Platform of European Memory and Conscience

16/09/2026

🏆 We are delighted to announce the laureate of the Prize of the Platform 2026 – Andrzej Poczobut.
In a democratic vote open to all members of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, Andrzej Poczobut was chosen by a clear majority of votes as this year’s laureate.

📰Andrzej Poczobut (b. 1973) is a Belarusian independent journalist, activist of the Polish minority in Belarus, and a long-time prisoner of conscience of Lukashenka’s regime. Since becoming an independent journalist in the late 1990s, he has consistently stood up for freedom of speech, human rights and the truth about Belarus’s past and present.
⚖️ For his commitment to these values, Poczobut faced years of persecution, intimidation, arrests, searches and confiscation of his property. Tried in three consecutive criminal cases and convicted in two, he spent a total of seven years in some of the harshest Belarusian prisons and labour camps (‼️). One of the charges against him was connected to his efforts to preserve the memory of the heroes of the anti-totalitarian resistance during and after the Second World War.
Released in 2026 following international pressure, including from the European Union and the United States, Andrzej Poczobut now resides in Poland and is receiving medical treatment for illnesses contracted during his imprisonment. Despite everything he has endured, he has publicly stated that he intends to return to Belarus and continue his struggle for human rights.

▶️ We are proud that such a courageous and principled person will receive the Prize of the Platform 2026. His story is a powerful reminder that defending truth, freedom and historical memory can come at an enormous personal cost — and that there are people who remain committed to these values regardless of the price.

🎉 Congratulations, Andrzej Poczobut! 🕊️

Photo credit: Mariusz Kubik / CC BY 4.0

14/09/2026

🕯️ The Brussels Memorial is taking shape, even when we are not posting about it❗

We know you have been waiting for more updates, and we promise there is plenty happening behind the scenes. Today, we want to answer one of the questions we receive most often: how will we reproduce the handwriting of victims of totalitarian regimes, preserving their unique character and personal stories while ensuring that every word remains legible? ✍️📜

🏛️ The answer lies in a fascinating technology known as graphic concrete, a modern and proven technique that allows images, text, and intricate details to be incorporated into concrete surfaces.

🔎 So, how does it work?

1️⃣ Each unique handwritten letter is transferred onto a special membrane, known as a surface retarder, and delivered to the precast concrete factory.

2️⃣ The membrane is placed at the bottom of the mould, with the casting setup and reinforcement prepared around and above it.

3️⃣ Concrete is poured into the mould, incorporating the necessary reinforcement to ensure the paving slab is strong and durable.

4️⃣ Once the concrete has set sufficiently, usually after approximately one day, the slab is removed from the mould.

5️⃣ A high-pressure cleaner washes away the unset surface cement, exposing the graphics beneath. The handwritten letters emerge, preserving their distinctive character in the concrete.

6️⃣ The finished paving slab is ready to be transported and installed at the Memorial in Brussels, where these personal traces of history will become part of a shared European place of remembrance.

✍️ What makes this technology so important is the way it brings together precision and human individuality. Every letter is unique, and every story deserves to be treated with care. Graphic concrete offers a way to preserve these handwritten testimonies in a durable, legible, and meaningful form, allowing visitors to encounter the human dimension of history in the very fabric of the Memorial 🕯️

✨ More updates from Brussels are coming soon. Stay tuned!

🙏 We are deeply grateful to the Governments of Lithuania (Užsienio reikalų ministerija) 🇱🇹 and Estonia (Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Välisministeerium) 🇪🇪 for their support of this 🇪🇪 for their support of this project.

09/09/2026

🗳️✨ The vote for the Prize of the Platform 2026 is ON!

Who will receive this year’s Prize of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience?

The decision is made democratically by the members of the Platform — every PEMC member has a voice and a vote in choosing this year’s laureate.

Over the years, the Prize has honoured courageous individuals and organisations standing up for freedom, human rights, truth and democracy — from Mustafa Dzhemilev and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to Memorial International, Vladimir Kara-Murza and, most recently, Iryna Danylovich, the 2025 laureate.

🏆 Now, a new laureate will join this remarkable group.

⏳ The votes are being cast — and we will soon find out who has won the Prize of the Platform 2026!

Stay tuned!

31/08/2026

🎵 Voices of Memory – remembering the victims of communist persecution in Albania

On 23 August, the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes, Albania’s public broadcaster RTSH broadcast the memorial concert “Sounds of Memory”, organised by our members from kujto.al - Arkiva Online e Krimeve dhe Viktimave të Komunizmit në Shqipëri 🇦🇱

The concert was recorded on 11 June in Shkodra, at Zalli i Kirit — a site where political opponents were executed during Albania’s communist dictatorship. Holding a memorial concert in such a place gives music and poetry a powerful role in keeping the memory of the victims alive.

Now in its fifth edition, “Sounds of Memory” has become an annual tradition dedicated to Albanian artists who were persecuted under the communist regime. This year’s concert paid particular tribute to victims executed at the site, as well as to persecuted artists from Shkodra — including those who were imprisoned or died in prison.

Shkodra was among the areas that experienced some of the harshest communist repression in Albania: 601 people were executed, around 3,000 families were interned, and 2,900 people were imprisoned.

Through the works of persecuted artists, performed by contemporary Albanian musicians and poets, the concert connects the memory of the past with the generations of today.

The event was organised as part of the “BRIDGES – Building Resilience, Inspiring Democratic Generations” project, with the support of the European Union.

🎥 Watch the full concert on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckdJwkYcuSE&list=PLJrtXJBEsFfb4Uj9r3yYKjHsrUZbYluMR

Nga ishulli i të pushkatuarve pranë Zallit të Kirit, Shkodër, një h...

28/08/2026

🇵🇱 The Warsaw Uprising: A City Under Fire
💥 The photographs show the moment of explosion from a missile that, on 28 August 1944, struck the most modern skyscraper in Warsaw at the time, the Prudential building. This great photograph was taken by Sylwester “Kris” Braun 📸

🏢 The Prudential was seized by the insurgents, who raised the Polish white-and-red flag on its mast. This turned the building into a visible symbol of the Uprising — and a target for German artillery. Around 1,000 missiles were fired into the area around the building. The enormous projectile captured by Braun weighed almost two tonnes, yet the building's reinforced structure survived the explosion.
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💭 What might the insurgents have felt watching this happen?
For those fighting in the streets of Warsaw, the Prudential was more than just a building. Seeing one of the city's most recognizable landmarks struck by German fire must have been a stark reminder of the destruction unfolding around them.
It may have brought fear. Anger. Grief. But perhaps also determination.
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📸 Today, photographs like Braun's allow us to see the Warsaw Uprising not only as a military event but as a human experience, lived by people who fought, suffered, and endured amid the destruction of their city.
Explore more photographs at the Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego 👉 https://www.1944.pl/en/photo-library.html

26/08/2026

❓ Is historical memory only about the past, or can it also be one of Europe’s defences against the threats of today? 🛡️🇪🇺

📅 On 23 August, European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Na**sm, we remember the victims of the totalitarian regimes that shaped Europe’s darkest chapters. But remembrance is not simply about looking backwards 📖. As Marek Mutor argues in his article in Wszystko Co Najważniejsze, understanding the crimes of the 20th century, preserving the truth about their victims, and confronting the legacies of totalitarianism are also essential to the resilience of European societies today 🧭

🕯️🏛️ The article makes a powerful case for turning remembrance into something tangible. A shared European memory cannot remain confined to archives, museums, commemorations, or history books. It needs places where Europeans can encounter the human stories of those who suffered, reflect on the consequences of totalitarian rule, and understand why democratic Europe was built on the promise of “never again”. Brussels is a meaningful location because it places remembrance at the centre of Europe’s political life, where decisions shaping the Union are made and its democratic values are debated. 🤝📚 This is precisely the idea behind our Pan-European Memorial for the Victims of Totalitarianism in Brussels 🇪🇺, a place of remembrance and documentation in the heart of European political life.

🌍 The Memorial is therefore not only about remembering what happened. It is about making sure that the lessons of the past remain visible, understandable, and relevant to future generations. 👥📖 In an age of war, disinformation, hybrid threats, and the weaponisation of history, historical truth is part of Europe’s resilience 🛡️🧠🇪🇺

🔎 We strongly encourage you to read Marek Mutor's full article: https://wszystkoconajwazniejsze.pl/marek-mutor-the-truth-about-the-victims-of-totalitarian-regimes-as-a-value-for-contemporary-european-civilisation

25/08/2026

❓ What happens when a country loses control of its history, and someone else starts writing it for them? The answer can be deeply unsettling ⚠️
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🕯️ These were the questions raised by Marcus Kolga during Black Ribbon Day, and they remain as relevant today as ever. His recent article explores why historical memory is not simply about preserving what happened yesterday, but about protecting society from those who seek to reshape yesterday for political purposes. When authoritarian regimes selectively rewrite the past, deny crimes, or turn historical narratives into political weapons, they do more than distort history; they create the conditions for manipulation in the present❗
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🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹 The Baltic states’ experience is a powerful reminder of this danger. Soviet occupation, repression, and resistance cannot be reduced to competing interpretations of the past. When such experiences are erased or replaced by narratives that legitimize domination, societies become more vulnerable to propaganda and the normalization of authoritarian ideas. Remembering the victims and preserving historical facts therefore become an act of civic resilience 🛡️📚, helping people recognize familiar patterns when they appear in new forms.
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🌍 This is why historical truth matters far beyond historians’ work. Journalists, educators, museums, memory institutions, and citizens all have a role in defending the connection between societies and their history 🤝
As Russia’s war against Ukraine 🇺🇦 has painfully shown, historical narratives can be used to question borders, deny sovereignty, and justify aggression. Countering this means more than correcting false claims one by one.
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🔎 We strongly encourage you to read Marcus Kolga’s full article in The Globe and Mail 👉 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-war-history-soviet-union

24/08/2026

❓ What can the failure to remember the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact lead to? Terrible things.

And that is precisely why historical memory cannot be safely confined to the past 🕯️📚 Two years ago, renowned German historian Felix Ackermann asked whether Germany had drawn the necessary conclusions from the 1939 pact.
His answer, reflected in the debate at the time, remains relevant today: Europe 🇪🇺 has not finished confronting the legacy of the Hitler-Stalin agreement. The pact was not merely a diplomatic arrangement between two powers. It enabled the destruction of independent states and helped divide Central and Eastern Europe into spheres of domination, shaping the lives of millions ⚠️

🧠 Ackermann’s analysis also points to a broader problem: memory of this history has developed differently across Europe. In Central and Eastern Europe, the pact is often seen as a foundational experience of occupation, repression, and lost sovereignty, while parts of Western Europe have struggled to fully integrate the Soviet dimension into their historical consciousness. That gap matters. When parts of Europe’s history are forgotten, simplified, or pushed aside, the lessons drawn from the past become incomplete.

And the consequences are not merely academic. The memory of the Pact continues to shape political attitudes, perceptions of Russia, and still casts a long shadow over European political memory 🇩🇪🇱🇹🇵🇱

🛡️At PEMC, we believe this is precisely why remembering matters. History is not only about understanding what happened, but also about recognizing the ideas, narratives and omissions that can shape what happens next 📖

📰 We also recommend the related FAZ.NET - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung article 👉 https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/hitler-stalin-pakt-woher-die-ostdeutsche-russland-liebe-ruehrt-19935770.html

23/08/2026

🕯️ 23 August: European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes
Every year Europe remembers the millions of people who suffered and lost their lives under N**i, communist, and other totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.
🟥 The date is deeply significant. On 23 August 1939, N**i Germany and the Soviet Union signed the N**i-Soviet Pact, also called the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression agreement with secret protocols that divided parts of Central and Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. This was the real start of the Second World War.
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💭 This is why 23 August remains relevant today.
Remembering the victims of totalitarianism is not simply an exercise in looking back. It is an opportunity to understand how authoritarian systems emerge, how they affect societies and individuals, and why freedom, human dignity, and democratic institutions cannot be taken for granted.
🌍 As Europe faces new forms of political polarization, insecurity, and authoritarian pressure, the lessons of the past remain essential. 🏛️ The Memorial for all the victims of totalitarian regimes that we envisioned in Brussels gives us a physical space to serve as a reminder of our shared past
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We remember the victims.
We preserve their stories.
We learn from the past to protect freedom in the present.
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📷 Credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H27337 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. Edited by PEMC

18/08/2026

⚔️ From Auschwitz to the Streets of Warsaw: Witold Pilecki’s Story
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🎖️ A Polish cavalry officer and member of the underground resistance, Pilecki volunteered in 1940 for an extraordinary mission: he deliberately allowed himself to be arrested and sent to Auschwitz. After more than two years, he escaped in April 1943.
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💥 But his resistance did not end there.
When the Warsaw Uprising began on 1 August 1944 🇵🇱, Pilecki joined the fighting and served in the Chrobry II grouping. He fought throughout the 63 days of the uprising before being taken prisoner by the Germans.
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⚠️ After the war, Pilecki returned to communist-controlled Poland and continued his resistance by gathering intelligence for the Polish government-in-exile. Arrested in 1947, he was tortured and executed by the communist authorities on 25 May 1948.
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📖 His legacy also lies at the heart of the work done by our dear friends at the Instytut Pileckiego. The institute is named after Witold Pilecki in recognition of his resistance to both Na**sm and Communism, and his commitment to documenting the persecution of others.
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🕊️ Pilecki’s story reminds us of the courage it takes to resist totalitarianism — and of the importance of preserving the truth, even at the greatest personal cost.
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Photo credit: Museum of Warsaw; Wikipedia Commons. Edited by Curtis Leingang.