On the occasion of the International Day of Missing Persons, the Vice-Presidency and Department of Energy Transition, Productive Sectors and Democratic Memory of the Government of the Balearic Islands has published this Tuesday, 30 August, ten new letters addressed to victims of the Civil War and Franco’s repression, written by their relatives, friends and people interested in recovering their memory.

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This is the third consecutive year that the website dedicated to the democratic memory of the Government of the Balearic Islands has published the emotional letters, that it receives from daughters and sons, granddaughters and grandsons, nieces and nephews, and from people close to the disappeared; in tribute to the victims, but also in memory of what the loss meant to each of them and of their efforts to recover their remains and keep their memory alive.

“An institution has to be close to the people and facilitate mechanisms so that citizens feel heard. Moreover, many families, after having lived in silence for decades, have the need to break this silence, to make their history visible, to vindicate their relative or to explain the journey their family suffered. The fact that it is an institution that gives a voice to the citizens, when it was also an institution that denied it to them, is also very restorative”, explains Juan Pedro Yllanes, Vice-President and Minister for Energy Transition, Productive Sectors and Democratic Memory.

On this occasion, the letters are addressed to: Jaume Serra Cardell, Joan Gelabert Vallori, Joan Mercant Rebassa, Joan Monserrat Paret, Josep Marí Cardona, Manuel Gelabert Verdera, Miquel Pascual Quetgles, Sebastià Amengual Mir, Sebastián Vicens Palmer and Guillem Pasqual Llodrà.

The Memorial de la Palabra is a pioneering initiative of the Government of the Balearic Islands, promoted by the Vice-Presidency and Department of Energy Transition, Productive Sectors and Democratic Memory, through the Directorate General of Democratic Memory, with the aim of acting as a loudspeaker for all citizens and breaking the silence imposed for so many years by the dictatorship.

It currently houses a total of 57 letters, which can be consulted on the democratic memory website.

The democratic memory website has also created a form available to anyone who has a story to tell about the silenced victims of the Civil War and Franco’s regime.