It is not a book for experts, the author warns from the beginning, but for those who want to know more about the topic of repression in 1936, "since it is a book adapted from my personal point of view". Pako Sudupe wanted to reflect in his work Repression, the foundation of the new Francoist state (1936-1948), the different situations that lived in the Basque territories.

He presented on Wednesday at Gernika-Lumo, accompanied by Pruden Gartzia, member of the UEU Editorial Committee. In addition, a new presentation will take place in Donostia on 10 May at the Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea.

The idea of making a book of this kind emerged in the prologue of Azkoitia as a result of his father's footsteps in the war, but he says that the main incentive was the recognition of the Marquis of Castellvelle, José Luis Vilallonga. Vilallonga unreservedly told the camera how he shot the sixteen "red" years and nationalist priests, and that he did so with good conscience.

Fascist state not shot down

On the website of the UEU, Sudupe is interviewed about the new publication and stresses that the memory is a book: "In the transition the fascist state built by the Franco regime did not fall down (...) the memory of those who fought the 1936 Franco uprising and were victims must be claimed. How many films have been made and made to denounce the Nazi regime, and how few to explain how a fascist rebellion was. In that, this book wants to put a grain."

Among other things, he has written about prominent Republicans who opposed the shooting of the highways of 1936: the Catalan lawyer Manuel Carrasco; the Navarro politician Manuel Irujo; the Valencian doctor Juan Peset; the anarchists Joan Peiró and Melchor Rodríguez; and the smash conundon Porfirio Smerdou.

Sudupe has also reflected on the current affairs of the War of 1936 and recalled that at the end of 2020 200 military personnel sent a letter to the king of Spain Felipe VI, saying that the Spanish union was in danger, and that a retired general sent a message to a group of military "26 million Spanish putasemes shot in the administration", says: "The forces in the Spanish heritage are also notorious.

The Church, Franco's militant

Sudupe has spoken strongly about the role and conduct of the Church: "The Church was a militant of Franco." The hierarchy clearly committed itself to eregimena. But the repression suffered also seems important – according to some data, 6,832 religious people were killed during the war. However, he says that the Church was fundamental to Franco "the spiritual dominion of society".

"I am aware that it is better for some to forget the issue," Sudupe concludes in the interview. "But for others, who have not lived as a tragedy, it can be stimulating and attractive. In Basque, it marked the life of our predecessors to know more about this fact, to know it better and not to forget it, since its consequences are still alive in a very striking part".