Catalan Government Seeks to Exhume, Identify, and Repatriate IB Remains
At the official announcement of the Alvah Bessie Program, Mataró Cemetery, April 29, 2022, with Dan Bessie speaking.
In the presence of Dan Bessie and Sebastiaan Faber, the Catalan government officially inaugurated its plans to exhume, identify, and repatriate the remains of International Brigade volunteers who died in Catalonia. Named after ALB vet Alvah Bessie, the program invites interested family members to submit genetic material and be entered into a database. More information at this website.
The Catalan government informs:
The Department of Justice of the Generalitat de Catalunya, through the General Directorate of Democratic Memory, is responsible for searching for people who disappeared in Catalonia during the Civil War and the Franco regime, and does so through five instruments: the technical work of historical research , which provide relevant information for the location of missing persons and mass graves; the Census of Missing Persons, which searches for people who disappeared during the war and the dictatorship, at the request of their families; the Pit Map, where the information of the documented pits is collected and updated; the Trench Plan, which includes the historical study and archaeological excavation of pits, as well as the analysis of the remains; and finally,
However, the data we have on international brigadiers who disappeared in Catalonia are incomplete. And also, the number of brigadiers registered in the Census and the number of relatives who have accessed the Genetic Identification Program are low in relation to the number of casualties that the International Brigades suffered; possibly due to the ignorance on the part of the majority of their families about the search for missing persons carried out by the Generalitat de Catalunya and the instruments available to locate them and identify their remains.
The General Directorate of Democratic Memory has therefore considered the need to carry out a specific research program for international anti-fascist volunteers who have disappeared in Catalonia and their families.
Related links
Direct access to the procedure
