Europe ponders 'remembrance day' for communist, Nazi past

"In life, one cannot have a good future without understanding and coming to terms with one's own past. The same applies to Europe and its common memory. This is not just an exercise for one generation or one country, but a continuous need for the whole of Europe," Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra, responsible for European affairs, told this month's public hearing. 

"Only thus will be able to better understand each other," the Czech minister concluded, before adding: "Symbols such as the Iron Curtain still have tremendous power. Knowing our past is also an essential tool to teach our children how to avoid intolerance, extremism and the recurrence of totalitarian rule in the future." 

"Only overcoming regional thinking, ignorance and different prejudices will lead to an all-European understanding that all historic events, tragedies and crimes are part of our common European heritage for which we as EU citizens bear responsibility," argued Estonian centre-right MEP Tunne Kelam (EPP-ED). 

Lamenting the Socialist group's failure to back the resolution during last week's plenary debate, Hungarian MEP György Schöpflin (EPP-ED) argued that "without a thorough scrutiny of its past, the left in some post-communist countries compels itself to live with a false past, screening out all painful events. As the Western left seems to fully accept this unreconstructed post-communist left, it too finds itself obliged to defend an indefensible past". 

"Most Europeans are still not aware of the crimes committed by Soviet totalitarian communism in Europe," Latvian MEP Roberts Zīle (UEN) told the hearing, according to the Baltic Course magazine, calling for the establishment in Brussels of a museum dedicated to the crimes of totalitarian regimes. 

Pavel Zacek, who heads the Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (USTR), said "the establishment of a small information office in Brussels" could be a "first step" towards a future European platform, reported the Prague Daily Monitor. 

"When thinking of Europe’s future, one must bear in mind Europe’s past," Andreja Valic of Slovenia's Research Centre for National Reconciliation told the March hearing, according to STA, the Slovenian press agency. Although Slovenia has done much for reconciliation, progress so far is still too little, she explained. 

Calling upon the opinion-makers of Europe "to promote Europe as an historical reality and as a project," Israeli historian Elie Barnavi told EurActiv in an interview, stressing the need to "show Europeans that they have common roots; that they are a civilisation". 

"There is nothing to be invented here. There is a lot to be shown. People simply do not know. When I talk about history and the past, I am not talking about communism. I am talking about very long and profound roots of Europe. It is a very ancient, old story […] You do not have to invent it: it is there," he continued. 

For Barnavi, "tackling the past is extremely important in order to build a future. By failing to tackle the past, you cannot really build the future and enhance this petty thing which is daily Europe, which is so boring in the eyes of its own citizens".