Remember. AUGUST 23August 23. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

In 2008, 409 members of European Parliament signed the declaration on the proclamation of 23rd of August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was on this day in 1939 that two totalitarian states divided Europe among themselves and although the collaboration between Nazism and Stalinism was relatively short lived, for 20th century Europe this period was comparable to the opening of the mythical Pandora’s box. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact facilitated military aggression, annexation of whole states or regions, and created the framework conditions for the Holocaust, deportations of nations and social groups, mass murder, and ethnic cleansing. This pin is to remind us all of the fallen, whom we shall never forget.

Photo: AKG Images/EastNews Identity photo of a female Roma inmate from the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women.

Remember. AUGUST 23August 23. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

In 2008, 409 members of European Parliament signed the declaration on the proclamation of 23rd of August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was on this day in 1939 that two totalitarian states divided Europe among themselves and although the collaboration between Nazism and Stalinism was relatively short lived, for 20th century Europe this period was comparable to the opening of the mythical Pandora’s box. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact facilitated military aggression, annexation of whole states or regions, and created the framework conditions for the Holocaust, deportations of nations and social groups, mass murder, and ethnic cleansing. This pin is to remind us all of the fallen, whom we shall never forget.

Photo: Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania Povilas Seikalis (1931–1954), arrested in 1950 and sentenced by the Special Council to 10 years in a labour camp. Taken to the Kengyr labor camp (Dzheskasgan region, Kazakh SSR), he died on 16 May 1954, the first day of the Kengyr uprising.

Remember. AUGUST 23August 23. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

In 2008, 409 members of European Parliament signed the declaration on the proclamation of 23rd of August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was on this day in 1939 that two totalitarian states divided Europe among themselves and although the collaboration between Nazism and Stalinism was relatively short lived, for 20th century Europe this period was comparable to the opening of the mythical Pandora’s box. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact facilitated military aggression, annexation of whole states or regions, and created the framework conditions for the Holocaust, deportations of nations and social groups, mass murder, and ethnic cleansing. This pin is to remind us all of the fallen, whom we shall never forget.

Photo: Museum “Jews in Latvia” Jewish inmate no. 145 in the Riga Kaiserwald concentration camp, Latvia.

Remember. AUGUST 23August 23. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

In 2008, 409 members of European Parliament signed the declaration on the proclamation of 23rd of August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was on this day in 1939 that two totalitarian states divided Europe among themselves and although the collaboration between Nazism and Stalinism was relatively short lived, for 20th century Europe this period was comparable to the opening of the mythical Pandora’s box. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact facilitated military aggression, annexation of whole states or regions, and created the framework conditions for the Holocaust, deportations of nations and social groups, mass murder, and ethnic cleansing. This pin is to remind us all of the fallen, whom we shall never forget.

Photo: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Archives Czesława Kwoka (1928–1943) – a Polish Catholic child, died in the Auschwitz concentration camp at the age of 14. She was one of the Children of Zamosc Region, sent by the Germans to concentration camps during the Zamosc Uprising. Murdered by a phenol injection.

Remember. AUGUST 23August 23. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

In 2008, 409 members of European Parliament signed the declaration on the proclamation of 23rd of August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was on this day in 1939 that two totalitarian states divided Europe among themselves and although the collaboration between Nazism and Stalinism was relatively short lived, for 20th century Europe this period was comparable to the opening of the mythical Pandora’s box. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact facilitated military aggression, annexation of whole states or regions, and created the framework conditions for the Holocaust, deportations of nations and social groups, mass murder, and ethnic cleansing. This pin is to remind us all of the fallen, whom we shall never forget.

Photo: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Archives Witold Pilecki (1901–1948) – a Polish soldier, a member of the underground Home Army. Author of the first intelligence report about the Auschwitz concentration camp. After his escape from the camp, Pilecki took part in the Warsaw Uprising in August 44. Sentenced to death in 1948 by Ministry of Public Security on charges of working for ‘foreign imperialism’.

Remember. AUGUST 23August 23. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

In 2008, 409 members of European Parliament signed the declaration on the proclamation of 23rd of August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was on this day in 1939 that two totalitarian states divided Europe among themselves and although the collaboration between Nazism and Stalinism was relatively short lived, for 20th century Europe this period was comparable to the opening of the mythical Pandora’s box. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact facilitated military aggression, annexation of whole states or regions, and created the framework conditions for the Holocaust, deportations of nations and social groups, mass murder, and ethnic cleansing. This pin is to remind us all of the fallen, whom we shall never forget.

Photo: Collection of the National Archives of Romania Cardinal Iuliu Hossu (1885–1970) – a Greek-Catholic priest, Bishop of Cluj and Gherla, senator in the Romanian Parliament. Arrested by the Securitate in 1948, imprisoned at the penitentiary of Sighet and held at the monasteries of Caldarusani, Curtea de Arges and Ciorogârla.

Remember. AUGUST 23August 23. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

In 2008, 409 members of European Parliament signed the declaration on the proclamation of 23rd of August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was on this day in 1939 that two totalitarian states divided Europe among themselves and although the collaboration between Nazism and Stalinism was relatively short lived, for 20th century Europe this period was comparable to the opening of the mythical Pandora’s box. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact facilitated military aggression, annexation of whole states or regions, and created the framework conditions for the Holocaust, deportations of nations and social groups, mass murder, and ethnic cleansing. This pin is to remind us all of the fallen, whom we shall never forget.

Photo: Bilderwelt/EastNews Identity photo from the Auschwitz concentration camp of prisoner 47829 – an unidentified Hungarian boy.

Remember. AUGUST 23August 23. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

In 2008, 409 members of European Parliament signed the declaration on the proclamation of 23rd of August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was on this day in 1939 that two totalitarian states divided Europe among themselves and although the collaboration between Nazism and Stalinism was relatively short lived, for 20th century Europe this period was comparable to the opening of the mythical Pandora’s box. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact facilitated military aggression, annexation of whole states or regions, and created the framework conditions for the Holocaust, deportations of nations and social groups, mass murder, and ethnic cleansing. This pin is to remind us all of the fallen, whom we shall never forget.

Photo: Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security Count Gyula Batthyány, a famous painter, descendant of the first Prime Minister of Hungary, Count Lajos Batthyány. An anti-Nazi during the Second World War. After the War he was exiled from his own castle and lived in his former servants’ house. In 1953 sentenced on trumped-up charges to eight years in prison and deprived of assets. Because of his age released earlier, in 1956. Died in 1959 in a mental hospital in Budapest.

Remember. AUGUST 23August 23. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

In 2008, 409 members of European Parliament signed the declaration on the proclamation of 23rd of August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was on this day in 1939 that two totalitarian states divided Europe among themselves and although the collaboration between Nazism and Stalinism was relatively short lived, for 20th century Europe this period was comparable to the opening of the mythical Pandora’s box. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact facilitated military aggression, annexation of whole states or regions, and created the framework conditions for the Holocaust, deportations of nations and social groups, mass murder, and ethnic cleansing. This pin is to remind us all of the fallen, whom we shall never forget.

Photo: Roger Viollet/EastNews Inmate no. 57846 of the Auschwitz concentration camp – a Frenchman.

Remember. AUGUST 23August 23. European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

In 2008, 409 members of European Parliament signed the declaration on the proclamation of 23rd of August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. It was on this day in 1939 that two totalitarian states divided Europe among themselves and although the collaboration between Nazism and Stalinism was relatively short lived, for 20th century Europe this period was comparable to the opening of the mythical Pandora’s box. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact facilitated military aggression, annexation of whole states or regions, and created the framework conditions for the Holocaust, deportations of nations and social groups, mass murder, and ethnic cleansing. This pin is to remind us all of the fallen, whom we shall never forget.

Photo: Roger Viollet/EastNews Female inmate no. “Jude 6885”, imprisoned in Auschwitz with a badge worn compulsorily to identify her nationality and prisoner category.