UOK/IICC was
invited
by the Government of the Czech Republic on the behalf of Mr. Alexandr Vondra, the Czech Republic Prime Minister for European Affairs, to formulate the "Establishment of
a Platform of European Memory and Conscience"Recently, the EU, the member states and other bodies have taken several important steps towards the evaluation of totalitarian crimes.
Concluding the "The Platform of European Memory and Conscience" workshop, the delegates jointly declared:
"We, members of this working group, are deeply convinced that: Europe will not be united unless it is able to consider it as a whole: it must
recognise
Communism, Nazism and other totalitarian and autocratic systems as a common European legacy and bring about an honest and thorough debate on all the totalitarian crimes of the past century. Consciousness of the crimes against humanity committed by the Communists and other totalitarian and autocratic regimes throughout the continent must resonate in European minds to the same extent as the crimes of the Nazi regime did."
The purpose of The Platform of European Memory and Conscience is to
increase public awareness of totalitarian crimes, bolstering
democratic values, encouraging research and educational projects.
Mr.
Pavel
Zacek, Director of The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, and Mr. Ondrej Karas, Director of the European Affairs of the Czech Republic. Representatives of government institutions, institutes, organizations, NGO:s and embassies from 19 countries in Europe participated to support the initiative.
The "Establishment of a Platform of European Memory and Conscience" was the title of the international workshop at the Lichtenstein Palace in
Prague, organized by the Senate of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Institute for the
Study of Totalitarian Regimes.
Participants from Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxenburg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Picture 1: Mrs.Camilla
Andersson, President and founder of the IICC, Mr. Göran Lindblad, PACE, Vice Chairman of the Assembly and Chairman of the Political Affairs Committee, Swedish EU Delegation, Mr. Martin Mejstrik, former Senator of the Czech Republic, initiator and co-founder of the Prague Declaration,
Picture 2: Mr. Rolf Ericsson, Counsellor, Swedish Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic and Mrs. Camilla Andersson,
IICC/UOKThe IICC/UOK supports the Czech Republic initiative of establishing a Platform of European Memory and ConscienceThe IICC/UOK believes that the establishing of a European Platform to address the crimes of totalitarianism is a positive and necessary step to safeguard democracy, human rights and core European freedoms and values.
We
firmly
agree with the sentiments of the organizers of the Workshop:
"Millions of victims of totalitarian regimes and their families are entitled to enjoy justice, sympathy, understanding and recognition of their sufferings, as the victims of Nazism have been morally and politically recognized."
Surveys concering the knowledge among students of the crimes of Communism
The results of both the Swedish (IICC/UOK) and Norwegian (Cevita)
student
surveys concerning the knowledge of the crimes of communism both show unacceptably low levels of knowledge concerning the
crimes of Communism - i.e 90% of the students had never heard of the Gulag camps. Some reactions to the IICC/UOK survey:
Mr. Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden, described the findings of the IICC/UOK report and survey as "truly frightening" and remarked that the apparent lack of knowledge was “massive.”
Mrs. Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth, Swedish Minister of Culture, remarked that "Communism is an ideology which have claimed, and is still claiming, many victims. I
fully
agree that it is important to illuminate and inform –not least the upcoming generation- about
the dark history of Communism.”
Mr. Jan Björklund, Swedish Minister of Education, stated: "“- I consider it of utmost importance that our schools provide children with with knowledge of the crimes committed against the
Human Rights in the name of Communism. The government intends to return to this issue in a review of the curriculum of the compulsary school.”
The Swedish and Norwegian surveys clearly show the importance of increased
education
on the crimes of Communism.
The IICC/UOK suggests the carrying out of a Pan-European survey, in order to identify the educational needs of European students concerning knowledge of the crimes of National Socialism and Communism.
In order
to assess the present, we have to understand the past. Camilla Andersson and Anders Hjemdahl
IICC/UOK is the Swedish partner in the permanent working group and the European coalition for the "Platform of European Memory and
Conscience" The IICC/UOK is part of the European working
group organized by the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. The permanent working group will work on the formalization of the Platform.
"Sweden and the Czech
Republic should take the opportunity of their respective EU
presidencies to focus on the issue of Human Rights and prepare for the formation of an International Taskforce concerning the Crimes of Communism."
"Sweden and the Czech Republic are in a great position to make a difference in initiating international recognition and
condemnation
of the crimes of Communism", said the founders of the IICC/UOK, Mr. Anders Hjemdahl and Mrs.Camilla Andersson.
The Swedish Government Declaration of
September 16, 2008 points out the
importance of Nordic, Baltic and European cooperation:
"Sweden must be
a clear and distinct voice for freedom and democracy". Priorities of the Czech Republic EU Presidency of 2009 focuses on
"Europe without Barriers and Further development of the area of freedom, security and justice".
The IICC/UOK was
invited to participate in a seminar about European Oral History projects relating to the totalitarian past
by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Prague.
"Memory of nation" is a collaborative project created in 2008 by three Czech institutions: the Post Bellum association, Czech Radio, and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. The project contains digitized recordings and texts of several thousand personal stories and eye-witness accounts of totalitarian crimes, collected in en ever-growing archive which can be accessed through a unique, internet-based Witness Portal. The IICC/UOK is now a partner of the project as well
as
the
certified Swedish coordinator/administrator for the Memory of Nation Portal.
Several leading European museums, government institutes, organizations and NGO:s participated in the seminar to present their respective oral history projects and to discuss further future collaboration through the Memory of Nation Portal. The IICC/UOK presented its European Crimes of Communism online education center, and detailed various communication strategies to effectively improve the understanding and
level of knowledge about totalitarian crimes in Europe, based on the situation of wide-spread lack of knowledge about history among young people.
Picture 1: Mr.
Marius Stan -Oral history expert from The Institute for Investigation of Communism Crimes in Romania, IICCR, and Mr.
Ronaldas Racinskas, Executive Director of the Secretariat of the
International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and
Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania. Picture 2: Mrs.Katerina Svobodova, Curator for collections of witnesses to remember the Holocaust, The Jewish Museum, Prague.
Picture 3: Michal Smid, portal manager of Memory of Nation and Mr. Mikulas Kroupa, Project Manager and instigator of the Project.The Memory of Nation
archive contains the memories of thousands of witnesses, primarily from the Post Bellum collection. Memories of soldiers - veterans of the 2nd World War, members of the
Czechoslovak
resistance between 1939 and 1945, Holocaust victims, political prisoners from the 1950's, and the
officials of the executive powers - agents of KGB, NKVD, StB, politicians, and others. Through the online Portal "Memory of Nation", the Community of European Memory provides access to
personal memories of
witnesses of major historical events of the 20th century - full recordings, texts, samples of recordings, photographs, diaries, as well as archival documents for researchers and the general public.
http://www.memoryofnation.euMaking recent history come alive for a young audienceThe IICC/UOK Internet Education Center is a dynamic, expanding online information resource for students and teachers. It presents facts about Communist ideology and Communist crimes, as well as the fight against Communism for democracy and liberty, combined
with
personal stories, eyewitness accounts, illustrations, paintings, photos, slideshows and films.
Witnesses from many countries tell their personal stories about how their lives were affected by Communist rule; ordinary people, politicians, children, deportees, freedom fighters, dissidents, political prisoners and refugees, combined with texts by the leading historians in the field. International partners contribute materials relating to their specific countries. All articles can be
printed
out, saved, or immediately e-mailed.
The Education Center is steadily expanding and will also be translated into English.
The goal of the project is to give students a true understanding of the past and to show the importance of
liberty and democratic values.
Some notable IICC/UOK honorary members and
participants; Mr. Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden, Mr. Mart Laar, former Estonian Prime Minister and historian, Mrs. Vaira Vike- Freiberga, former President of Latvia, Mrs. Sandra Kalniete,
former Latvian EU Commissioner and author, Mr. Gunnar Hökmark, Swedish European Parliament representative and Vice Chairman of the EPP-ED group, as well as several leading government institutions, institutes, museums and organisations in Europe and the United States.
http://praguedeclaration.org (English)
http://prazkadeklaracija.bg (Bulgarian)
http://prazskadeklarace.eu (Czech)
Support the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism on
Facebook!
About the IICC/UOK - the Institute for Information on the Crimes of CommunismThe Institute for Information on the
Crimes of Communism (IICC/UOK)
is a
non-profit, non-governmental, politically
independent organization with the purpose of spreading essential information about Communism; its background, ideology and its consequences, and to promote vigilance against totalitarian and antidemocratic movements.
Homepage:
www.crimesofcommunism.org Online Education Center / Virtual Museum on the crimes of Communism:
www.aboutcommunism.comContact:
IICC -The
Institute
for
Information on the Crimes of Communism/
UOK -Föreningen för upplysning om
kommunismen
Box 3037, 103 61 Stockholm, Sweden
Telefon: +46 709 42 92 02
E-mail:
info@crimesofcommunism.orgUnsubcribe to Newsletter 
