August 23–European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes: 70th Anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
Prague, August 24, 2009 – The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes recalls that on April 2, 2009, the European Parliament by an overwhelming majority of MEPs (other than Communists) adopted the resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism, which among other things calls for the proclamation of August 23, the anniversary of the 1939 signing of the non-agression pact between Hitler and Stalin, as a Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, and calls on the European public to commemorate these victims with dignity and impartiality.
The non-agression pact, signed by the Soviet and German ministers of Foreign Affairs Molotov and von Ribbentrop, included a secret protocol dividing Central and Eastern Europe into Soviet and German spheres of influence. In September 1939, Hitler and Stalin launched World War II with their attack on Poland. Stalin continued in the year 1940 with the occupation of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, a part of Finland and Romania, and as a result the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact became the foundation for the post-war creation of the Communist Bloc and the installation of totalitarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe for an additional 40 years.
The day August 23 is an opportunity to recall the criminal collusion of two totalitarian regimes which brought about the greatest destruction of European values in history, the death and suffering of tens of millions of Europeans, genocide and unprecedented crimes against humanity.
The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes is dedicating its film seminar “The Tripartite in the Game for Poland: The 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Ukrainian Card” to the agreement between Hitler and Stalin. The seminar will take place on September 10, 2009, in the building of the Institute, at Siwiecova 2, Prague 3.