Vilnius, 17 November – On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Lithuanian Political Prisoners and Exile Union (Lietuvos politinių kalinių ir tremtinių sąjunga), memory organizations from different countries gathered during at the Lithuanian Parliament in Vilnius (Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas) on 17 November to discuss the issues of deportations, Communist crimes and the culture of memory as part of the Forum-23 event. Platform was represented at the event by its president Mr Marek Mutor and project coordinator Mr Wojciech Bednarski.
Examples of good practices in the field of history activities and popularisation of history were also discussed. The event was accompanied by the opening of the international exhibition European Gulag.
During the opening ceremony, Marek Mutor drew attention to the fact that Lithuania is one of the European leaders in the field of memory policy. “I would like to thank Lithuania for its support in commemorating the victims of totalitarianism in Europe and bringing the perpetrators to justice. We have an official European commemoration of the victims of Soviet deportations. Thanks to Ms Rasa Juknevičienė we are working together to build a Europe-wide memorial to the victims of all totalitarian regimes in Brussels. The Lithuanian President supports this project, along with the heads of other countries such as Poland, Romania, Latvia and Estonia,” Mutor said.
The opening of the exhibition of the platform “European Gulag” was honoured by speeches of Ms Rasa Juknevičienė, Member of the European Parliament, Ms Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, and Ms Monika Rogers, member of our Supervisory Board. Mr Wojciech Bednarski, the curator of the exhibition, presented the details of the exhibition. After the presentation of the exhibition in the Lithuanian Parliament, the exhibition will move to a memorial to the victims of Soviet repressions in Tuskulėnai Manor (Okupacijų ir laisvės kovų muziejus), where it will be open to the general public until 3 December.
The project presentation is possible thanks to the help of Lietuvos Gyventojų Genocido ir Rezistencijos tyrimo centras, Member of Parliament Ms Paulė Kuzmickienė. Our participation in the event was possible thanks to the support of Polska Fundacja Narodowa