Euskadi and the Spanish "Civil War"

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READY IN 2008

Basque Government preparing guide on Civil War

10/04/2006

The Direction of Cultural Heritage of the Culture Department of the Basque Government will publish a Guide of Documentary and Bibliographic Sources of the Civil War in the Basque Country in 2008. The project is within the plan of the Interdepartmental Commission to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Civil War.

The Culture, Youth and Sports vice-councillor, Gurutz Larrañaga, and the vice-president of Basque Studies Association, Jon Kortazar, have presented this initiative today in Bilbao. Professor José Luis de la Granja Sainz directs the project, which is being elaborated in the History-Geography section of the Basque Studies Association by six Civil War experts who have worked with archives, bibliographies and documents very often.

This source guide covers the whole period of the Civil War, from July 18, 1936 until April 1, 1939 and includes the territories of Alava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. However, documentary sources are not limited to these provinces, they also include those in the Spanish State and abroad.

As the managers noted, this publication is "pioneering" since "it hardly has precedents of the Civil War" and "there is no similar guide, so wide, in any autonomous region."

The Guide of Documentary and Bibliographic Sources was designed as "an essential tool" for all historical investigations of this period and facilitates the search of information on Civil War victims, necessary for survivors and their descendants, who requested the compensation passed by a Basque Government Decree.

The calendar designed contemplates the definitive writing of the guide for 2008, with an introduction and several indexes, and the preparation of its edition as a book.

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