Home >> The Documentation Centre on the Bombing of Gernika >> Research

The Documentation Centre is continuing its research work in archives, newspaper and periodicals libraries, film libraries and other information centres to compile the information that exists worldwide about the bombing of Gernika and the Spanish Civil War.

LATEST ACTIVITIES IN THIS FIELD:

Research in the Vatican Secret Archive (2007. Vatican)

In June 2006 it was officially announced that documents from the Vatican Secret Archive on the Pontificate of Pius XI were to be opened to researchers, and that these could be consulted from September of that year. The declassification of these documents dating from 1922 to 1939 provides new data on the conduct of the Holy See during the Spanish Civil War. In January 2007, Iratxe Momoitio Astorkia, Director of the Peace Museum in Gernika, and Ana Teresa Nuñez Monasterio, Head of the Documentation Centre on the Bombing of Gernika and the Civil War, went to Rome to consult these declassified documents and to reproduce any interesting material to bring it back to Gernika so that it could be consulted by the public.
In this first phase of research they were able to consult everything concerning the Nunciature of Madrid where lists of Basque refugee children, letters from children sent to their families from abroad, Monsignor Antoniutti's correspondence, etc are kept.

Research in the Vatican Secret Archive (2008. Vatican)

In the second phase of their research in March 2008 they looked through all the documents in Affari Ecclesiastici Straordinari. Spagna 1937. Fondo Segreteria di Stato that had still not been opened up to be consulted on their first visit to the archive.
Once the research phase is over and the documents have been catalogued, they will be available to be consulted in the Documentation Centre.

Research in the Amsterdam Social History Institute (Holland)

Institute where a lot of documents were taken over the Pyrenees in 1939, a few weeks before Franco took the last Republican areas in the North. Research will be carried out specifically in the José Martínez Guerricabeitia and the Fernando Gomez Peláez Collections that contain a great deal of graphic and written documentation on the Civil War in the Basque Country.

Jose Martinez Guerricabeitia Collection

Collection of newspapers, leaflets, pamphlets, correspondence, manuscripts and other printed documentation, that covers the 1939-1980 period as a whole.

Fernando Gomez Pelaez Collection

The Fernando Gomez Pelaez archive is one of the most important collections of Spanish libertarians in exile. The documents that make up the archive, compiled throughout his long-standing affiliation to the National Labour Confederation (CNT) from his tireless publishing activity as an editor of libertarian publications in exile, have become a fundamental source of knowledge about post-civil war anarcho-syndicalism.

Research in the British National Archives (United Kingdom)

Foreign Office documentation (1936-1939) that deals with British international relations with foreign powers, the policy of Non-Intervention in the Civil War, the evacuation of Basque children to England, the setting up of the committee for the investigation of the bombing of Gernika...

Research in the British National Archives (2009. United Kingdom)

Second phase of the research on the Foreign Office documentation (1936-1939) that deals with British international relations with foreign powers, the policy of Non-Intervention in the Civil War, the evacuation of Basque children to England, the setting up of the committee for the investigation of the bombing of Gernika...

Research in the German Foreign Office (2009. Berlin)
(Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts (PAAA)

The Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts (PAAA), the Political Archive of the German Foreign Office, keeps all the international agreements and documents on German foreign policy since 1867.

German foreign policy documents. Series D (1937-1941)1. This collection includes the documents prepared by the ministers Konstantin von Neurath and Joachim von Ribbentrop and their Secretaries of State, by the German ambassador in Salamanca Wilhelm Faupel and other German and foreign institutions.

Research at the Ufficio Storico Estado Major dell'Aeronautica Militare (Italy) (May, 2010)

The Ufficio Storico Estado Major dell'Aeronautica Militare (Ministry of Defence)(Italy) contains many documents on air operations in the Basque Country during the Civil War. The main documents are the orders of operations transmitted to the different units: the target of the attack, its location, equipment makers do, schedule and route, the mode of attack and the number of bombs to be used, among other technical data.

Research in the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy (Roma) (November 2010)

The research in the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy (Rome) Archivio Storico Diplomatico, Ministero degli Affari Esteri, November 2010, has been focused on the consultation of documents relating to those series: Affari Politici, Ufficio Fondi di Spagna and Guerra-Guerra di Spagna, the most important documents for the study of Civil War in the Basque Country. There are important reports of Italian troops in the campaign of Biscay and the documents relating to Santoña's Agreement and the surrender of Basque battalions.

Research in the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy (Roma) (March 2011)

Continuation of the research in the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy (Rome), Archivio Storico Diplomatico, Ministero degli Affari Esteri in March 2011.

Research in the Archives of Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito of Italy (Rome) (October 2011)

There is important documentation on the military operations in Biscay at the archive of "Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito". The type of documents: reports, maps and photographs relating to the Italian participation in the Civil war in the Basque Country.

It is interesting the documentation relative to the Iron Belt, to the agreements between Italians and the Basque nationalists in 1937, and to the surrender of the Basque battalions.

It is necessary to stand out the funds called "Campagna di Spagna 1936-1939", with the topographic number VS/1, which contains 300 photographs corresponding to the effects of Aviazione Legionaria's bombings in several places.

Research in the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States (NARA) (Washington) (December 2011)