This article analyses the representation of the Spanish Civil War addressed to the readers of the Polish local press in Siedlce, then in the Voivodship of Lublin. In the period 1936–1939 Siedlce could boast of having three newspapers — the weekly Głos Podlaski published by the Diocesan Curia Siedlce, and two trimensuals, Ziemia Siedlecka and Życie Podlasia, both affiliated with the ruling Sanacja. Each of them showed an unflagging interest in the Spanish war, treated as a violent clash of the opposed forces of left-wing Republicanism and nationalism.

This article is in tended to provide a legally sound explanation of why and how the contemporary International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law legal frameworks offer tools to address the uncertain ty, lack of in formation, and the consequences thereof in relation to missin g persons and victims of enforced disappearances in the context of armed conflicts which predated the adoption of such frameworks. To this end, three scenarios will be examin ed: the contemporary claims of the families of those who were killed in the Katyń massacre in 1940; the claims for in formation and justice of the families of thousands who were subjected to enforced disappearances durin g the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939; and the identification efforts concernin g those reported missin g while in volved in military operations in the context of the 1944 Kaprolat/Hasselmann in cident which took place durin g the Second World War. The analysis of these scenarios is conducive to the development of more general reflections that would feed in to the debate over the legal relevance of the distant past in light of today’s in ternational legal framework.

Álex de la Iglesia’s film, Balada triste de trompeta (2010) explores historical trauma and collective memory of the Spanish Civil war through clown figures adapted to the grotesque aesthetic of esperpento. Besides the use of popular culture motifs, this article focuses on how notions of the mythical trickster and classical philosophy and melancholy combine in a dark humor subversive work.