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UPN Conference Recalls Unknown Heroes of Anti-Communist Struggle
Thursday 18 November 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, November 18 (TASR) - When there is democracy, which provides room for everybody, including "bad apples", we need to remember how the nation found itself unfree and what it experienced in the second half of the 20th century, Catholic priest and chairman of the Slovak Confederation of Political Prisoners Anton Srholec said at a conference organised by the confederation and the Nation's Memory Institute (UPN) on Thursday.
The conference was entitled 'Unknown Heroes of the Struggle Against Communism between 1945-67'.
"The day before yesterday [Tuesday] I buried a man who was very wise and guarded our legislation. Somebody came and shot him dead. We miss him as if he were our own relative," said Srholec in reference to prominent lawyer Ernest Valko, who was shot dead by an unknown assailant at his home in Limbach (Bratislava region) last week.
"There are people who claim that they haven't noticed any Velvet Revolution," said British Ambassador Michael Roberts in a speech. Roberts observed the fate of Communist countries from the other side of the Iron Curtain for years. He noted that some people are claiming that the economic life of ordinary people was better before the Velvet Revolution.
"It isn't possible. It isn't possible that life before 1989 was better than the freedom in which we're living," said Roberts, praising the importance of events that recall the reality of totalitarianism.
"The event is devoted to unknown heroes that suffered under Communist totalitarianism. Students of primary and secondary schools from throughout Slovakia and even the Czech Republic and Ukraine have come to this conference to present the stories of people who suffered," said UPN historian Frantisek Neupauer, the main organiser of the conference.
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