Market Place of Memory

Leaders of Communist Party of Czecholoslovakia assassinated Czech politician and lawyer Milada Horáková on 27th July 1950. In the calendar, this this date became the Commemoration Day of Victims of Communism. In the years 1948 – 1989 thousands of people died on the scaffold, in the brutal interrogation, in prisons, labour camps and also on the Czechoslovak state border. More than two hundred thousand people were convicted and imprisoned for a long time; over four hundred thousand people were driven into exile.

Organization Člověk v tísni (People in Need) prepared, within the project Stories of Injustice, campaign Against Memory Loss. Its aim was to draw attention to the growing tendency of Czech society to have conciliatory look at its own history and to forget about the criminal nature of the communist ideology.

Square called Tylovo náměstí changed from farmers market to Market place of Memory for a day. The event was attended by more than four dozen witnesses of persecution of the 50s and in the period of normalization, who shared their stories and experiences with the communist regime with passersby. Marketplace was visited by many celebrities, such as Bára Hrzánová, Vaclav Marhoul, Tomki German, Barbora Poláková, Matěj Ruppert, John Šibík, Helena Třeštíková, Jan Vodňanský etc. Besides stalls with eyewitnesses, people could also see an exhibition of a comics about Milada Horáková, which was published in the US in the 50s.

27th June 2013
Tylovo náměstí, Prague, Czech Republic

all images © lucia eggenhoffer