Recording of the Panel Discussion: Dissonances of Memory: Europe United or Divided?, moderated by Pavol Demeš (former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Slovakia), with contributions from Prof. Mark Bassin (Södertörn University, Stockholm), Dr Georgi Georgiev (Institute for Human Sciences / Central European University, Vienna), Prof. Dr Heidi Hein-Kircher (Martin Opitz Library Herne / Ruhr University Bochum), Dr Borbála Klacsmann (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest), and Prof. Andrzej Nowak (Jagiellonian University, Cracow).
The 14th European Remembrance Symposium, organised by the European Network of Remembrance and Solidarity and the Nation's Memory Institute (ÚPN), convened in Bratislava in May 2026 under the theme Memory Wars: Facts, Disinformation and the Politics of Remembrance. This closing panel examined the question of European memory unity and division: eighty years after the Second World War and more than three decades since the end of the Cold War, do shared European frameworks of historical memory exist — or do divergent national experiences of totalitarian rule, occupation, genocide, and imperialism continue to fracture the continent? In the face of the military threat posed by Russia, is Europe capable of a unified historical and political response?
The symposium gathered historians, diplomats, educators, and cultural professionals to foster dialogue around memory, democratic resilience, and the politics of the past in contemporary Europe.
Learn more about the 2026 even here.