The Memory of Nations Award Ceremony will take place today, November 17th at the National Theatre in Prague and will be broadcasted in 6 countries by STV (20:00pm), TVP (22:05pm), ATV, ČT 2 (20:00pm) and MDR channels.
The Memory of Nations Awards will be presented in the National Theatre in Prague to individuals whose actions help to prove that honour, freedom, and human dignity are not just empty words. The nominees include twenty individuals from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, and Poland. The winners will be announced during a gala on 17 November in Prague.
This is the first year that the Memory of Nations Awards event is taking on an international character. As a reminder of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of communism in Central Europe, the common factor uniting all of the nominees is their experience living under communist totalitarianism and their active resistance against this political regime.
The 2014 nominees are:
From the Czech Republic: Dana Vargová, Juliána Lápková, Rudolf Bereza, Julie Hrušková
From Germany: Gerd Poppe, Manfred Matthies, Rainer Eppelmann, Heidi Bohley
From Hungary:Judith Gyenes, Károly Olofsson, János Kenedi, Tibor Pákh
From Poland: Ludwik Wiśniewski, Krystyna Starczewska, Kornel Morawiecki, Władysław Frasyniuk
From Slovakia: Bibiana Wallnerová, Jaroslav Fabok, Eugénia Vyskočilová, Anton Srholec
You can find bios of the nominees at www.memoryofnationsawards.eu. At this website you can also express your gratitude to those you consider your personal heroes, write your acknowledgement of their achievements which will be published online.
The Memory of Nations Awards have been presented annually since 2010 by the Post Bellum civic association. The twenty individuals who have received this award in the past include veterans, dissidents, political prisoners, and Holocaust survivors, who, at some point in their lives, found the courage to stand up against evil and to help others. The nominees are selected by historians, journalists, and researchers from amongst the records stored in the international Memory of Nations archive of witnesses’ recollections, which Post Bellum started in 2001.
The gala ceremony will feature John Cale, Gábor Presser, Ivan Kral, Pražský Výběr, Marián Varga&Jana Kirschner, Pankow and Raz, Dwa, Trzy.
European Network Remembrance and Solidarity is a partner of the Memory of Nations Awards. Professor Jan Rydel from ENRS Steering Committee is a member of the jury of the Awards.