″International Memorial″ to Receive Prestigious Theodor Heuss Prize | News from Germany about Germany

The International Historical and Educational Society “Memorial” (“MM”) was awarded the Theodor Heuss-Preis, named after the first federal president of Germany. This was announced on Thursday, January 13, by the Theodor Heuss Foundation in Stuttgart (Baden-Württemberg).

Memorial International is a beacon for civil society, and the work of the organization is a model for the courageous defense of human rights around the world,” said Foundation Chairman Ludwig Heuss. “The award is designed to encourage democracy and strengthen the confidence and courage of human rights defenders.” indicated further in the fund.

Delivery scheduled for May

The award ceremony will be held for the 57th time and is scheduled for May. The recipients of this award tend to be distinguished individuals – active participants in the democratic process and defenders of civil rights. Among them was the German writer Günter Grass. In 2005, the award was received by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, in 2015 – by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (EuGH).

“International Memorial” ban

On December 28, 2021, the Supreme Court of Russia decided to ban MM. It was decided to liquidate the company and its regional subdivisions. The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation in its lawsuit argued that the “International Memorial” allegedly repeatedly violated the laws, and also engaged in political activities in order to influence government decisions and form public opinion.

Liquidation of the human rights center “Memorial”

Later, on December 29, 2021, the Moscow City Court, on the proposal of the city prosecutor’s office, ruled to liquidate the Memorial human rights center.

The organization rejected the claims against them. Representatives of “Memorial” stated that they would appeal the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in Russian courts, and if necessary, in the European Court of Human Rights.

Protests and global resonance

The decision to liquidate the “International Memorial” caused a huge resonance not only within Russia, but also in the international arena. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called the persecution of Memorial organizations an insult to human rights activities around the world. The German government condemned the actions of the Russian authorities as contrary to international obligations to protect fundamental civil rights. Amnesty International, a major international human rights organization, has called for the decision to ban Memorial to be reversed, calling it an insult to the memory of the millions of Gulag victims.

See also:

Monuments to the victims of communism
Czech Republic: Memorial to Victims of Communism
Seven bronze sculptures descend a white staircase at the foot of Petřín Hill in Prague. The memorial was opened in 2002 and is a joint work of Czech sculptor Olbram Zubek and architects Jan Kerel and Zdeněk Holzel. The memorial is dedicated, as the inscription says, not only to those who were “imprisoned or executed, but to all those whose lives were destroyed by totalitarian despotism.”

Monuments to the victims of communism
Germany: memorial at Hohenschoenhausen
From 1951 to 1989, more than 11,000 people were imprisoned in the central pre-trial detention center of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR (“Stasi”). Prior to that, the brick building with basements in Berlin’s Hohenschoenhausen district was used by the Soviet occupation authorities as a special camp for the Nazis and alleged enemies of the communist regime.

Monuments to the victims of communism
Romania: Memory of the Resistance
From the giant monument to Lenin, erected in 1960 in Bucharest on the square in front of the tallest building in Romania, built in the style of “Stalin’s skyscrapers”, there is only one pedestal left. At the initiative of former political prisoners, since 2016, a 20-meter-high obelisk by sculptor Mihai Buculei has been standing on this pedestal.

Monuments to the victims of communism
Albania: “House of leaves”
The first memorial to the victims of the communist regime in Tirana appeared in 2017. During World War II, the German occupiers used the building as a prison. After the communists came to power in 1945, dissidents were tortured and killed here. Then behind the facades of the “House of Leaves” housed the headquarters of the Sigurimi, Albania’s secret service during the communist era.

Monuments to the victims of communism
Russia: Solovetsky stone
In Moscow, a monument to the victims of political repressions in the USSR is located on Lubyanka Square. It was at the Lubyanka during the years of the Soviet dictatorship that documents were signed for the mass arrests of people who were accused of treason and anti-communism. The granite boulder was brought to Moscow from the Solovetsky Islands, from the village of Solovetsky, where there was a camp in 1919-1933, and a special prison in 1937-1939.

Monuments to the victims of communism
Georgia: Museum of Soviet Occupation
In Stalin’s hometown of Gori, Georgia, the Soviet dictator is still regarded as a national hero, though there are plans to redecorate the permanent display in a museum dedicated to him. The Museum of Soviet Occupation, which opened in 2006 at the National Museum in Tbilisi, tells about the political repressions and victims of the Soviet regime.

Monuments to the victims of communism
Kazakhstan: a monument to the victims of the famine
About 1.5 million Kazakhs died as a result of a catastrophic famine caused by forced collectivization in 1932/33. The memory of the victims of the Kazakh Holodomor is honored by a monumental sculptural and artistic composition in Astana, opened on May 31, 2012 on the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions.

Monuments to the victims of communism
Ukraine: a monument at the “Prison on Lontskogo”
The monument to the victims of communist crimes in Lviv was opened in 1997. The place where it is installed is symbolic – opposite the former prison on Lontskoy, in the building of which, in particular, the NKVD administration and the Gestapo investigation prison were located. Since 2009, the National Museum of Memory of the Victims of the Occupation Regimes has been operating here.

Monuments to the victims of communism
Latvia: Freedom Monument
Milda – this is how the Latvians call the female figure on the 19-meter pylon of the Freedom Monument in Riga. The monument was erected in 1935 in memory of the fallen fighters for the independence of Latvia and survived the Soviet era thanks to the patronage of the architect Mukhina, a native of Riga. The monument is one of the unofficial symbols of Latvia and expresses the desire for self-determination, the will to protest and resistance.

Monuments to the victims of communism
Mongolia: Memorial at the Museum of Memory of Victims of Political Repressions
Sandwiched between Russia and China, the country spent almost the entire 20th century under the yoke of foreign domination. Politically and economically, Mongolia was dependent on the USSR for the longest time. In 1996, the Museum of Memory of Victims of Political Persecution was opened in Ulaanbaatar, and a memorial was added a year later.

Monuments to the victims of communism
Korea: “Freedom Bridge”
The bridge across the Imjingan River, which flows through the territories of the DPRK and the Republic of Korea, was built at the beginning of the 20th century. Located in the demilitarized zone, it is the only link between the parts of the divided land. The bridge played an important role in the Korean War from 1950-1953. The south side of the bridge has become a kind of memorial where people leave flags and personal messages.

Monuments to the victims of communism
Cambodia: memory of the victims of the Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge terrorist regime has killed more than two million Cambodians – almost half of the country’s population. In 1978, also communist Vietnamese troops occupied Cambodia. The bones and skulls of the victims of the mass repressions were exhibited publicly as evidence of the genocide.

Monuments to the victims of communism
USA: Katyn Crime
In the spring of 1940, in the Katyn forest in the Smolensk region, the Soviet authorities shot about 4,400 Polish prisoners of war, mostly officers. The Katyn massacre is synonymous with the mass extermination of Polish citizens held in various camps and prisons of the NKVD of the USSR. A memorial in New Jersey, dedicated to all the victims of Soviet communism, was erected at the initiative of Polish emigrants in the United States.
Author: Marcel Furstenau, Ella Volodina