Remembering Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

Declared by the European Parliament as a day of remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, it has been observed annually by the bodies of the European Union since 2009 on 23 August.

It was on this day that the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact was signed in 1939, a pact which in practice divided Europe up between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.

However, 23 August is not just about remembering the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, underlines Rafał Rogulski from the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity: “In itself it was a political act that created certain possibilities and enabled developments. In that sense it was evil. But the main subjects of the day are the victims.”

The main events of the European Day of remembrance are held in a different country each year.

This year is the turn of the Slovak capital, Bratislava, with ceremonies being held at the Devin Gate -- where there is a memorial dedicated to the 400 men and women shot trying to cross the Danube river from then-Czechoslovakia to Austria during the Cold War.