VOC at PEMC’s 2024 Annual Meeting and Conference

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation will participate in PEMC’s 2024 Annual Meeting and Conference, Crimes of Totalitarianism – Justice and Remembrance in the XXI Century, on May 15 through 17 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

VOC’s President and CEO, Dr. Eric Patterson, will join fellow panelists in a discussion on “Memory spaces as a way to achieve justice?”

During this panel discussion, they will delve into the critical role of memory spaces in preserving historical remembrance and contemplate whether justice can be achieved through their establishment or dismantlement. The esteemed panelists represent diverse initiatives, ranging from memorial sites like Tuskulenai Manor to constructed spaces narrating historical accounts, such as the Victims of Communism Museum. Additionally, the panel will examine locations that serve as stark reminders of the symbolic oppression of totalitarian regimes, which should no longer persist in a liberated Europe, as with the Soviet Army Monument in Sofia. Moreover, it will explore the vision behind the Pan-European Memorial for Victims of Totalitarianism in Brussels as a future place of memory and justice.

Panelists:

• Eric Patterson, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
• Bilyana Kotsakova, Citizens` Initiative for Dismantling the Soviet Army Monument in Sofia
• Dovilė Lauraitiene, Memorial Complex of Tuskulėnai Peace Park
• prof. Karol Polejowski, Institute of National Remembrance [TBC]
• Rita Malinauskienė, Military Museum of Vytautas the Great in Kaunas

Moderator: Wojciech Bednarski, Platform of European Memory and Conscience