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Restoration of Lithuania’s Statehood

Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska   History The Act of Reinstating Independence of Lithuania or Act of February 16 was signed by the Council of Lithuania on February 16, 1918, proclaiming the restoration of an independent State of Lithuania. The Council was chaired by Jonas Basanavičius. The Act formulated the basic constitutional principles that still apply in Lithuania. […]

Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska interviewed about EIOCO by Polish news

On March 18 Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska, president of EIOCO,  was interviewed by Polish news broadcasting internationally. She elaborated on the vision, purpose and the activities of our Institute. She explained that the knowledge about communism is often not correct in western Europe and that various stereotypes are perpetuated which shed the wrong light on this issue. […]

Witold Pilecki and the first ever comprehensive report on Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz atrocities

By Beata Bruggeman-Sękowska On September 19, 1940 Witold Pilecki, a member of the Secret Polish Army, let himself get caught and arrested by German policemen in Warsaw in order to be sent to Auschwitz death camp. His intention was to infiltrate the camp, set up a resistance network there and gather information about the death […]

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Witold Pilecki and the first ever comprehensive report on Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz atrocities

By Beata Bruggeman-Sękowska On September 19, 1940 Witold Pilecki, a member of the Secret Polish Army, let himself get caught and arrested by German policemen in Warsaw in order to be sent to Auschwitz death camp. His intention was to infiltrate the camp, set up a resistance network there and gather information about the death […]

Soviet invasion of Poland

By Beata Bruggean-Sekowska   On September 17 about 1 million troops of the Red Army crossed the eastern borders of Poland starting the red invasion of Poland. It was sixteen days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west. The invasion ended on 6 October 1939 with the two-way division and annexation of the entire […]

AMERIKATSI, Armenian submission for Oscars about Soviet harsh reality

By Beata Bruggeman-Sękowska   ”AMERIKATSI” (meaning “American” in Armenian) has been selected by Armenia as its submission for the Best International Feature Film category for the 2024 Academy Awards. The film tells a story of Charlie who escapes the Armenian genocide as a boy by fleeing to the United States. He returns in 1947 and […]

Ryszard Siwiec: first self-immolation against communist oppression

By Beata Bruggeman-Sękowska On September 8, 1968, Ryszard Siwiec committed suicide by public self-immolation in protest against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. He set himself on fire during the nationwide harvest festival at the Stadion Dziesięciolecia (stadium) in Warsaw, Poland in the presence of the leaders of the Polish United Workers’ Party, diplomats and 100,000 spectators. […]

Elektrėnai Soviet purpose built town in Lithuania

By Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska     Born and spending my childhood and teenage years in occupied by totalitarian communist system Poland I have been researching the subject of communist oppression, communist rule and visiting many places related to it for my various publications both for the European Institute on Communist Oppression as well as for my Central and Eastern […]

June 17, 1953: workers against the so-called “workers’ state” GDR

The first major popular uprising against communist oppression in Central/Eastern Europe by Patrick van Schie Between 1954 and 1990, June 17 was the Tag der deutsche Einheit in West Germany, which is then celebrated on October 3 – the day of reunification. With this, the West Germans commemorated until 1990 that on June 17, 1953, […]

Launch of the 2nd part of ‘’Siberian Exiles’’

By Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska   On May 13th at the Nederlands Fotomuseum a launch of the ‘’Siberian Exiles’’ part 2 by a talented documentary photographer Claudia Heinermann took place, a very special project devoted to the oppression of communism, abuse of power and crimes against humanity. In part 2 of the trilogy Claudia Heinermann follows the […]

The ‘Heritage from the Cold War’ map is now online and available for everyone to view

The Menno van Coehoorn Foundation has started an inventory of Cold War heritage in the Netherlands. The aim of this is to obtain as complete an overview as possible of what has been achieved in this period of 40 years of the Cold War and against which historical backgrounds. The Cold War map, as compiled […]

A Polish woman as a prisoner in communist Russia

Book review: Barbara Skarga, ‘’After the liberation. Notes on the Gulag’’, 1944-1956 (Amsterdam, 2022) ISBN 9789403107226; 432 pp., €34.99 by Patrick van Schie In May, the Netherlands and Europe invariably look back at the end of the Second World War. First the stories about the horrors of the time under National Socialism, followed by the […]

The main economic production under communism: military equipment and human misery

Book report: Jasper Becker, Why communism failed (London, 2022) ISBN 9781787388062; price € 28.99   By Patrick van Schie   Wherever Communism has been tried, everywhere it has led to impoverishment – except for the party elite and the associated leadership of the “security” apparatuses (army and intelligence services) – and often famine, with many […]