Memorial Library in honour of the victims of Communism
The Memorial Library, founded in 1990, is a special collection of non-fiction and narrative literature to remind us of the results of Soviet Communism and the threat it posed to the free democratic world. The library comprises over 15.000 works dealing mainly with research into Socialism, the history of the GDR (German Democratic Republic) with particular reference to Justice and State Security, Opposition and Resistance; the history of the former Soviet Union and its repression apparatus as well as the crimes of Stalinism; jail and detention camp memoirs and documents as well as the literature of former GDR opposition writers and Eastblock dissidents.
Our collection includes journals such as ´Deutschland Archiv´, ´Das Parlament´, ´Der Monat´, ´MUT´, ´Deutschland Magazin ´, the press reviews of the Federal Government Commissioner for Stasi Records, the publications of the Enquiry Commission of the German Bundestag as well as tape and video recordings held in the library for use in lectures.
Additionally there is an extensive collection of book reviews. These, as well as the entire book list can be found on the Internet under: www.gedenkbibliothek.de
All real life is a meeting (Martin Buber)
There are regular meetings in the library between former political prisoners, victims and resistance members who suffered in the terrible post 1945 period of repression under the Soviet occupation forces and their Communist henchmen and later the suppressive SED (German Socialist Unity Party) Regime.
There are two continuous exhibitions in the library entitled; "Workuta - Forgotten Victims" and „Help action for the Martyr churches through the persecution of Christians in the 20th Century under Communist dictators“.
Man´s fight against power is the fight of memory against forgetting (Milan Kundera)
Events
The Memorial Library with its political education programme is an authoritative source of information and a venue for events in the centre of Berlin. Well-known personalities from the world of politics, law, science and culture give lectures here, take part in fortnightly Tuesday discussions, contribute to literary-political weekend seminars and, together with eye-witnesses of the former Soviet-communist system, conduct classes for school children.
„Lest we forget“
Lectures, besides simply recalling events, sharpern our awareness of their significance for today and tomorrow. They also help to promote democracy and a better understanding between people from differing backgrounds in the East and West here in this joint meeting place.
Friends Association of the Memorial Library in honour of the victims of Stalinism e.V.
The Library project „Political Education, Exhibitions and Psychological help for former prisoners“ has been made possible through the kind co-operation of the Berlin Regional Commission(er) for Stasi Records.
Individual projects such as the Web site (www.gedenkbibliothek.de) have been made possible through the friendly co-operation of the "Stiftung Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur".
Ursula Popiolek / Diploma in Slavonic Studies
A MAN WENT OUT
to seek reality
he sought and sought
until he found it;
it was dark.
Almost night.
But people thought
his view too black!
Narks
informed those in power about
this man,
resulting in his arrest
Then, he found reality.
When people heard of this
they whispered:
It serves this fool right;
why did he have to overstep the mark.
(Ulrich Schacht, written in 1973 shortly before his arrest)
DECEMBER NOTEST
They lie behind me now,
the hard winters; the walls, with their untouchable dirty snow.
Soot pouring out of the chimney
towering above us;
the threatening pillar of destruction.
Who could then have believed
there would be whiteness.
I stand in front of it today and my eyes burning, stinging and cutting
the black threatening chimney (the blackness of the threatening chimney):
the pillar of destruction: And cuts out death. That lies
behind me.
both from: Schacht. Dangerous Dream. Neske Verlag. Pfullingen 1981
