The National Library of Spain inaugurates the exhibition "Jorge Semprún. The Long Journey"

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• The Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, and Acción Cultural Española bring the exhibition dedicated to the writer, screenwriter, intellectual, and Minister of Culture to the BNE, after having been displayed at the Archive of the Crown of Aragon (Barcelona) and the Documentary Center of Historical Memory (Salamanca). • The exhibition is part of the 'Spain in Freedom 50 years' and 'Culture with Memory' programs and allows visitors to explore over a hundred original items and reproductions from Semprún's life and work, marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald, where he was imprisoned. • Manuscripts, books, film scripts, videos, photographs, posters, and documents invite reflection on the construction of memory and the values Semprún defended, such as solidarity, democracy, and freedom against totalitarianism.

June 3, 2025. – The Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, and Acción Cultural Española inaugurated this Tuesday 'Jorge Semprún. The Long Journey' at the National Library of Spain (BNE). The exhibition, located at the BNE's main headquarters on Paseo de Recoletos in Madrid, can be visited free of charge until August 31st in the institution's Hypostyle Hall.

Following its run at the Archive of the Crown of Aragon in Barcelona and the Documentary Center of Historical Memory in Salamanca, the National Library of Spain now hosts this exhibition dedicated to the Spanish writer, screenwriter, and intellectual. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and Buchenwald, where Jorge Semprún was imprisoned.

Furthermore, the event is part of the 'Spain in Freedom: 50 Years' celebration program, as well as the 'Culture with Memory' program, a motto under which the Ministry of Culture carries out its democratic memory initiatives.

The exhibition, curated by Tània Balló, comprises over a hundred original items and reproductions, many of them displayed for the first time. Through archives, manuscripts, books, film scripts, photographs, videos, and posters, the project traces the biography of Jorge Semprún (1923-2011) as an exile, member of the Resistance, deportee in the Buchenwald concentration camp, communist leader, anti-Franco agent, renowned novelist, successful screenwriter, Minister of Culture, and a leading Europeanist.

A Long Journey in Five Chapters

'Jorge Semprún. The Long Journey' is structured into five sections that offer a complete overview of his life and work, delving into the understanding of his era and the challenges he faced.

The journey begins with the novel that gives the exhibition its title, 'Le grand voyage' (The Long Journey), with which Semprún burst onto the French literary scene in 1963. His early writings from this work are on display. Censored by the Franco regime, in this novel the author confronted his experiences as a deportee to the Buchenwald camp, from which his admission record and the Spanish police service's report on his arrest by the Gestapo are also exhibited.

The second exhibition section documents his status as an exile, resistance fighter, deportee, and survivor. Between 1936 and 1945, Semprún faced the worst version of humanity, but also demonstrated his intellectual and political commitment. From this period, his refugee card, lent by the Office Français de Protection des Réfugiés et Apatrides (OFPRA), and documentation accrediting him as a member of the Resistance are on display.

The third section covers his life between 1952 and 1965 in clandestine struggle against the Franco regime, which forced him to adopt several identities: Jacques Grador, Federico Artigas, Agustín Larrea, Rafael Bustamante, Camille Salagnac, and Federico Sánchez. These were his years of militancy in the Communist Party of Spain, from whose political positions he eventually dissented until his expulsion. For the exhibition, the Historical Archive of the Communist Party of Spain has lent the technical equipment with which Domingo Malagón forged documents for Semprún and other militants in the fight against the dictatorship.

Fourthly, the exhibition focuses on the author's power of denunciation through cinema. Between 1966 and 1997, Semprún wrote 15 screenplays for classics such as 'The War Is Over' (Alain Resnais, 1966), 'Z' (Costa Gavras, 1969), and 'The Confession' (Costa Gavras, 1970), and was twice nominated for Academy Awards. In his personal archive at the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet in Paris, several unpublished screenplays lent for the exhibition are preserved.

Semprún's extensive literary work and his sense of memory and Europe are the protagonists of the fifth section. After his time as Minister of Culture of Spain (1988-1991), Semprún published his most acclaimed novel in 1994, 'Writing or Life,' in which he theorized about the limits of narrative fiction and literary truth. His strong Europeanist conviction originated in Buchenwald, where he returned in 2010 to give a speech on the 65th anniversary of the concentration camp's liberation. He died in Paris on June 7, 2011.

The exhibition is complemented by several interviews, conducted specifically for this exhibition, in which four individuals who have delved into Semprún's life and work explore the contemporaneity of his work and thought. They are Felipe Nieto, historian; Marta Marín-Dòmine, writer and researcher; Mayka Lahoz, Doctor of Philosophy and Letters, professor and translator; and Xavier Pla, professor at the University of Girona (UdG).

The exhibition has been made possible thanks to loans from a dozen Spanish and French institutions, and includes a large corpus of unpublished or never-before-shown documentation. In this regard, the participation of the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, which houses Semprún's collection, and Dominique Landman's collection are particularly noteworthy.

Additionally, works and audiovisuals are presented from the General Archive of the Administration, the National Historical Archive, the Historical Archive of the Communist Party of Spain (AHPCE), the Library of Catalonia, the Documentary Center of Historical Memory, Cinémathèque française, the Antonio Maura Foundation, Office Français de Protection des Réfugiés et Apatrides (OFPRA), Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (RTF), and Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE).

➢ Technical Sheet: Exhibition: 'Jorge Semprún. The Long Journey' Organizers: Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Acción Cultural Española, and National Library of Spain Venue: National Library of Spain Paseo de Recoletos 20-22, Madrid

• Dates: June 3, 2025 – August 31, 2025
• Visiting hours: Monday to Saturday, 10 am to 8 pm; Sundays and holidays, 10 am to 2 pm (Last admission 30 minutes before closing) Free admission Group reservations on the BNE website.