Los archivos en el régimen franquista. La memoria histórica de una etapa política

The article summarizes the performances that the Franco government in relation to the policy of archives impelled during almost the forty years of military dictatorship. As a result of the lack of interest which showed their political people in charge and the lack of public investment towards the archivist centers during so many decades, meant that the government of the political transition and those of the later democratic stage they inherited a devastating legacy. The debate that arose in the Spanish society during the stage from the transition and the political decision to impel a government forgetfulness action of the past history entailed that many citizens had to cross a long way to find in the archives the testimonies or the documentary evidences that showed the Franco repression they had suffered. The very lucky ones found answer to their requests, but in very many other cases they did not have as much luck. If the governments of the democratic stage had bet a policy to recognize the victims of the Franco repression their rights as citizens, the search of the truth on the happened facts and the restitution of their dignity, surely they would have invested in the centers of the country's archives with more economic resources and of fundamentally personnel, with the purpose of organizing the documentary assets that are kept there and enabling the information at the service of the citizens. The archives are centers where the documentation of the public institutions is kept and are the documentary reflection of the activities that the public institutions have carried out in their action towards the citizenship, by which they keeps the documentary evidences of the people's identity, properties inherited from parents an in general, the public activities that the citizens have developed. The archives are the historical memory of the citizenship and at the same time of the guarantee their rights.