ESMA - the Door

 The Banality of Evil - ESMA

El Día Nacional de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia es el día en el que se conmemora en Argentina a las víctimas de la última dictadura militar, autodenominada «Proceso de Reorganización Nacional», que usurpó el gobierno del Estado nacional argentino entre el 24 de marzo de 1976 y el 10 de diciembre de 1983.

I have written about the subject of all those disappeared during the military regime in my Argentina that began on today’s date today in 1976. The present government is attempting to vindicate the actions of that military government saying that the people they disappeared were terrorists. That children disappeared and childless generals adopted the babies of women about to be disappeared is supposed to be forgotten. It is not and today massive protests were organized.

For me since I was a conscript in the Argentine Navy until almost the end of 1967 I met young officers who to me were just fine human beings. How was I to know what they would do 9 years later? I believe that all of us have inside us the possibility of doing unspeakable acts.

To this day I remember when I saw that door (people that entered it never left alive) at the Escuela de la Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA), I felt a chill in my body.

I used to routinely go to deliver documents to that school of mechanics. It was a beautiful place on a beautiful street.