On the occasion of the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, President Pahor laid a wreath at the Memorial to All Victims of Wars and War-Related Victims

This afternoon, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, laid a wreath at the Memorial to All Victims of Wars and War-Related Victims in Congress Square in Ljubljana to commemorate the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes.

President Pahor gave a speech to mark this occasion. A short ceremony was organised to honour the memory of all the victims.

At the suggestion of the Study Centre for National Reconciliation and at the invitation of President Pahor, this deferential act was witnessed by the high-level representatives of five of the largest religious communities in Slovenia: Catholic Bishop Msgr. Anton Jamnik, Evangelical Bishop Leon Novak, Mufti of the Islamic community in Slovenia Nevzet Porić, Bishop Sava of the Orthodox Church, auxiliary bishop of the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and Rabbi Ariel Haddad.

Before the ceremony, the President received the high-level representatives of the religious communities in Slovenia at the Presidential Palace. After the ceremony, he attended a mass to commemorate the victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes held at Ljubljana Cathedral and led by Metropolitan Archbishop of Ljubljana Msgr. Stanislav Zore.

On 23 August, we mark the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, through which we condemn all crimes against humanity that were caused by these regimes. In 2009, the European Parliament adopted the Resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism, thereby dedicating 23 August to all victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes; in 2012, the Slovenian Government declared the date to be the official memorial day in Slovenia as well.

The Memorial to All Victims of Wars and War-Related Victims was erected in Congress Square five years ago and was formally unveiled on 13 July 2017. By erecting the memorial, the Republic of Slovenia has followed the tradition of most European states, which also have memorials and similar central memorial sites to honour those who died in wars. Since then, it has served as a central memorial site dedicated to all those who fell as soldiers of various armies in wars on our soil or perished as their victims and is also dedicated to the victims of revolutionary violence. Laying a wreath at the memorial in Congress Square has been included as a ceremonial element in official visits by leaders of foreign countries to the Republic of Slovenia.


Photo: Daniel Novakovič/STA

The text of the Slovenian president’s address is given below. Check against delivery!

Today is the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.

Its proclamation was called in April 2009 by the European Parliament in the resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism.

In the resolution, the European Parliament justified this decision with the desire to honour the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in a dignified and impartial manner.

Slovenians are among those central and eastern European nations that had to withstand the test of all three totalitarian regimes in the 20th century: Fascism, Nazism and Communism.

Today we honour all victims of totalitarian and undemocratic regimes in Europe and pay tribute to all those who fought against tyranny and oppression.

We renew our commitment to a peaceful and prosperous Europe based on the values such as respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights.

We stress the importance of preserving the memory of the past, because without truth and memory there can be no reconciliation.

We reaffirm our united stand against all forms of totalitarian rule, regardless of ideological background.

With today's commemoration, we reaffirm that European integration, as a model of peace and reconciliation, is the free choice of the peoples of Europe to commit themselves to a common future and that the European Union has a special responsibility to promote and safeguard democracy, respect for human rights, and the rule of law, not only within the European Union but also beyond.

The European Parliament’s resolution was adopted, by coincident, but just as if it had not been, a few weeks afterwards Slovenia’s democratic public was genuinely shocked and distressed by the discovery of the Huda Jama mass grave.

It seemed to me at the time, with my own biased feeling, that for the first time since the democratic changes and the elections of 1990 a strong national consensus had been formed that the State should act on this issue in a realistic and symbolic way.

Less than half a year later, this paved the way for the adoption of the so-called reconciliation legislation, which was substantively amended in 2015, and which, among other things, after almost twenty years of controversy, provided for the erection of a monument to all victims of war and war-related casualties within the Republic of Slovenia, with a dedicatory commemorative inscription, "The Homeland is one, given to all, and one life and one death!", written by the Slovenian poet Oton Župančič.

Today is Remembrance Day for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, marking the fifth anniversary of this monument’s erection.

This landmark event could take place in an unobtrusive way because, with the broad understanding of the entire democratic public, a series of substantive corrections to the injustices were made before and afterwards, with which the State repaid the victims and their relatives.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

by never stopping to search for truth and to satisfy justice, and by maintaining the culture of remembrance and reconciliation, the European Union, after the unification of the West and the East, and Slovenia, as one of these countries since its democratic transition and gaining of independence, live on with the lessons of the past so that we can continue changing the future in the direction of the common European democratic values.

As highlighted in the resolution, from the outset European integration has been a response to the suffering inflicted by two world wars and the Nazi tyranny that led to the Holocaust and to the expansion of totalitarian and undemocratic Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as a way of overcoming deep divisions and hostility in Europe through cooperation and integration and of ending war and securing democracy in Europe.

In this context, we have laid today a wreath in front of a monument that, for all this, could be regarded as an obelisk of peace, reconciliation and democracy, as well as the place where comfort and moral satisfaction can be found by all of us who remember the victims of all wars and all totalitarianisms.

I am grateful to the high representatives of the major religious communities in Slovenia for joining me in paying these respects. I ask the Slovenian and European public to accept it as a sign of these communities' sincere efforts for mutual understanding and cooperation for the benefit of a common and tolerant community.

We express our hope that through our responsible, tolerant and respectful actions, we will build a democratic community, both Slovenian and European, and do everything in our power to ensure that peace is lasting and democracy alive and vibrant, for our common good and for the good of our children.

Let me conclude again with the inspiring thought of Sophocles’ Antigone: "I was born to join in love, not hate."


Photo: Daniel Novakovič/STA