Czech politicians, survivors honor memory of victims of Communism

[uhnope]

Source: Romea

Politicians and survivors honored the memory of the victims of the Communist regime at a cemetery in the Motol quarter of Prague today. Those attending called on people not to forget the harms caused by the totalitarian era. Survivors warned of the danger of disparaging or doubting the crimes that were committed in previous decades. The cemetery includes a mass grave of political prisoners, including those who were executed.

According to military historian Eduard Stehlík, during the commemorations of the crimes of the totalitarian regime, one crime in particular tends to be forgotten. That is the regime's successful "erasure of people" from history. "When I study the files and requisitions, I am aware every day of the terrible extent of what they did to specific people and what an enormous debt we owe to their memory. Anyone here who believes there was no 'third resistance' [1948-1989] to Communism needs to study those files. They include the stories of hundreds and thousands of people. I hope we get their names into the textbooks," Stehlík told the packed ceremonial hall at the Motol Crematorium.
...
According to the Mayor of Prague 4, Pavel Caldr (independent), some people now idealize the past. "The opinion that it wasn't so bad here then, that totalitarianism was just an authoritarian government, is not a unique one," Caldr pointed out.

Caldr said the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů ) is constantly under attack and that there are attempts to abolish the country's Screening Act (lustrační zákon), which he considers premature. Student representative Jan Formánek also said he sees the past being "forgotten, idealized and minimized, and scepticism about the present."

The Communist regime never returned the remains of its deceased opponents to their loved ones, but stored them in secret locations. The mass grave at Motol was not discovered until 1999. It has been determined that urns holding the ashes of political prisoners, some of whom had been executed, were gotten rid of at Motol. According to the Confederation of Political Prisoners, the urns were stored in Interior Ministry buildings until 1958, after which they began to be secretly buried.

Read more: http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/czech-politicians-survivors-honor-memory-of-victims-of-communism#

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Mass graves

[iamthebandfanman]

1. Not of communism..

Of Soviet Russia.


There still has never been a truly communist state on this planet.

[christx30]

2. Speaking of victims of Soviet Russia,

have they ever paid reparations for the horror they unleashed in Eastern Europe during their reign?

[Berlin Expat]

5. To the best of

my knowledge, they haven't.

I would suggest the Russians supply the former Warsaw Pact nations with free gas and oil for the next 100 years.

That oughta make up for it.

[Shemp Howard]

4. Yes, of communism

The Soviets considered themselves communist, or at least they saw themselves as a society that was moving towards communism.

You might have a different definition of "communism" than did the Soviet leadership, and that's fair enough. I suppose that if you bring ten communists together, you'd get ten different working definitions of the word "communism".

But no matter. The Soviets were communists. And many of their atrocities were committed in the name of communism. That's a stain on the word, and to deny that is to deny reality.

[mackerel]

3. Beautiful design...the Bohemians are such fantastic artists.