About the Foundation

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a non-profit organization, was established by an Act of Congress to build a memorial in Washington, DC to commemorate the more than 100 million victims of communism; to honor those who successfully resisted communist tyranny; to educate current and future generations about communism's crimes against humanity; and to pay tribute to those who helped win the Cold War.

Legislative History

The Public Law authorized The National Captive Nations Committee, Inc. to construct, maintain, and operate in the District of Columbia an appropriate international memorial to honor victims of communism, tragically numbering more than 100 million, struck down in an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust through conquests, revolutions, civil wars, purges, wars by proxy, and other violent means. Totalitarian terror countenanced no challenge, from individuals, institutions, political parties, or faiths. Instead, it set out the “big lie” that a classless utopian society with human dignity for all was its goal, then cynically produced exactly the opposite in nation after nation which succumbed to its armed might, shameless intrigues, and hypocrisy. Communism’s collapse, accelerated by heroes within and outside captive nations, came only following a tragedy of lost generations. That they are lost must not mean that they are forgotten, nor that those whose free will remains prisoner to this day may be put from our minds. This memorial will assure that they are, instead, remembered forever and that the history of communist tyranny will be taught to future generations. The National Captive Nations Committee was encouraged by PL 103-199 to create an independent entity to perform this function. The independent entity created is The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.