International seminar “The Role and Significance of Institutions of Historical Memory”
On 26 February 2013
an international seminar entitled The Role and Significance of Institutions of Historical Memory was held to mark the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR) and the Security Services Archive (ABS) under the auspices of the chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Milan Štěch, at the Senate. Among those who took part were the director of the ÚSTR, Daniel Herman, the first deputy director of the ÚSTR, Col. Eduard Stehlík, and the head of the office of the ABS, Lubomír Augustin; the director of the Office of the Federal Commissioner for the records of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR (BStU), Hans Altendorf, and the president of Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, Lukasz Kamiński, whose speeches primarily summed up the experiences of their institutions to date; and the president of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, Göran Lindblad, and the chairwoman of the informal Reconciliation Histories group at the European Parliament, MEP Sandra Kalniete, who presented their views on various aspects of coming to terms with the totalitarian past from the European point of view.
- Speech from Daniel Herman, director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
- Speech from Hans Altendorf, director of the Office of the Federal Commissioner for the records of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR
- Speech from Lukasz Kamiński, president of the Institute of National Remembrance
- Speech from Zlatuše Kukánová, the director of the Security Services Archive (represented by Lubomír Augustin)
- Speech from Eduard Stehlík, first deputy director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
- Speech from Sandra Kalniete, chairwoman of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group
Programme:
- 10:00–10:05 welcome Mr. Milan Štěch, Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic
- 10:05–10:15 introduction Mr. Daniel Herman, Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (USTR)
- Conference presenter: Mr. Miroslav Nenutil, Senator of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic
- 10:15–10:30 Mr. Hans Altendorf, Director of The Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic (BStU)
- 10:30–10:45 Mr. Łukasz Kamiński, Director of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN)
- 10:45–11:00 Mrs. Zlatuše Kukánová, Director of the Security Services Archive (ABS)
- 11:00–11:15 Mr. Göran Lindblad, President of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience
- 11:15–11:30 Mr. Eduard Stehlík, First Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (USTR)
- 11:30–11:45 closing remarks Mrs. Sandra Kalniete, Member of the European Parliament, Chairwoman of the Reconciliation of European Histories group
- 11:45–12:00 discussion