Twenty persons from the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia have been nominated for the prestigious European Memory of Nations Awards. The public shall also decide on the winners.

Prague, June 30, 2014 - Until the end of October, the public can support twenty brave survivors on the Internet who found the courage to stand up to communist totalitarianism and who have been nominated for the prestigious European Memory of Nations Awards this year. These include, for example, Kornel Morawiecki, Polish dissident and founder of Fighting Solidarity, which advocated for the restoration of the independence of Poland and the unification of Germany in the eighties, the Hungarian priest Károly Olofsson priest who did not abandon his priestly duties, even after the 10 years he spent in the Soviet Gulag, the East German priest Rainer Eppelmann, whose activities so bothered the Stasi secret service that it attempted to assassinate him two times, or the Slovak politician Jaroslav Fabok who also experienced a communist prison as a German prisoner of war, where he wandered soon after the coup in 1948. On the web site www.memoryofnationsawards.eu people can vote for the nominees and share their stories on social networks. In addition to this support of the public an international jury of historians, writers and filmmakers will also be taken into account in the selection of the five winners of the Memory of Nations Award. The twenty nominees from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Germany and Hungary all share an active resistance against communist totalitarianism, which collapsed in Central Europe 25 years ago. The awards will be presented Nov. 17 at the National Theatre in Prague. The ceremony will be accompanied by the Concert for Heroes – a surprising combination of internationally respected musicians and central European pop and rock stars.

The Memory of Nations Awards are a prestigious European award that have been awarded annually since 2010 by the Czech organization Post Bellum to witnesses of critical moments of the last century, "who in their life demonstrated that honour, freedom and human dignity are not empty words." The origin of the awards is connected with the deceased Czech president Vaclav Havel, who said: "If we want to know who we are, we must know our past and try to understand what challenges, pressure and temptation our ancestors were exposed to. To appreciate the Memory of Nations. "This year's Memory of Nations are awarded under the patronage of Václav Havel's brother, the philosopher and scientist Ivan M. Havel.

Support for the individual nominees is not subject to nationality and anyone can vote for any one of twenty nominated Czechs, Poles, Slovaks, Hungarians and Germans on the website. The twenty figures were nominated by a group of historians and scholars from Post Bellum and partner organizations from the stories of survivors, stored in the Internet collection Memory of Nations www.memoryofnations.eu, which was founded by Post Bellum in 2001. Memory of Nations today contains nearly three thousand recordings of testimony of witnesses of critical moments of the last century from thirteen European countries (war veterans, dissidents, Holocaust survivors and political prisoners) and is the largest publicly accessible collection of witnesses in Europe.

"Of course the award is deserved by all the nominees, but given the amount of time and size of the event, we can only grant five awards. We are therefore pleased by the spontaneous support and appreciation that the nominee are receiving from the public on the Internet. After all, the main objective of the Memory of Nations Award is to inspire today's society through the courage and heroism of the survivors", says Mikuláš Kroupa, Director of Post Bellum.

The five winners this year will be decided by an expert jury with the following composition: Ivan M. Havel (scientist, brother of the late President Vaclav Havel, Czech Republic), Tomáš Halík (priest and philosopher, winner of the Templeton award, Czech Republic), Mikuláš Kroupa (a documentary filmmaker and founder of the Memory of Nations, Czech Republic), Zdeněk Hazdra, Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Czech Republic), Michal Šmíd (editor of the collection Memory of Nations, Czech Republic), Peter Baumann (Director Brücke / Most Stiftung, Germany) Gyorgy Varga (translator and diplomat, Hungary), Ladislav Snopko (politician and former Minister of Culture, Slovak Republic), Štefan Hríb (editor in chief of the magazine Týždeň, Slovak Republic), Paweł Ukielski (historian, deputy director of the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising), Adrian von Arburg (historian, Czech Republic).

The laureates will accept the awards during the award ceremony from internationally respected figures such as the philosopher and winner of the Templeton award Tomáš Halík or former Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová. We are also in negotiations for the participation of the German president Joachim Gauck or former Polish President Lech Walesa.

The ceremony will be accompanied by the Concert for Heroes - a surprising combination of internationally respected musicians and central European pop and rock stars. Among the performers is one of the world's most famous musicians of Czech origin Ivan Král,, who worked closely with the world elite of rock (Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, David Bowie). We are also communicating intensively on the possibility of performances with, for example, the singer Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) or singer and songwriter Suzanne Vega.

About Post Bellum

Since 2001 we have been looking for and recording the stories of witnesses of critical moments of the last century, with which we want to inspire others. Along with Czech Radio and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, we have built the largest publicly accessible collection of witnesses in Europe www.pametnaroda.cz, where the recordings of memories of almost three thousand witnesses of war, totalitarian regimes or the Holocaust are kept. We broadcast the popular radio series Tales of the 20th Century on Czech Radio http://www.rozhlas.cz/plus/porady/_porad/3115 and we present the Memory of Nations Award to witnesses who had the courage to stand up to evil www.cenypametinaroda.cz. Finally, we are implementing national educational projects for schools  www.pribehynasichsousedu.cz  and the largest documentary competition for the public in the Czech Republic www.pribehy20stoleti.cz.

More on:

Filip Hrubý, +420 775 011 550, filip.hruby@postbellum.cz

www.memoryofnationsawards.eu
www.memoryofnations.eu
www.postbellum.cz

Partners of the Memory of Nations Awards

• Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů  www.ustr.cz
• Český rozhlas www.rozhlas.cz
• Brücke / Most-Stiftung http://www.bruecke-most-stiftung.de/
• Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung  www.stiftung-aufarbeitung.de
• Deutsches Polen Institut - Darmstadt www.deutsches-polen-institut.de/
• European Network Remembrance and Solidarity http://www.enrs.eu/en
• Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records www.bstu.bund.de
• Freedom Express www.freedomexpress.enrs.eu
• Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security (ÁBTL) http://www.abtl.hu/
• Hungarian Academy of Sciences http://mta.hu/english/
• Institute of National Remembrance http://ipn.gov.pl
• Ośrodek Karta http://www.karta.org.pl/
• Polish Oral History Association http://pthm.pl/
• Post Bellum SK www.postbellum.sk
• Slovenský rozhlas http://www.rtvs.sk/radio/
• Terra Recognita Foundation http://www.kibic.hu
• The Baltic Initiative and Network http://coldwarsites.net/network
• The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution www.rev.hu
• Ústav pamäti národa www.upn.gov.sk/
• Warsaw Rising Museum http://www.1944.pl/
• Jewish Memorial Cernovice
• Robert Havemann Gesellschaft e.V. http://www.havemann-gesellschaft.de/
• Segítség az Élethez Alapítvány http://www.messiasizsido.hu/
• The Kids of Budapest 1956