Presidencia de la Nación

The ESMA Museum and Site of Memory is a National Historic Monument, a MERCOSUR Cultural Property, and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List. The building that houses it, the former Officers’ Quarters of the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA), is a proof of State terrorism and judicial evidence in the cases for crimes against humanity in Argentina. A three-year recovery process began in 2004 to transform the ESMA premises into a Space for Memory and for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights. On May 19, 2015, after years of debates and consensus-reaching, the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory was inaugurated in the former Officers’ Quarters featuring a permanent museographic intervention. Given its status of judicial evidence, the intervention didn’t alter the building. The Museum script is based on the testimonies of survivors from the 1985 Trial of the Juntas and the trials for crimes against humanity that started in 2004. Today, the place is a space that denounces State terrorism and transmits Memory. Its mission is to contribute to the awareness, experience and understanding of human rights violations committed by the Argentine state, promoting an inner and intra-generational dialogue in the present day and in the future. The ESMA Museum and Site of Memory was proposed by the Argentine State to become part of the UNESCO World Heritage List.