The Pan-European Memorial for Victims of Totalitarianism: Unveiling the Concept - Instytut Pileckiego

Presentation + Panel discussion

The Pan-European Memorial for Victims of Totalitarianism: Unveiling the Concept

Presentation + Panel discussion

02.02.2024, 13.00 | Pariser Platz 4A, 10117 Berlin | Registration: https://forms.gle/MUeM1TSaQWouZzEg7

Join us for an insightful and thought-provoking event where we unveil the concept for the Pan-European Memorial dedicated to the victims of Totalitarianism in the XX century. The need for such a memorial is more crucial than ever in the face of rising extremism and nationalism in Europe. This event aims to commemorate the tragic human toll of the struggles for freedom and democracy and underscores the lessons learned from the totalitarian past.

Including contributions by:

- The creators of the memorial: Marek Mutor, Wojciech Bednarski and Tszwai So

- Andrii Portnov

- Florian Mausbach

- Krista-Marija Läbe

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WHY WE NEED THE MEMORIAL

"In 2008-2009, the European Parliament established 23 August, the date of the signing of the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939, as the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarianism. The European Union Member States commemorate the day with an EU-wide event. In 2009, the European Parliament also called for the creation of a Pan-European memorial for the victims of all totalitarian regimes.

No memorial has yet been created to the countless millions of victims of Fascism, National Socialism and Communism in Europe. Especially today, in view of the rising extremism and nationalism in Europe, the tragic human toll of the struggle for freedom and democracy needs to be commemorated in a dignified way in the centre of the EU."

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Marek Mutor

President of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, Deputy Director of the Ossoliński National Institue, previously the director of the “Remembrance and Future” Centre in Wrocław. Polish philologist and historian, a graduate of the University of Wrocław. Head of the National Centre of Culture in 2006-2007 and in 2016.

Tszwai So

Award-winning artist and architect from London. He is the founder of Spheron Architects, and a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster. His notable memorial projects include the Belarusian Memorial Chapel in London and the Pan-European Memorial for Victims of Totalitarianism in Brussels.

Wojciech Bednarski

Curator, researcher and programme manager at the European Platform of Memory and Conscience. He is a PhD candidate at the Department of Contemporary History of the Institute of History of the University of Wrocław

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Andrii Portnov

Ukrainian historian, essayist, and editor. He is the chair professor of entangled history of Ukraine at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and a director of the PRISMA UKRAЇNA Research Network Eastern Europe. He specializes in Polish-Russian-Ukrainian history and memory studies.

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Florian Mausbach

City planner and initiator of the memorial in Berlin for Polish WW2 victims. He studied architecture at TU Braunschweig and urban planning at TU Berlin.
As President of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning from 1995 to 2009, he was at the forefront of the structural transformation of the reunified Berlin.

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Krista-Marija Läbe

Vitsche´s head of communication. She was born in Ternopil, Ukraine in 1997. She relocated to Germany with her mother as a child and pursued studies in International Business Management after her school education. As part of Vitsche, Krista-Marija led the organization's press team and media activities, gaining national and occasional international exposure(including Al Jazeera, France24, BBC, tagesschau, ARD, ZDF etc.).