Prague/Bratislava, 31 December 2025 – In cooperation with the Nation`s Memory Institute (UPN) in Bratislava and the Polish National Foundation, we have published an educational reader “Lest We Forget. Memory of Totalitarianism in Europe” for the first time in Slovak language version in 2024. The reader edited by Neela Winkelmann and Gillian Purves, has already been published in its twelfth language edition.
The purpose of the book is to educate students, today’s young generation, about Europe’s tragic totalitarian past and the importance of standing up for basic human rights, freedoms and democratic values in society. The aim is to promote better understanding and integration among the citizens of Europe and to help prevent the return of any form of undemocratic rule in the future.
“It is important to remember the stories of our ancestors and to point to similar experiences in the countries of the former Soviet bloc. This connection is important and the Platform makes it possible with its projects”, added the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Slovak UPN, Jergus Sivos.
“We are glad that the book we have realized together with our Slovak and Polish partners has been published. I believe that it will find its readers especially among the young generation and will help them to better understand the threat that authoritarian and totalitarian governments pose to the whole society even today”, said Peter Rendek, Platform Managing Director.
The foreword to the second edition was written by the English historian Roger Moorhouse, the author of the The Devils’ Alliance: Hitler’s Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941. The preface to the first edition was written by French historian Prof. Stéphane Courtois, the author of the Black Book of Communism.
The book now contains 37 remarkable life stories of people affected by totalitarianism from 20 European countries, accompanied by photographs and facsimiles of documents. Twenty-three institutions dealing with Europe’s totalitarian past, associated in the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, collaborated on the first and 5 new organisations collaborated on the second edition. New stories have been added from Nazi-occupied France, Franco’s Spain, Mussolini’s Italy and Albania, which had the most isolated Communist regime outside of North Korea.
The project is possible thanks to the support of
