Ray Wolpow Institute to present film, webinar on Franco dictatorship

Western’s Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity will look at the impact of the Franco dictatorship on Spain during a free online film screening and panel discussion this October.

The webinar, “Breaking the Pact of Forgetting: The Franco Dictatorship and Historical Memory in Spain,” will take place Thursday, Oct. 22, from 9-10 a.m. PDT and will be based on the documentary film, “Santa Cruz…por ejemplo.” The 2005 documentary studies the lasting impact of the murder of nine Santa Cruz residents by Franco supporters in 1936, featuring interviews with witnesses, family members, area residents, and volunteers who helped to exhume and lay to rest those who were murdered. The film (in Spanish with English subtitles) will be available for online viewing on the institute’s event website one week prior to the webinar, from October 15-21.

Institute Director Sandra Alfers will facilitate the Oct. 22 panel, which includes Günter Schwaiger, the documentary’s director, and Alejandro Baer, Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota. The documentary will serve as a starting point for the panel’s discussion of the Franco dictatorship in Spain. The film screening and webinar are free and open to the public. Sign up for the webinar using our online registration. Additional information, including reading materials for the webinar, can be found on the event website.

Contact Sheila Pennell, Administrative Assistant at The Ray Wolpow Institute, for more information: pennels@wwu.edu