Czech teacher Dana Vargová, German activist Manfred Matthies, Hungarian intellectual Janos Kenedi, Polish dissident Kornel Morawiecki, and Slovak priest Anton Srholec received the European Memory of Nations Awards in the National Theatre in Prague.
Throughout the 1980s, Czech teacher Dana Vargová selflessly cared for her completely paralysed son, who was described by State Security as “the most dangerous anti-communist figure” in the region. Manfred Matthies used secret tunnels to guide East-German fugitives into West Berlin. Anton Srholec was ordained into priesthood by the pope himself, but even so he returned to normalised Bratislava to help the faithful. Kornel Morawiecki led the “Fighting Solidarity” from illegality for six years, and János Kenedi organised his famous opposition workshops in his flat in Budapest. These five laureates are united in the courage with which they stood up to the Communist totality.
“The Memory of Nations Awards are not an olympics in bravery, all of the nominees deserve to be honoured, not only the five laureates. Our aim with these awards is mainly to inspire courage in our society and the young generation. Based on the great amount of appreciation, which the public expressed towards the nominees at www.memoryofnationsawards.eu, it seems we are quite successful,” says Mikuláš Kroupa, director of the host organisation Post Bellum.
The Memory of Nations Awards were presented on the stage of the Czech National Theatre by prominent European personalities – the writers György Konrád and Thomas Brussig, the philosopher Tomáš Halík, or the former Slovak prime minister Iveta Radičová. This year’s award was created by multimedia artist Richard Wiesner in cooperation with Kryštof Kintera. The award consists of a specially-made USB disc with a recording of the laureates voice. The gala ceremony also included the Concert for Heroes with performances from legendary Welsh musician John Cale (ex-Velvet Underground), famous Hungarian keyboardist Gábor Presser, cult Berlin band Pankow, Slovak keyboardist Marián Varga with singer Jana Kirschner, and the Czech group Pražský výběr in its most famous line-up.
The gala event was presented by Marek Eben, and it was broadcast live by Česká televize, Slovenská televize, Telewizja Polska, and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. The event was directed by Břetislav Rychlík. European Network Remembrance and Solidarity was a partner of the Memory of Nations Awards.
