Quisling regime

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling_regime 

National Government Den nasjonale regjering
1942–1945
Flag Coat of arms
Status	Puppet state in German-occupied Norway
Capital	Oslo
Common languages	Norwegian
Religion	Lutheranism
Government	Nazi one-party totalitarian duumvirate
Reichskommissar
• 1940–1945	Josef Terboven
• 1945	Franz Böhme (acting)
Minister President
• 1942–1945	Vidkun Quisling
Historical era	World War II
• Proclamation	1 February 1942
• German capitulation	9 May 1945
Currency	Norwegian krone (NOK)
Preceded by Succeeded by Reichskommissariat Norwegen Kingdom of Norway
Today part of	Norway

The Quisling regime or Quisling government are common names used to refer to the fascist collaborationist government led by Vidkun Quisling in German-occupied Norway during the Second World War. The official name of the regime from 1 February 1942 until its dissolution in May 1945 was Den nasjonale regjering (English: the National Government). Actual executive power was retained by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen, headed by Josef Terboven.

Given the use of the term quisling, the name Quisling regime can also be used as a derogatory term referring to political regimes perceived as treasonous puppet governments imposed by occupying foreign enemies.

1940 coup

Vidkun Quisling, Fører of the Nasjonal Samling party, had first tried to carry out a coup against the Norwegian government on 9 April 1940, the day of the German invasion of Norway. At 7:32 p.m., Quisling visited the studios of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and made a radio broadcast proclaiming himself Prime Minister and ordering all resistance to halt at once. He announced that he and Nasjonal Samling were taking power due to Nygaardsvold's Cabinet having "raised armed resistance and promptly fled". He further declared that in the present situation it was "the duty and the right of the movement of Nasjonal Samling to take over governmental power". Quisling claimed that the Nygaardsvold Cabinet had given up power despite that it had only moved to Elverum, which is some 50 km (31 mi) from Oslo, and was carrying out negotiations with the Germans.

The next day, German ambassador Curt Bräuer traveled to Elverum and demanded King Haakon VII return to Oslo and formally appoint Quisling as prime minister. Haakon stalled for time, telling the ambassador that Norwegian kings could not make political decisions on their own authority. At a Cabinet meeting later that night, Haakon said that he could not in good conscience appoint Quisling as prime minister because he knew neither the people nor the Storting had confidence in him. Haakon further stated that he would abdicate rather than appoint a government headed by Quisling. By this time, news of Quisling's attempted coup had reached Elverum. Negotiations promptly collapsed, and the government unanimously advised Haakon not to appoint Quisling as prime minister.

Quisling tried to have the Nygaardsvold Cabinet arrested, but the officer he instructed to carry out the arrest ignored the warrant. Attempts at gaining control over the police force in Oslo by issuing orders to the chief of police Kristian Welhaven also failed. The coup failed after six days, despite German support for the first three days, and Quisling had to step aside in the occupied parts of Norway in favour of the Administrative Council (Administrasjonsrådet). The Administrative Council was formed on 15 April by members of the Supreme Court and supported by Norwegian business leaders as well as Bräuer as an alternative to Quisling's Nasjonal Samling in the occupied areas.

Provisional Councillors of State

On 25 September 1940, German Reichskommissar Josef Terboven, who on 24 April 1940 had replaced Curt Bräuer as the top civilian commander in Norway, proclaimed the deposition of King Haakon VII and the Nygaardsvold Cabinet, banning all political parties other than Nasjonal Samling. Terboven then appointed a group of 11 kommissariske statsråder (English: provisional councillors of state) from Nasjonal Samling to help him in governing Norway. Although the provisional councillors of state did not form a government, the intention of the Germans was to use them to prepare the way for a Nasjonal Samling take-over of power in the future. Vidkun Quisling was made the political head of the councillors and all members of Nasjonal Samling had to swear a personal oath of allegiance to him. Most of the councillors worked diligently at introducing Nasjonal Samling ideals and politics. Amongst the schemes introduced during the council period was the introduction of labour duty, reforms of the labour market, the penal code and the system of justice, a reorganization of the police and the introduction of national socialist ideals in the Norwegian culture scene. The provisional councillors of state were intended as a temporary system while Nasjonal Samling built up its organization in preparation for assuming full governmental powers. On 25 September 1941, the one-year anniversary of the councillors, Terboven gave them the title of "ministers".

Government

Flag of Nasjonal Samling

 

The establishment of Quisling's national government was proclaimed at Akershus Fortress. On the left side of the hall are Terboven (third from left) and several German officers, on the right Quisling (third from right) and several of his ministers

With the establishment of Quisling's national government, Quisling, as minister-president, temporarily assumed the authority of both the King and the Parliament.

In 1942, after two years of direct civilian administration by the Germans (which continued de facto until 1945), he was finally put in charge of a collaborationist government, which was officially proclaimed on 1 February 1942. The official name of the government was "Den nasjonale regjering" (English: the National Government). The original intention of the Germans had been to hand over the sovereignty of Norway to the new government, but by mid-January 1942 Hitler decided to retain the civilian Reichskommissariat Norwegen under Terboven. The Quisling government was instead given the role of an occupying authority with wide-ranging authorisations. Quisling himself viewed the creation of his government as a "decisive step on the road towards the complete independence of Norway". Although having only temporarily assumed the King's authority, Quisling still made efforts to distance his regime from the exiled monarchy. After Quisling moved into the Royal Palace he took back into use the official seal of Norway, changing the wording from "Haakon VII Norges konge" to "Norges rikes segl" (in English translation, from "Haakon VII King of Norway" to "The Seal of the Norwegian Realm"). After establishing national government Quisling claimed to hold "the authority that according to the Constitution belonged to the King and Parliament".

Other important ministers of the collaborationist government were Jonas Lie (also head of the Norwegian wing of the SS from 1941) as Minister of the Police, Dr. Gulbrand Lunde as Minister of Culture and Enlightenment, as well as the opera singer Albert Viljam Hagelin, who was Minister of the Interior.

Politics

Stamp of the State service

One of Quisling's first actions was to reintroduce the prohibition of Jews entering Norway, which was formerly a part of the Constitution's §2 from 1814 to 1851.

Two of the early laws of the Quisling regime, Lov om nasjonal ungdomstjeneste (English: 'Law on national youth service') and Lov om Norges Lærersamband (English: 'The Norges Teacher Liaison'), both signed 5 February 1942, led to massive protests from parents, serious clashes with the teachers, and an escalating conflict with the Church of Norway. Schools were closed for one month, and in March 1942 around 1,100 teachers were arrested by the Norwegian police and sent to German prisons and concentration camps, and about 500 of the teachers were forced to Kirkenes as construction workers for the German occupants.

Goal of independence

Even after the official creation of the Quisling government, Josef Terboven still ruled Norway as a dictator, taking orders from no-one but Hitler. Quisling's regime was a puppet government, although Quisling wanted independence and the recall of Terboven, something he constantly lobbied Hitler for, without success. Quisling wanted to achieve independence for Norway under his rule, with an end to the German occupation of Norway through a peace treaty and the recognition of Norway's sovereignty by Germany. He further wanted to ally Norway to Germany and join the Anti-Comintern Pact. After a reintroduction of national service in Norway, Norwegian troops were to fight with the Axis powers in the Second World War.

Quisling also fronted the idea of a pan-European union led, but not dominated, by Germany, with a common currency and a common market. Quisling presented his plans to Hitler repeatedly in memos and talks with the German dictator, the first time 13 February 1942 in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin and the last time on 28 January 1945, again in the Reich Chancellery. All of Quisling's ideas were rejected by Hitler, who did not want any permanent agreements before the war had been concluded, while also desiring Norway's outright annexation into Germany as the northernmost province of a Greater Germanic Reich. Hitler did, however, in an April 1943 meeting promise Quisling that once the war was over Norway would regain her independence. This is the only known case of Hitler making such a promise to an occupied country.

The word Quisling has become synonymous with treachery and collaboration with the enemy.

Territorial claims

Further information: List of possessions of Norway

 

The Norwegian Kingdom at its greatest extent, c. 1265

The regime looked nostalgically to the High Middle Ages of the country's history, known in Norwegian historiography as Norgesveldet, during which Norwegian territory extended beyond its current borders. Quisling envisioned an extension of the Norwegian state by its annexation of the Kola peninsula with its small Norwegian minority, so a Greater Norway spanning the entire North European coastline could be created. Further expansion was expected in Northern Finland, to link the Kola peninsula with Finnmark: Nasjonal Samling leaders had mixed views on the post-war Finnish-Norwegian border, but the potential Norwegian annexation of at least the Finnish municipalities of Petsamo (Norwegian: Petsjenga) and Inari (Norwegian: Enare) was under consideration.

Nasjonal Samling publications called for the annexation of the historically Norwegian Swedish provinces of Jämtland (Norwegian: Jemtland), Härjedalen (Norwegian: Herjedalen, see also Øst-Trøndelag) and Bohuslän (Norwegian: Båhuslen) In March 1944, Quisling met with Wehrmacht general Rudolf Bamler, and urged the Germans to invade Sweden from Finnish Lapland (using the forces delegated to the German Lapland Army) and through the Baltic as a preemptive strike against Sweden joining the war on the Allied side. Quisling's proposal was sent to both OKW chief Alfred Jodl and SS leader Heinrich Himmler.

Quisling and Jonas Lie, leader of the Germanic SS in Norway, also furthered irredentist Norwegian claims to the Faroes (Norwegian: Færøyene), Iceland (Norwegian: Island), Orkney (Norwegian: Orknøyene), Shetland (Norwegian: Hjaltland), the Outer Hebrides (historically a part of the Norse Kingdom of Mann and the Isles under the name Sørøyene, "South Islands") and Franz Josef Land (earlier claimed by Norway under the name Fridtjof Nansen Land), most of which were former Norwegian territories passed on to Danish rule after the dissolution of Denmark-Norway in 1814, while the rest were former Viking Age settlements. Norway had already claimed a part of Eastern Greenland in 1931 (under the name Eirik Raudes Land), but the claim was extended during the occupation period to cover Greenland as a whole. During the spring of 1941, Quisling laid out plans to "reconquer" the island using a task force of a hundred men, but the Germans deemed this plan unfeasible. In the person of propaganda minister Gulbrand Lunde the Norwegian puppet government further lay claim to the North and South Poles. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Norway had gained prestige as a nation active in polar expedition: the South Pole was first reached by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in 1911, and in 1939 Norway had claimed a region of Antarctica under the name Queen Maud Land (Norwegian: Dronning Maud Land).

After Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union preparations were made for establishing Norwegian colonies in Northern Russia. Quisling designated the area reserved for Norwegian colonization as Bjarmeland, a reference to the name featured in the Norse sagas for Northern Russia.

Dissolution

Quisling's regime ceased to exist in 1945, with the end of World War II in Europe. Norway was still under occupation in May 1945, but Vidkun Quisling and most of his ministers surrendered at Møllergata 19 police station on 9 May, one day after Germany's surrender. The new Norwegian unification government tried him on 20 August for numerous crimes; he was convicted on 10 September and was executed by firing squad on 24 October 1945. Other Nazi collaborators, as well as Germans accused of war crimes, were also arrested and tried during this legal purge.

Ministers of the Quisling regime

Quisling's former office at the Royal Palace, in June 1945

The ministers of the Quisling regime in 1942 were:

• Eivind Blehr (Minister of Trade and Minister of Supplies)
• Thorstein Fretheim (Minister of Agriculture)
• Rolf Jørgen Fuglesang (Minister of Party Affairs)
• Albert Viljam Hagelin (Minister of Domestic Affairs)
• Tormod Hustad (Minister of Labour)
• Kjeld Stub Irgens (Minister of Shipping)
• Jonas Lie (Minister of Police)
• Johan Andreas Lippestad (Minister of Social Affairs)
• Gulbrand Lunde (Minister of Culture)
• Frederik Prytz (Minister of Finance)
• Sverre Riisnæs (Minister of Justice)
• Ragnar Skancke (Minister for Church and Educational Affairs)
• Axel Heiberg Stang (Minister of the Labour Service and Sports)

The Quisling regime's leadership saw significant reshuffling and replacements during its existence. When Gulbrand Lunde died in 1942, Rolf Jørgen Fuglesang took over his ministry as well as retaining his own. Eivind Blehr's two ministries were merged in 1943 as the Ministry of Commerce. On 4 November 1943 Alf Whist joined the government as a minister without portfolio.

Tormod Hustad was replaced by Hans Skarphagen on 1 February 1944. Both Kjeld Stub Irgens and Eivind Blehr were fired in June 1944. Their former ministries were merged and placed under the control of Alf Whist as Minister of Commerce. On 8 November 1944, Albert Viljam Hagelin was fired from his position and replaced by Arnvid Vasbotten. When Frederik Prytz died in February 1945, he was replaced by Per von Hirsch. Thorstein Fretheim was fired on 21 April 1945, to be replaced by Trygve Dehli Laurantzon.

 

Double genocide theory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_genocide_theory

The double genocide theory is the idea that two genocides of equal severity occurred in Eastern Europe, that of the Holocaust against Jews perpetrated by the Nazis and a second genocide that the Soviet Union committed against the local population. The theory first became popular in the Baltic states during the 1990s. Some versions of the theory furthermore accuse Jews of complicity in Soviet repression and therefore characterize local participation in the Holocaust as retaliation.Alexander Karn says that the idea of double genocide "hinge[s] upon the erasure of Lithuanian participation in the Holocaust."

Background

According to political scientist Douglas Irvin-Erickson, "genocide discourses [are] highly effective in conferring moral capital upon certain actors in a conflict", a factor that increases the likelihood of a genocide frame being invoked by political actors. In 2010, political scientist Evgeny Finkel commented: "There is hardly any country in the vast region from Estonia in the north to Kazakhstan in the south in which either the authorities or the opposition have not seriously considered the idea of officially recognising past sufferings as genocides, often finding creative ways to reconcile the legal definition of the concept ... and the historical record."

Postulates

Writing in 2000, Vytautas Berenis posits that the double genocide theory has considerable influence in Lithuanian historiography. It consists of the postulates that (1) Jews actively participated in the Communist movement, (2) Jews welcomed the Red Army when it invaded Lithuania in 1940, and (3) Jews took part in Communist repressions. Berenis says that this theory is incorrect because most Jews did not support Communism and many Lithuanian Jews were victims of Soviet deportations. In October 1940, 68.49 percent of members of the Lithuanian Communist Party were ethnic Lithuanians, while 16.24 percent were Jews.

In 2006, Israeli historian Yitzhak Arad, who was a prisoner of the Vilna Ghetto and was able to escape by joining the Soviet partisans, was labelled an "NKVD storm trooper" by Lithuanian newspaper Respublika. In 2008, two elderly Jewish women were investigated for their partisan activities. Arad cited those prosecutions as flowing from the double genocide theory, whose concept is described as follows: "In order to justify the participation of Lithuanians in the mass murder of Jews, there was a perceived need to invent Jews who similarly killed Lithuanians." In response to the investigations, scholar Dovid Katz described this as a form of Holocaust obfuscation, another term for the double genocide theory, that "involves a series of false moral equivalences: Jews were disloyal citizens of pre-war Lithuania, helped the Soviet occupiers in 1940, and were therefore partly to blame for their fate. And the genocide that really matters was the one that Lithuanian people suffered at Soviet hands after 1944."

Analysis

Lithuanian poet and anti-communist dissident Tomas Venclova criticized the "double genocide" concept in his 1975 essay "Žydai ir lietuviai" ("Jews and Lithuanians") and subsequent publications. According to Venclova, the theory obscures the role of Lithuanians in crimes against humanity committed in Lithuania by assigning all guilt to non-Lithuanian actors. French ethnologist Carole Lemée sees double genocide theory as a symptom of persistent antisemitism.

According to Michael Shafir, the double genocide theory is at worse Holocaust obfuscation. Dovid Katz considers it a form of Holocaust revisionism, whose debate is prompted by a "movement in Europe that believes the crimes—morally, ethically—of Nazism and Communism are absolutely equal, and that those of us who don't think they're absolutely equal, are perhaps soft on Communism." According to Katz, the double genocide theory is "a relatively recent initiative (though rooted in older apologetics regarding the Holocaust) that seeks to create a moral equivalence between Soviet atrocities committed against the Baltic region and the Holocaust in European history." Katz wrote that "the debate has garnered political traction/currency since the Baltic states joined the European Union in 2004. Since joining the EU, the Baltic states have attempted to downplay their nations' massive collaboration with the Nazis and to enlist the West in revising history in the direction of Double Genocide thinking." Katz recommends that "states in the region honor the victims of Communism and expose the evils of Communism as unique issues, 'without the equals-sign.'"

According to historian Thomas Kühne, going back to the Historikerstreit, conservative intellectuals such as Ernst Nolte and the Holocaust uniqueness debate, the attempts to link Soviet and Nazi crimes, citing books such as Timothy D. Snyder's Bloodlands as prominent examples, are "as politically tricky today as it was then. As it seems to reduce the responsibility of the Nazis and their collaborators, supporters and claqueurs, it is welcomed in rightist circles of various types: German conservatives in the 1980s, who wanted to 'normalise' the German past, and East European and ultranationalists today, who downplay Nazi crimes and up-play Communist crimes in order to promote a common European memory that merges Nazism and Stalinism into a 'double-genocide' theory that prioritises East European suffering over Jewish suffering, obfuscates the distinction between perpetrators and victims, and provides relief from the bitter legacy of East Europeans' collaboration in the Nazi genocide."

According to anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee, efforts to institutionalize the "double genocide thesis", or the moral equivalence between the Nazi Holocaust (race murder) and the victims of communism (class murder), in particular the recent push at the beginning of the global financial crisis for commemoration of the latter in Europe, can be seen as the response by economic and political elites to fears of a leftist resurgence in the face of devastated economies and extreme social inequalities in both the Eastern and Western worlds as the result of the excesses of neoliberal capitalism. She says that that any discussion of the achievements by Communist states, including literacy, education, women's rights, and social security is usually silenced, and any discourse on the subject of communism is focused almost exclusively on Joseph Stalin's crimes and the "double genocide thesis", an intellectual paradigm summed up as such: "1) any move towards redistribution and away from a completely free market is seen as communist; 2) anything communist inevitably leads to class murder; and 3) class murder is the moral equivalent of the Holocaust." By linking all leftist and socialist ideals to the excesses of Stalinism, Ghodsee posits that the elites in the West hope to discredit and marginalize all political ideologies that could "threaten the primacy of private property and free markets."

In New Directions in the History of the Jews in the Polish Lands (2018), historian Dan Michman laments that "[f]rom the perspective of today, one can say that the pendulum has even moved so far in emphasizing Eastern Europe from June 1941 onward, and first and foremost its killing sites as the locus of the Shoah, that one will find recent studies which entirely marginalize or even disregard the importance to the Holocaust of such essential issues as the 1930s in Germany and Austria; the persecution and murder of Western and Southern European Jewry; first steps of persecution in Tunisia and Libya; and other aspects of the Holocaust such as the enormous spoliation and the cultural warfare aimed at exorcising the jüdische Geist."

In The Holocaust/Genocide Template in Eastern Europe (2020), political scientist Ljiljana Radonić discusses how "the 'memory wars' in the course of the post-Communist re-narration of history since 1989 and the current authoritarian backlash" and how "'mnemonic warriors' employ the 'Holocaust template' and the concept of genocide in tendentious ways to justify radical policies and externalize the culpability for their international isolation and worsening social and economic circumstances domestically." In this sense, "the 'double genocide' paradigm ... focuses on 'our own' national suffering under – allegedly 'equally' evil – Nazism and Communism ... ." Radonić posits that this theory and charges of Communist genocide come from "a stable of anti-communist émigré lexicon since the 1950s and more recently revisionist politicians and scholars" as well as the "comparative trivialization" of the Holocaust that "results from tossing postwar killings of suspected Axis collaborators and opponents of Tito's regime into the same conceptual framework as the Nazi murder of six million of Jews", describing this as "an effort to demonize communism more broadly as an ideology akin to Nazism."

Red Holocaust

The term Communist holocaust has been used by some state officials and non-governmental organizations to refer to mass killings under Communist states. The term red Holocaust was coined by the Institute of Contemporary History (Munich Institut für Zeitgeschichte) at Munich. Soviet and Communist studies scholar Steven Rosefielde also referred to a "Red Holocaust" for all "peacetime state killings" under Communist states. According to German historian Jörg Hackmann [de], this term is not popular among scholars in Germany or internationally. Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine writes that usage of this term "allows the reality it describes to immediately attain, in the Western mind, a status equal to that of the extermination of the Jews by the Nazi regime." Michael Shafir states that the use of the term supports the "competitive martyrdom component of Double Genocide." George Voicu says that Leon Volovici has "rightfully condemned the abusive use of this concept as an attempt to 'usurp' and undermine a symbol specific to the history of European Jews." According to political scientist Jelena Subotić, the Holocaust memory was hijacked in post-Communist states in an attempt to erase fascist crimes and local participation to the Holocaust, and use their imagery to represent real or imagined crimes of Communist states as memory appropriation.

The Historical Museum of Serbia put on the highly-publicized exhibition "In the Name of the People – Political Repression in Serbia 1944–1953", which according to Subotić "promised to display new historical documents and evidence of communist crimes, ranging from assassinations, kidnappings and detentions in camps to collectivisation, political trials and repression" but actually showed "random and completely decontextualised photographs of 'victims of communism', which included innocent people but also many proven fascist collaborators, members of the quisling government, right-wing militias, and the Axis-allied Chetnik movement." Another, more damning example is the well-known photograph of prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp, which was displayed in the section devoted to a Communist-era camp for political prisoners on the Adriatic island of Goli Otok, describing it as "the example of living conditions of Goli Otok prisoners", and not correcting it even after the misrepresentation was exposed. Only after an outcry from Holocaust historians, a small note was taped underneath the display caption that read: "Prisoners' bunk-beds in the Dachau camp." According to Subotić, this form of revisionism "has become so mainstream and state sponsored that in 2018 Croatian president Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic called for the creation of an international commission to determine the truth about the camp between 1941 and 1945, 'but also after' – indicating that the narrative that Jasenovac was a communist camp after the war was now accepted at the pinnacle of power."

 

Black Ribbon Day

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Ribbon_Day 

 

Black Ribbon Day
Observed by	European Union, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Canada, United States and other countries
Type	International
Significance	Day of remembrance for the victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes
Date	23 August
Next time	23 August 2022
Frequency	annual

The Black Ribbon Day, officially known in the European Union as the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, is an international day of remembrance for victims of totalitarian regimes, specifically Stalinist, communist, Nazi and fascist regimes. Formally recognised by the European Union, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and some other countries, it is observed on 23 August. It symbolises the rejection of "extremism, intolerance and oppression" according to the European Union. The purpose of the Day of Remembrance is to preserve the memory of the victims of mass deportations and exterminations, while promoting democratic values to reinforce peace and stability in Europe. It is one of the two official remembrance days or observances of the European Union, alongside Europe Day. Under the name Black Ribbon Day it is an official remembrance day of Canada. The European Union has used both names alongside each other.

The remembrance day has its origins in Cold War-era protests in Western countries against the Soviet Union that gained prominence in the years leading up to the Revolutions of 1989 and that inspired the 1989 Baltic Way, a major demonstration where two million people joined their hands to call for an end to the Soviet occupation. Canadian and other Western communities of refugees from the Soviet Union were instrumental in establishing the remembrance day in 1986. It was proposed as an official European remembrance day by Václav Havel, Joachim Gauck and a group of activists and former political prisoners from Central and Eastern Europe during a conference organised by the Czech Government, and was formally designated by the European Parliament in 2008/2009 as "a Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, to be commemorated with dignity and impartiality"; it has been observed annually by the institutions of the European Union since 2009. The European Parliament's 2009 resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism, co-sponsored by the European People's Party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, The Greens–European Free Alliance, and the Union for Europe of the Nations, called for its implementation in all of Europe. The establishment of 23 August as an international remembrance day for victims of totalitarianism was also supported by the 2009 Vilnius Declaration of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

23 August was chosen to coincide with the date of the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a 1939 non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany which contained a protocol dividing Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland into designated Soviet and German spheres of influence. The treaty was described by the European Parliament's president Jerzy Buzek in 2010 as "the collusion of the two worst forms of totalitarianism in the history of humanity." The remembrance day is part of a common European response to Russian disinformation that seeks to deny Soviet war crimes and other atrocities and justify Soviet invasions and occupations. Vladimir Putin's Russian government has attacked it for its condemnation of Stalinism. In a 2019 resolution, the European Parliament described the date of 23 August as important in pushing back against a Russian "information war waged against democratic Europe."

History

Revolutions of 1989

Lithuanians protesting against the Soviet occupation on Lenin Square (now Freedom Square) during the original Baltic Way on Black Ribbon Day in 1989

Both the date of 23 August as a remembrance day and the name "Black Ribbon Day" originated in protests held in western countries against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, which gained prominence in the years leading up to the Revolutions of 1989.

Canadian and other Western communities of refugees from the Soviet Union were instrumental in establishing Black Ribbon Day as "a day of protest against the Soviet Union" during the Cold War in 1986. Markus Hess of the Estonian Central Council in Canada, the later chairman of the Central and Eastern European Council of Canada, proposed the name Black Ribbon Day and the concept of using black ribbons as a form of protest in 1985. He gathered representatives of affected communities and formed the International Black Ribbon Day Committee. David Somerville's idea of using the anniversary of the signing of the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact as Black Ribbon Day was accepted by the committee in February 1986. The committee launched its campaign for the first Black Ribbon Day by organising committees in 21 cities worldwide. Television commercials describing the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols and aftermath were broadcast nationally in Canada. On 23 August 1986, Black Ribbon Day demonstrations were held in 21 western cities, including New York City, Ottawa, London, Stockholm, Seattle, Los Angeles, Perth, Australia and Washington DC. The demonstrations were coordinated by the International Black Ribbon Day Committee, which opened up offices in Toronto. Markus Hess was elected president and David Somerville was elected Vice President of the International Black Ribbon Day Committee. Under their leadership, the movement expanded annually and by 1991, demonstrations were held in 56 cities.

In 1987, Black Ribbon Day protests spread to the Baltic countries and culminated in the Baltic Way in 1989, a historical event during the revolutions of 1989. Two million people joined their hands to form a human chain, to protest against the continued Soviet occupation.

Proclamation by the European Parliament, support from the OSCE and official adoption in national legislation

The establishment of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism was proposed by Václav Havel (pictured), Joachim Gauck and a group of activists and former political prisoners from Central and Eastern Europe

The European Public Hearing on Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes was organised by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission in April 2008. It aimed at improving knowledge and public awareness about totalitarian crimes.

The date of 23 August was adopted as an official day of remembrance for victims of totalitarianism by international bodies and various countries after it was proposed by the 2008 Prague Declaration, initiated by the Czech government and signed by (among others) Václav Havel, Joachim Gauck, Vytautas Landsbergis, Emanuelis Zingeris, and Łukasz Kamiński on 3 June 2008. The declaration concluded the conference European Conscience and Communism. This international conference took place at the Czech Senate from 2 to 3 June 2008, hosted by the Senate Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Human Rights and Petitions, under the auspices of Alexandr Vondra, Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic for European Affairs.

On 23 September 2008, 409 members of the European Parliament signed a declaration on the proclamation of 23 August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. The declaration pointed out: "The mass deportations, murders and enslavements committed in the context of the acts of aggression by Stalinism and Nazism fall into the category of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Under international law, statutory limitations do not apply to war crimes and crimes against humanity."

On 2 April 2009, a resolution of the European Parliament on European conscience and totalitarianism, calling, among other things, on its member states and other European countries to implement the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, was passed by a vote of 533–44 with 33 abstentions.

On 3 July 2009, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) adopted the Vilnius Declaration, which supported 23 August as the international remembrance day for Victims of totalitarianism and urged its member states to increase awareness of totalitarian crimes. The resolution, which was adopted nearly unanimously, stated that Europe had "experienced two major totalitarian regimes, Nazi and Stalinist, which brought about genocide, violations of human rights and freedoms, war crimes and crimes against humanity," urged all OSCE members to take a "united stand against all totalitarian rule from whatever ideological background" and condemned "the glorification of the totalitarian regimes, including the holding of public demonstrations glorifying the Nazi or Stalinist past."

After the European Parliament had proclaimed the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, highlighted the insufficient attention given to Soviet totalitarianism and Soviet war crimes, and thanked the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia for their efforts to better inform Western Europe. Pöttering brought up the classic study on totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, which developed "the scientific basis criteria to describe totalitarianism", concluding that "both totalitarian systems (Stalinism and Nazism) are comparable and terrible", Pöttering said. Joseph Daul, chairman of the European People's Party group, stated:

2009 is a deeply symbolic year, since we celebrate both the 60th anniversary of the creation of NATO and the beginnings of the cold war, and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which ended it. This is why we have proposed to launch a Europe-wide day of remembrance which will help Europe reconcile its totalitarian legacy, both from the Nazis and the Communists.

In December 2010, the foreign ministers of six EU member states affected by communist occupation and dictatorship called upon the European Commission to make "the approval, denial or belittling of communist crimes" an EU-wide criminal offence. "Alongside the prosecution and punishment of criminals, the denial of every international crime should be treated according to the same standards, to prevent favourable conditions for the rehabilitation and rebirth of totalitarian ideologies," the foreign ministers wrote. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg compared the denial of communist crimes to the denial of Nazi crimes and said, "there is a fundamental concern here that totalitarian systems be measured by the same standard."

On 10 June 2011, the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, that is, the justice and home affairs ministers of all EU Member States, adopted conclusions stating, among other things, that it reaffirmed "the importance of raising awareness of the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes, of promoting a shared memory of these crimes across the Union and underlining the significant role that this can play in preventing the rehabilitation or rebirth of totalitarian ideologies," and highlighted "the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance of the victims of the totalitarian regimes (23 August)," inviting "Members States to consider how to commemorate it."

On 23 August 2011, the Polish Presidency of the European Union organised a conference on the occasion of the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarian Regimes. The EU presidency cited the Justice and Home Affairs Council conclusions of 10 June and the EU's Stockholm Programme, which emphasises that "remembrance of shared history is necessary to understand contemporary Europe." European officials adopted the Warsaw Declaration for the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarian Regimes. The Warsaw Declaration vows that the suffering of victims of totalitarian regimes "will not sink into oblivion." The declaration states that "crimes of totalitarian regimes in Europe should be acknowledged and condemned, regardless of their type and ideology." Justice Minister Krzysztof Kwiatkowski said that the "Warsaw Declaration is a unanimous agreement of all EU member states that we have to do everything we can to prevent any totalitarian regime from reviving in all the countries making up one big European family." EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding stated on this occasion:

Totalitarian regimes are the denial of human dignity and the violation of all fundamental rights of our societies built upon democracy and the respect of the rule of law. We must offer the victims of those crimes, and their family members, sympathy, understanding and recognition of their suffering. Every victim of any totalitarian regime has the same human dignity and deserves justice, remembrance and recognition by all of us.

On 23 August 2014, EU justice commissioner Martine Reicherts emphasised that the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact "of Nazi Germany under Hitler and the Soviet Union under Stalin would pave the way for the most brutal war to this day, leading to many years of fear, horror and pain for the victims of these regimes," stating that the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes is a reminder that we must not take "dignity, freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human rights" for granted, and that "peace, democracy and fundamental rights are not a given. We have to defend them, every day of the year."

In 2017 the Estonian EU Presidency hosted the International Conference on the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Communism and Nazism in Tallinn, where the remembrance day was observed by all the ministers of justice of the European Union.

On the occasion of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism in 2018, eight EU countries signed a joint statement on "the continued investigation of crimes committed by the communist regime via national law enforcement agencies and the intensification of transnational cooperation in this area."

The governments of Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia released a joint statement in 2019 that called upon "the governments of all European countries to provide both moral and material support to the ongoing historical investigation of the totalitarian regimes. By acting in a concerted manner, we can counter more effectively disinformation campaigns and attempts to manipulate historical facts. We must stand together against totalitarianism." David Sassoli, the President of the European Parliament, noted on 23 August 2019 that "on this remembrance day our minds turn to the victims of Nazism and Stalinism as the past is never really dead and we do not forget the dark night of totalitarianism. In this memory we find the strength and value of the peace and prosperity our Union has brought."

2020 commemoration and Freedom Way protest in support of democracy in Belarus

On Black Ribbon Day in 2020, around 50,000 people joined hands in a human chain called the Freedom Way that stretched from Cathedral Square in Vilnius to Medininkai at the Belarus border to support democracy in Belarus and express solidarity with the 2020 Belarusian protests. Alexander Lukashenko's Belarusian government said they sent military helicopters to "stop" balloons sent by Freedom Way protesters.

The Council of the European Union stated on Black Ribbon Day in 2020 that "we commemorate those who fell victim to totalitarian regimes and remember the EU values our society is built on: human dignity, freedom and fundamental rights". EU Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová and Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders stated on the Europe-wide remembrance day in 2020 that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact led "to the violation of the fundamental rights of millions of Europeans and it claimed the lives of millions more" and that "freedom from totalitarianism and authoritarianism is [...] a hard-won way of life that we should cherish every day." The Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau stated in 2020 that "we join people around the world to pay tribute to the victims of Communism and Nazism in Europe. We express our solidarity with the survivors and their descendants, and with all those who face violence, loss of dignity, and repression from authoritarian and totalitarian regimes."

Black Ribbon Day and Russia

From the onset, Black Ribbon Day was attacked by the Soviet government in the 1980s. The Soviet Union continued to deny the events of 23 August 1939 and the secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. During Putinism, Russia has engaged in disinformation campaigns that included the denial or downplaying of Soviet crimes such as The Holodomor, deportations, the Gulag concentration camp system, massacres or war rape, attempts to deny or justify the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Soviet wars of aggression against Poland, the Baltic states, Finland and other countries, and attempts to promote "a Soviet-era approach to World War II". State-controlled Russian media refer to Soviet crimes as a "Western myth", while in Russian history textbooks, Soviet atrocities are either altered to portray the Soviets positively or omitted entirely. As a result, Western commentators have widely accused Russia of historical negationism. Vladimir Putin's government has vehemently attacked Black Ribbon Day, and the Russian government delegation walked out when the OSCE adopted the Vilnius Declaration in support of the remembrance day. In 2019 the European Parliament adopted its resolution titled "Importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe", that accused "the current Russian leadership [of distorting] historical facts and [whitewashing] crimes committed by the Soviet totalitarian regime", which the resolution described as an "information war waged against democratic Europe;" the resolution highlighted the importance of the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism.

Observance in the EU

Union-level

The remembrance day has been officially observed by the institutions of the European Union since 2009, especially by the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union.^[10]

By country

In some countries, the remembrance day has been formally adopted by local law (sometimes with slightly different names), whereas in other countries, commemoration has taken place based on its proclamation by the Union.

Bulgaria

On 19 November 2009, under a proposal of the centre-right Blue Coalition, the Bulgarian Parliament officially declared 23 August the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Crimes Committed by Communist and other Totalitarian Regimes and the remembrance day was officially observed for the first time in 2010.

Croatia

In 2011, the government of Croatia proposed that Croatia adopt the European Day of Remembrance of Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, to be commemorated on 23 August. The government sent its recommendation for urgent parliamentary procedure, stating that the new memorial day is in accordance with the European practice that marks 23 August as the day of remembrance of victims of Stalinism and Nazism. On 23 August 2011, Croatia marked the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism for the first time. Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said: "We especially pay tribute to the victims of Nazism and the ustasha regime in Croatia. However, we are now also trying to pave the way for investigations into communist crimes and to cease treating that issue as a taboo. We must remember all victims equally."

Czech Republic

The European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism is officially commemorated by the government of the Czech Republic, which also initiated its establishment.

Estonia

On 18 June 2009, the Parliament of Estonia amended the law on holidays and memorials, and adopted 23 August as the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. In 2020 the official commemoration took place at the new Memorial to the Victims of Communism.

Finland

In 2019 the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism was observed by the Government of Finland on the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Germany

Joachim Gauck, the President of Germany from 2012 to 2017, proposed the remembrance day together with Václav Havel

The former President of Germany, Joachim Gauck, was one of the statesmen, alongside Václav Havel, who proposed the establishment of the remembrance day. The European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism has been observed by various German government bodies, including the federal government. One of the first government bodies to observe the day was the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, a federal government entity created by the Bundestag to research and document the communist dictatorship in East Germany. In 2020 the remembrance day was officially commemorated by the German federal government and the German presidency of the European Union.

The remembrance day is also observed by various state governments, such as the state government of Brandenburg and local government authorities. It is also observed by, for example, the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation or the German chapter of the civil rights organisation Memorial.

The remembrance day is also commemorated by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, a Warsaw-based international organisation established by Germany, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia and since also joined by Romania, that documents the totalitarian regimes in Europe and commemorates their victims and resistance to totalitarian regimes.

Hungary

In 2011, the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism was commemorated by the government of Hungary for the first time. A spokesman for the Fidesz party (itself a national-conservative and right-wing populist party) government said that "youth growing up in Western Europe should learn what it means to be a victim of Communism," adding that there is "little difference" between "national and international Socialism [...] both involve the same destruction, and a basic characteristic for both is inhumanity."

Latvia

On 17 July 2009, the Parliament of Latvia adopted 23 August as the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, under a proposal of the Civic Union.

Lithuania

Lithuania in 2009 officially renamed "Black Ribbon Day" (23 August) to "European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism and Day of the Baltic Way", a double anniversary of both events. As on other days of mourning, Lithuanian flags are displayed outside all public buildings decorated with black ribbons.

Poland

Minister of Justice of Poland Krzysztof Kwiatkowski during the official commemoration of European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism in 2011, during Poland's EU presidency

In 2011, the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism was officially commemorated in Poland for the first time by the liberal-conservative Civic Platform government during Poland's EU presidency. It has since been observed annually by the Government of Poland as an important official remembrance day of Poland.

Romania

In Romania, 23 August is celebrated with some duality. Before the Romanian Revolution, it marked Liberation from Fascist Occupation Day, which is observed to commemorate the Soviet occupation of Romania, styled as “Liberation” by the communists. In 2011, the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian Regimes was officially commemorated for the first time after 21 years of 23 August not having been celebrated as an official holiday since the Romanian Revolution, as that day marked both Romania's loss of most of the region that is now Moldova and parts of Ukraine, with Romanian-speaking communities, as a result of the provisions of the aforementioned Pact (see Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina) and the end of the pro-Axis government of Antonescu.

Slovenia

On 8 August 2012, the Slovenian government adopted a resolution proclaiming 23 August European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes.

Sweden

The International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism has been observed in Sweden since 2008, with participation from government members. Sweden was the first country to observe the remembrance day officially.

Observance of Black Ribbon Day outside the EU

Albania

Albania officially observed the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism in 2019; President Ilir Meta noted that Stalinism and Nazism were "two devastating ideologies of the last century that caused thousands of innocent victims in our country. For 45 years, Albania became the North Korea of Europe. Thousands of Albanians were killed, imprisoned, and deported. Freedom, human rights, democracy and pluralism were values they believed in and for which they sacrificed their lives. It is our duty to teach the younger generations the truth of our recent past so that it will never be repeated again."

Canada

Canadian refugee communities were instrumental in establishing Black Ribbon Day in Canada in 1986 and became the inspiration for the Baltic Way during the Revolutions of 1989. In 2009, the House of Commons of Canada unanimously adopted 23 August as Black Ribbon Day, the national day of remembrance in Canada of the victims of Stalinism and Nazism. The resolution was introduced by Liberal MP Bob Rae and co-sponsored by Borys Wrzesnewskyj. The Central and Eastern European Council of Canada, representing 4 million Canadians, has organised annual Black Ribbon Day commemorations in cities across Canada since 2010.

Black Ribbon Day Conference in Toronto, Sep 2019

Georgia

On 21 July 2010, in a unanimous vote, the Parliament of Georgia instituted the Soviet Occupation Day on 25 February and declared 23 August the Day of Memory of Victims of Totalitarian Regimes.

Norway

The leader of the social-liberal Liberal Party in Norway, Trine Skei Grande, has called for the official commemoration of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism in Norway, based on its adoption by the European Parliament and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

United Kingdom

In 2019 and 2020, the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism was observed by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who noted that "now more than ever we must show our commitment to fighting extremism, authoritarianism and intolerance in all its forms."

United States

On 16 July 2013, Member of Congress John Shimkus introduced the resolution "H.Res. 302: Expressing support for designation of August 23 as Black Ribbon Day to recognize the victims of Soviet Communist and Nazi regimes," proposing that the United States Congress adopts Black Ribbon Day "to recognize the victims of Soviet Communist and Nazi regimes."

On 21 May 2014, the United States Congress adopted a resolution supporting "the designation of Black Ribbon Day to recognize the victims of Soviet Communist and Nazi regimes" and to "remember and never forget the terror millions of citizens in Central and Eastern Europe experienced for more than 40 years by ruthless military, economic, and political repression of the people through arbitrary executions, mass arrests, deportations, the suppression of free speech, confiscation of private property, and the destruction of cultural and moral identity and civil society, all of which deprived the vast majority of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe of their basic human rights and dignity, separating them from the democratic world by means of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall," and stating that "the extreme forms of totalitarian rule practiced by the Soviet Communist and Nazi regimes led to premeditated and vast crimes committed against millions of human beings and their basic and inalienable rights on a scale unseen before in history."

Observance by other entities

On 8 August 2011, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People recognised the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, stating that "the Crimean Tatar people [...] suffered the crimes, committed by the Communist regime of the USSR in the 20th century admitted as a genocide."

Black Ribbon Day has been commemorated annually by the World Jewish Congress, which noted in 2019 that the day honours the "memory of the tens of millions of victims of totalitarian regimes" and "coincides with the signing of the 1939 pact between Nazi Germany and the USSR, in which eastern Europe was divided and brutality conquered."