On 23 August, Europe marks the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes. To commemorate the occasion, the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS) launches the thirteenth edition of its annual 'Remember. August 23' campaign — an international public education initiative dedicated to preserving the memory of those whose lives were shaped by Nazism and communism, while encouraging reflection on the enduring consequences of totalitarianism for contemporary Europe.
This year's campaign centres on the extraordinary story of Dr Stefania Perzanowska, a Polish physician and Home Army member imprisoned in the German Nazi concentration camp at Majdanek. In January 1943, despite having almost no medical equipment, medicines or sanitary conditions, she organised and led a hospital for women prisoners, saving countless lives while refusing to abandon the ethical principles of her profession.
Her story is also one of a family devastated by both totalitarian regimes. While Stefania struggled to keep fellow prisoners alive inside Majdanek, she had no knowledge that her husband, Dr Zygmunt Perzanowski, had already been murdered in Soviet captivity as one of the victims of the Katyn massacre. Together, their lives reveal how the consequences of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact reached into individual families, often from opposite directions.
As ENRS Director Rafał Rogulski explains:
"The story of Stefania and Zygmunt Perzanowski reveals something often missed in accounts of the Second World War: that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, for all their different methods of terror, devastated the same families — sometimes at once, from opposite directions. Without understanding what happened on 23 August 1939, and everything that followed from it, it's hard to grasp not just the history of the twentieth century, but why so many of these stories went untold for decades. At a time of disinformation, and growing attempts to blur responsibility for those crimes, remembering lives like theirs is no longer only a duty to the past. In the shadow of the war in Ukraine, it has become part of how societies build resilience against the distortion of history."
The campaign opens with a short film introducing this year's protagonist, Dr Stefania Perzanowska. Throughout August, ENRS will publish a series of educational resources exploring her remarkable story and the broader ethical questions raised by medicine under totalitarian rule. These include:
- To Heal Against All Odds – an illustrated biographical essay telling the story of Dr Stefania Perzanowska and the hospital she created at Majdanek;
- Objects That Saved Life – a visual series exploring ordinary medical objects that became instruments of hope and resistance inside the camp hospital;
- Between Care and Power: Medicine in the Shadow of Totalitarian Regimes – an essay examining how medicine could become both a tool of oppression and a form of moral resistance under totalitarian systems;
- Doctor's Notes – a social media series based on the surviving correspondence between Stefania Perzanowska and her daughter, offering an intimate glimpse into everyday life, work and hope inside Majdanek;
- Professor Jan Rydel's historical essay exploring the consequences of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the significance of 23 August in European history;
- a practical Commemoration Guide, presenting ideas for individuals, schools, museums and cultural institutions wishing to mark the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes.
The campaign is accompanied by an international media initiative encouraging people across Europe to commemorate 23 August through a shared act of remembrance. As in previous years, museums and memorial institutions across Europe distribute the 'Remember. August 23' badge — a symbolic sign of remembrance for the victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Individuals, cultural institutions, journalists, educators and media partners are invited to wear the badge, share campaign materials and join the conversation online, helping to keep the memory of Europe's totalitarian past alive.
About the campaign
The 'Remember. August 23' campaign accompanies the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, established by the European Parliament. The date commemorates the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1939. On that day, 86 years ago, the foreign ministers of Nazi Germany, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and the Soviet Union, Vyacheslav Molotov, signed the Treaty of Non-Aggression in Moscow, also known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact or the Hitler–Stalin Pact. Its secret protocol divided Central and Eastern Europe into spheres of influence between the two totalitarian powers, paving the way for the outbreak of the Second World War and, in its aftermath, the horrors of concentration camps, Soviet gulags, the Holocaust, decades of the Cold War, and the continued oppression of millions of people.
Every year ENRS highlights the story of an individual whose life illustrates the human consequences of totalitarianism. Previous editions have featured Emílie Machálková, Johann Trollmann, Władysław Bartoszewski, Boris Romanchenko, Doina Cornea, Ieva Lase, Jaan Kross, Kazimierz Moczarski, Milada Horáková, Juliana Zarchi, Mala Zimetbaum and Edek Galiński, and Péter Mansfeld.
To encourage active participation, ENRS has prepared a Commemoration Guide offering practical ways to observe 23 August. The guide invites individuals, schools, museums and cultural organisations to organise local commemorations, visit memorial sites, wear the 'Remember. August 23' badge, share stories online and use the campaign's educational resources to promote knowledge about the victims of totalitarian regimes. All campaign materials may be freely reproduced with appropriate attribution.
Since 2014, the campaign has also been accompanied by the symbolic 'Remember. August 23' badge, distributed through museums and memorial institutions across Europe and available from ENRS. Worn by politicians, journalists, artists, educators, social activists and members of the public, it serves as a visible expression of remembrance and solidarity with the victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.
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This year’s campaign is organised by the ENRS in cooperation with its partners: the State Museum at Majdanek, the Warsaw Medical University and the City of Vilnius. Media patronage is provided by Dzieje.pl.
Throughout the campaign, ENRS and its partners will use the following hashtags to connect content published across Europe and encourage wider public engagement: #RememberAugust23 #StefaniaPerzanowska #Majdanek #EuropeanRemembrance #CultureOfRemembrance