is a collection of maps: exile destinations, Francoist prison system, network of memory sites, list of remaining Francoist symbols, place of origin (with filter options for the audiovisual testimonies, Spanish refugee aid, former political prisoners, and Catalan and Spanish deportees to Nazi camps), refugees during the Civil War, and Nazi concentration and extermination camps.

The breadth and depth of content available in each of the categories within the bank is overwhelming at first, but ultimately very impressive. The extensive and logical categorization and tagging supporting the multiple search functionalities across the site make the Banc de la Memòria Democràtica an exceptional research tool for anyone studying this time period.