The totalitarian period must not be forgotten, said Prime Minister Petr Nečas

Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland attended the signing.

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“I am glad that today we have an opportunity to sign a cooperation agreement between institutions that deal with the research of the totalitarian past, especially when those institution are from both sides of the former Iron Curtain,” said the Czech Prime Minister in his speech during the international association agreement signature ceremony. The main task of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience is to coordinate research and projects regarding the coming to terms with totalitarian past on the European level.

Prime Minister Petr Nečas remarked that all four countries of the Visegrad Group have gone through two totalitarian regimes in their modern history. “This must not be forgotten, because it was a period of fight for freedom,” said Petr Nečas in his speech. “Our nations deserve the truth about their past and I believe that the establishment of this Platform will help to find the truth about this history,” added the Prime Minister.

According to Daniel Herman, head of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the Platform could also provoke interest in countries, which have dealt with a totalitarian regime only recently. Herman also added that three years of preparations preceded the establishment of the association. “We are ready to do our best in the service of truth, as knowing the truth provides liberation,“ said Daniel Hermann at the official establishment of the Platform.