The Platform of European Memory and Conscience is organising a series of discussion seminars presenting the results of the ongoing project JUSTICE 2.0 – International Justice for the Imprescriptible Crimes of Communism. The first public presentation took place on 27 May 2015 in the European Parliament in Brussels, accompanied by an installation of a work of art by the Czech artist group Pode Bal. Below you can find more information about the individual seminars in the series. At the event, we also screen our documentary film JUSTICE 2.0 presenting witnesses and victims of the crimes.
The purpose of the project is to raise international awareness about the issue of unpunished international crimes of Communism and to contribute to finding ways to achieving international justice for these crimes.
If you are interested in staging the seminar in your city / country, please contact us.
Past presentations of the project JUSTICE 2.0:
- Poland, Gdynia, 11th NNW Festival, 27 September 2019
- Slovakia, Bratislava, the Hall of Mirrors of the Primate’s Palace, 24 September 2019
- Germany, Berlin, the Harnack Haus – the conference venue of the Max-Planck Society, 24 January 2019
- Poland, Wroclaw, the Remembrance and Future Institute, 31 August 2018
- Lithuania, Vilnius, the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, 16 August 2018
- Poland, Warsaw, Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw, 12 June 2017
- Romania, Timisoara, 17 December 2016
- Germany, Freiburg, Colloqium on Crimes committed under Communist rule, Max-Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, 24 June 2016
- Slovenia, Ljubljana, National Council, Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia, 21 April 2016
- Slovakia, Bratislava, Faculty of Law, Komenský University, Bratislava, Slovakia, 20 April 2016
- Czech Republic, Brno, Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic, Brno, 19 February 2016
- Romania, Timisoara, 19 December 2015
- Czech Repubic, Prague, Faculty of Law, Charles University, 13 October 2015
- Belgium, Brussels, European Parliament, 27 May 2015
Since 2019, the Platform has been documenting further cases of victims of the Iron Curtain (killed, injured, imprisoned) in cooperation with its Polish partner Centrum Historii Zajezdnia, Wroclaw.
Media response to the project:
Documentary film and video clip:
Installation of sculpture in front of the European Parliament in Brussels together with Pode Bal on 27 May 2015:
Prague City Court repeals acquittal of Col. Jan Muzikář, highest-ranking surviving Communist Border guard commander
Prague, 23 January 2025. The Prague City Court, a court of appeal, decided today that the acquittal of Col. Jan Muzikář rendered on 29 October 2024 by the District court for Prague 1 was wrong, returning it to the court…
Former STASI officer convicted in Iron Curtain murder case
Berlin, 14 October – The verdict in the case of the murder of Czesław Kukuczka (photo: IPN) was handed down by the Berlin Land Court (Landgericht) today. Ten years in prison for the 1974 murder of a Polish man who…
High-ranking border guard commander denies guilt at opening of trial in Prague for killings and woundings of Czech and Germans civilians on the Iron curtain
Prague, 11 June 2024. At the District court for Prague 1, the trial opened today against Col. Jan Muzikář (90) who was deputy commander-in-chief of the border guards in former Czechoslovakia. He was indicted for the killing of three and…
The former Border Guard colonel will stand trial in Prague in June
Prague, 24 April – The District State Prosecutor’s Office for Prague 1 has filed an indictment against Colonel Jan Muzikář (1934), who “in the period from October 1982 to 24 October 1989 at the latest, as Chief of Staff and…
State prosecutor in Prague indicted a former member of the Border Guard
Prague, 25 January – The Office for Documentation and Investigation of Crimes of Communism of the Police of the Czech Republic has submitted a proposal to the prosecutor’s office to indict Jan Muzikář. Investigators say the former border guard colonel,…
Czech court respects Constitutional Court ruling and increases compensation for German victim injured on Iron Curtain
Prague, 14 September – The District Court for Prague 2 has increased the amount of money to be paid by the Justice Ministry to former GDR citizen Thomas Bartsch. In the summer of 1989, he wanted to flee through Czechoslovakia…
Platform welcomes continuing prosecution in the cases of killings on the Iron Curtain and warns against further delays
Prague, 21 July 2023. Despite media headlines following the death of former Minister of interior Vratislav Vajnar (1930 – 2023), the prosecution of perpetrators from the Iron Curtain in former Czechoslovakia is continuing. On 30 June, the Czech Office for…
Platform’s big success: if sane, ex-Minister Vajnar will be sentenced for killing refugees
Prague, 25 April 2023. The District Court for Prague 1 today began the main trial of former Czechoslovak Interior Minister Vratislav Vajnar (*1930) in his absence in the case of the 1983-1988 killing of civilians on the Iron Curtain. The…
The first trial of a former high-ranking Czechoslovak state official for the Iron Curtain killings is scheduled for April in Prague
Prague, 3 March – Judge Ms Kateřina Rybáková of the District Court for Prague 1 has ordered a main trial during which the court will hear the indictment of Dr Vratislav Vajnar (born 1930) for the particularly serious crime of…
First person responsible for Iron Curtain crimes to stand trial in Czech court
Prague, 15 Feb – Former Communist Interior Minister Vratislav Vajnar (born 1930) is facing charges of abuse of official authority for the deaths and injuries of people at the Czechoslovak state border in the 1980s. The indictment was filed on…
Another milestone in the Justice 2.0 project – the Czech Constitutional Court defends the right of the Iron Curtain victims to adequate compensation
Prague, 19 January – Citizens who were injured by Czechoslovak border guards while trying to escape through the Iron Curtain are entitled to extraordinary financial compensation, the Czech Constitutional Court announced today. This is another landmark and precedent-setting case in…
New expert opinions on former communist leaders keep path to justice open
Prague, 21 July – Relatives of victims of the Iron Curtain on the borders of communist Czechoslovakia were yesterday served with new expert reports on the health of former Prime Minister Lubomír Štrougal (born 1924) and former Federal Minister of…
The Czech police launched criminal prosecution against the former Minister of Interior František Kincl for the killings on the Iron Curtain
Prague, 25 May – The Office of the Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism of the Czech Police (ÚDV) launched criminal prosecution against the former Federal Minister of Interior František Kincl (born 1941) on 17 May 2022. The prosecution is based on…
New documentary about German victims of the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia
Prague, 31 March – The new documentary “Europe’s Deadliest Borders – The Forgotten Victims of the Cold War” premiered on German television stations Arte and ARD. The documentary depicts the stories of former East German citizens who attempted to cross…
German investigation into former Communist Czechoslovak officials continues
Prague, 2 February 2022 – In the Czech Republic the case against Lubomír Štrougal and Vratislav Vajnar for the deaths on the Iron Curtain has been interrupted as new assessments of their health are awaited. However, according to Christian Härtl, the…
The Platform thanks the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic for its precedent-setting decision and for reopening the road to justice for the victims of Lubomír Štrougal and Vratislav Vajnar
The Platform welcomes today’s precedent-setting ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic that the Office for the investigation and documentation of the crimes of Communism cannot commission an attestation about the health of the prosecuted former Communist leaders…
JUSTICE 2.0 project breakthrough: Czech Ministry of Justice awards 33,333 Czech crowns to daughter of East German refugee killed on the Iron Curtain in 1977
Prague, 28 January 2021. This week, the Czech Ministry of Justice awarded the sum of 33,333 Czech crowns (about 1,280 euros) to the daughter of East German citizen Gerhard Schmidt who was shot and killed by border guards while trying…
Czech Police prosecuting Communist Party ideologue Jan Fojtík for shooting at the borders before 1989
Prague, 8 January 2021 – On Thursday, the Czech Police launched a criminal prosecution of Jan Fojtík, a former member of the presidency of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The 92-year-old man is accused of abusing the authority…
Milestone: Czech police declares 11 deceased politburo members fully responsible for the killings of refugees on the Iron Curtain! What about the surviving ones?
Prague, 2 December 2020. In its milestone decision published last week, the Czech Office for Documentation and Investigation of Communist Crimes of the Police of the Czech Republic declares that 11 deceased members of the 1980s’ politburo of the Communist…
Difficult road to justice for the Communist crimes – Season 31: Episode 1001: “Nice try”
Prague, 16 November 2020. Thirty-one years after the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, the Platform of European Memory and Conscience has uncovered yet another attempt to thwart the prosecution of Communist crimes. Something is rotten in the running criminal investigation against…
Justice 2.0 project online working meeting
Prague, 22 October 2020 – Seventeen representatives of governmental, non-governmental and academic institutions from the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Ukraine participated during the JUSTICE 2.0 project online working meeting on 22 October. The participants discussed the current…
Czech state prosecutor wants to stop prosecution of former high-ranking Communist representatives for the killings on the Iron Curtain
Prague, 24 September – The Czech prosecutors announced they would halt the prosecution of former high-ranking Communist representatives and former ministers of interior Mr Lubomír Štrougal and Vratislav Vajnar. Together with Milouš Jakeš, who passed away in July, they have…
Platform welcomes opening of an investigation into the killings on the former Iron Curtain in Romania
Prague, 14 August – The Platform of European Memory and Conscience (PEMC) welcomes the initiative led by the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile (IICCMER), which opens an investigation in Romania to…
First rehabilitation by a Czech court of refugee killed on the Iron Curtain
Prague, 27 May – On 25 May 2020 the Czech district court in Tachov fully rehabilitated Mr Gerhard Schmidt and his family. After the case of Hartmut Tautz, who was fully rehabilitated by a Slovak court in Bratislava in 2017, now the Czech Republic has…
Justice 2.0 – a database of the Iron Curtain victims
Prague, Wroclaw – On 26 November a prosecution was initiated in the Czech Republic against persons responsible for murders committed along the Iron Curtain. Among the suspects are former general secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party Milouš Jakeš, former Prime…
Czech Police launch investigation into former high-ranking Communist officials for shootings on the borders
Press release Prague, 27 November – The Office of the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism of the Police of the Czech Republic officially launched a prosecution on 26 November 2019 against the former high-ranking Communist politburo members for…
“Justice 2.0” – presentation at the Unruly, Undeterred, Cursed film festival in Gdynia, Poland on 27 September
Gdynia, 27 September – The Platform project “Justice 2.0” was introduced on 27 September during the 11th Film Festival – Unruly, Undeterred, Cursed (NNW), which took place on 26 – 29 September 2019 in Gdynia, Poland, during the discussion panel…
Platform Justice 2.0 project presented in Bratislava, Slovakia
Prague, 24 September – The Platform representative and project Justice 2.0 expert team member Mr Miroslav Lehký participated on the conference entitled Communism and human rights, which took place on 24 September in the Hall of Mirrors of the Primate’s Palace in…
Justice 2.0 working meeting in Wroclaw on 21-22 March 2019
Wroclaw, 22 March 2019 – The representatives of governmental and non-governmental institutions and organisations from the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia convened in Wroclaw on 21-22 March 2019 for a working meeting of the JUSTICE 2.0 project.…
The Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic for the first time compensated a former German Democratic Republic citizen for injury caused by the Czechoslovak Border Guards
Prague, 31 January. In a decision issued by the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic on 28 January 2019, compensation was granted to a former East German refugee who was badly injured in 1982 by the Czechoslovak Border Guard in…
“Justice 2.0” project presentation in Berlin
Berlin, 25 January – The recent development and history of the Platform project “Justice 2.0” was introduced by the Platform Managing Director Mr Peter Rendek at the international working conference about the victims on the Iron Curtain, which took place on 24…
The court rehabilitated four refugees from the former GDR
Cheb, 11 December 2018. The District Court in Cheb (West Bohemia) has rehabilitated four citizens of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) who, during the old regime, had attempted to escape through Czechoslovakia to West Germany, were detained by members…
“Justice 2.0” project and Platform’s reader presentation took place in Wrocław
Wroclaw – On 31 August, the Platform of European Memory and Conscience together with the Remembrance and Future Institute organised a presentation of the “Justice 2.0” project and the Polish version of the reader. The presentation took place in the…
“Justice 2.0” project presentation took place on 16 August in Vilnius, Lithuania
Vilnius – The presentation of the Platform “JUSTICE 2.0” project took place in Vilnius, Lithuania on 16 August 2018. The Platform member organisation the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania organised a discussion seminar where the results of the project were presented. The…
First rehabilitation in the Czech Republic for German who attempted to escape across the Iron Curtain
Prague, 11 May 2018. The District Court in České Budějovice (South Bohemia) has released a breakthrough decision for a former East German refugee who was arrested in 1976 trying to illegally cross the border between Czechoslovakia and Austria. East German…
Justice 2.0 working meeting in Prague on 27-28 February 2018
Prague, 28 February 2018 – Twenty-six representatives of governmental and non-governmental institutions and organisations from Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Romania Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland convened in Prague on 27-28 February 2018 for a working meeting…
Platform hands over new evidence to Bavarian prosecutors in the case of the 1986 killing of Johann Dick by Czechoslovak border guards
Prague, 18 January 2018. At a meeting held earlier this week in Weiden, the Platform of European Memory and Conscience handed over new evidence to Bavarian prosecutors in the case of the killing of West-German civilian Johann Dick who was…
Platform achieves double legal breakthrough: Bavarian state criminal investigation office Munich starts investigating killings of German refugees on the Iron Curtain in former Czechoslovakia
Prague, 13 December 2017. The Bavarian state criminal investigation office Munich (LKA München) is starting the investigation of the killings of German citizens on the Iron Curtain in former Czechoslovakia. The respective criminal complaint was filed by the Platform of…
Call on former East German refugees arrested in Czechoslovakia until 1989 to apply for rehabilitation and compensation
Berlin / Prague, 6 November 2017. On the occasion of the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall 28 years ago, the Platform of European Memory and Conscience and the German Union of Victims of Communist Tyranny UOKG call…
Platform files criminal complaint against last surviving Czechoslovak politburo members Jakeš, Štrougal, Colotka and further persons for killing on the borders
Brno, 21 September 2017. The Platform of European Memory and Conscience filed a criminal complaint today with the Supreme state prosecutor’s office of the Czech Republic in Brno against the last living members of the presidium of the Central committee…
Platform has located graves of six of the thirteen electrocuted Polish victims for whose death Lubomír Štrougal is responsible
Praha/Bratislava, 27 July 2017. Researchers of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience have found the graves of six of thirteen identified Polish victims who were killed by electrocution on the Czechoslovak Iron Curtain. The responsibility for their deaths lies…
“JUSTICE 2.0” – presentation at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw, 12 June 2017
The Platform of European Memory and Conscience together with the Institute of National Remembrance, the Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies and the Research Centre Pro Patria of the Warsaw University are cordially inviting to a discussion seminar “JUSTICE 2.0″…
German prosecutors call killing of refugees on the border of the ČSSR an international crime and suggest liability for murder for the responsible commanders. Thus the acts have not expired.
EN: Press release PEMC 27.3.2017 DE: Pressemitteilung PEMC 27.3.2017 CZ: Tiskova zprava PEMC 27.3.2017 Prague, 27 March 2017. The Platform of European Memory and Conscience has received two letters already from German prosecutors concerning its comprehensive criminal complaint of 18…
Breakthrough court ruling in Bratislava: Killing of refugee was a crime, family has a right to compensation!
Bratislava / Prague, 13 March 2017. In a breakthrough decision, the district court Bratislava I. decided today to fully rehabilitate Hartmut Tautz, the 18-year-old refugee who was killed by border guard dogs on the Czechoslovak border with Austria in 1986.…
Success for Platform’s “JUSTICE 2.0” project: Polish prosecutors investigating former Czechoslovak politburo member for killings on the Iron Curtain
Prague / Warsaw / Bratislava, 21 February 2017. The prosecutors of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) – the Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation – have instituted criminal proceedings in cases of Polish…
JUSTICE 2.0 working meeting in Prague on 14-15 February 2017
Prague, 17 February 2017 – Representatives of Platform Members, 14 governmental and non-governmental institutions and organisations from 10 countries of Europe and North America convened in Prague on 14-15 February 2017 for a closed working meeting of the JUSTICE 2.0 project.…
JUSTICE 2.0 presentation on 20 December 2016 in Timisoara, Romania
Timisoara, 20 December 2016. Neela Winkelmann, Managing Director of the Platform presented actual progress in the “JUSTICE 2.0” project in Timisoara, Romania. Together with representatives of the Timisoara Society they discussed the unpunished crimes of Communism committed on Romanian soil during the…
German ARD airs documentary about Platform’s criminal complaint against Czechoslovak Communist perpetrators
Prague, 14 December 2016. The German 1st TV channel ARD aired a documentary on the work of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience last night. The film depicts the flight of 18-year-old East German Hartmut Tautz who was attacked…
Platform: Killing of refugees on the borders is an imprescriptible crime
Berlin / Prague, 25-26 August 2016. At two press conferences, one held in Berlin on 25 August and one in Prague on 26 August, the Platform of European Memory and Conscience presented its criminal complaint launched with the German Federal…