Can Franco's stolen children recover their identity?

[Solly Mack]

More ugly history from the Franco regime.


"Hundreds of people in Spain live with an all-consuming doubt: did my child die or was it stolen from me? Others wonder: are my parents really my parents, or did they adopt or buy me from a doctor, a priest or a nurse who pulled me out of my real mother's arms?




Research conducted by the historian Ricard Vinyes, together with investigating judge Baltasar Garzón's references to the theft of over 30,000 children and testimony from women of different backgrounds who all say the same thing - "They told me he had died and that they'd already buried him. I never saw the body" - have uncovered a baby trade that spanned the Franco regime. It began during the first years of the dictatorship in the early 1940s and ended three decades later, when democracy was taking its first, hesitant steps after Franco's death.

The trade started as part of political reprisals against women who supported the Republican side during the war; it was encouraged by the wacky theories of a psychiatrist named Vallejo Nájera, but ended up as nothing more than a business that found support in a law that favored illegal adoptions until 1987. The psychological consequences of this black market in babies continue to this day."

[peacebird]

1. omg... utterly horrific! Those poor women, those poor children.... Sickening...

[Solly Mack]

3. Here's an older article about a reunion in Argentina.

Broken bonds

[suffragette]

2. That article is stunning

So many lives ripped apart - a cruel legacy of a brutal dictator.

[Solly Mack]

4. If they can't kill'em all.... steal and indoctrinate their children

:(

A 'tactic' (shudder) that's been used many times.

[suffragette]

5. Just terrible

The article brought up the way Argentina has chosen to address this by mandating DNA testing if this is suspected.

I wonder what direction Spain will take.

[Solly Mack]

8. The Plaza de Mayo Grandmothers' association could show them the way.

Spain's not big on confronting the crimes of Franco...so I wonder about the roadblocks some will run into in their search for truth. Spain voted for an amnesty on all crimes committed during Franco’s dictatorship....so there could very well be trouble for some wanting to find their real parents or parents trying to find their children.

[leftstreet]

6. K&R

Horrific

And I remember the Argentina reunion article...I think it might have been you who posted it before?

Very bittersweet

K&R

[Solly Mack]

7. Wasn't me. I read it at the time though.

Horrific...good word for it.

[robinlynne]

9. Now we have DNA testing. these questions can be answered.

but it would take both child and parent wanting to know......