By: Dr Andrej Umek
Recently, we celebrated August 23rd, the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarianism. At least I celebrated it, I used the plural form in the previous sentence in the hope of having as many like-minded individuals as possible. By commemorating this day – I apologise to the esteemed readers for writing this column based on personal experiences and viewpoints – Europe has clearly returned to and committed itself to a fundamental element of European culture and civilisation. That is the free individual bound to certain moral and ethical values. The development of this concept, at least for me, began when Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery to the Sinai Peninsula. There, they were free individuals, but they were not a people, let alone a nation. In order to become a nation, even a chosen nation, God gave them the Ten Commandments, which bound them to respect certain moral and ethical norms without taking away their freedom. This concept was further developed, but its essence was preserved by numerous philosophers in antiquity, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and into the modern era. Their efforts are excellently summarised in their contributions by the British philosopher and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell, who calls this fundamental concept of European civilisation the wisdom of the West.
The European Parliament is evidently aware that all three totalitarianisms – fascism, Nazism, and communism – are in clear opposition to European civilisation since they do not preserve the freedom of the individual and do not respect moral and ethical values. I would like to remind you of just two: do not steal and do not kill. Evidence that totalitarian regimes do not uphold these two fundamental moral and ethical values is not hard to find; it is scattered throughout Slovenia. To clearly demonstrate that Europeans want to build our future on our civilisation and culture and that we reject totalitarianism regardless of its colour, the European Parliament adopted the Resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism on April 2nd, 2009, designating August 23rd as a day of remembrance for the victims of totalitarianism. This day was not chosen randomly. On this day in 1939, the Nazis and communists signed an agreement to jointly destroy European civilisation and democracy. Fortunately, they did not succeed.
I personally welcomed the resolution of the European Parliament with great satisfaction and enthusiasm, as it reflects my long-held views and desires. To help readers understand this, I must go back to the distant year of 1954. At that time, I was attending the seventh grade at the Classical High School in Ljubljana and, like all other students, was exposed to extremely strong communist indoctrination. My parents discussed this with Professor Boris Furlan during one of his visits to our home. On his next visit, he brought me two books: the Communist Manifesto and Hitler’s Mein Kampf. In response to my father’s objection, Professor Furlan very briefly stated that any rational person would see that there were no differences in the goals declared in both the first and the second book. Regardless of which totalitarianism it was, they sought to transform the individual into a puppet of the ideology defined by these or other false prophets, be it Adolf Hitler or Karl Marx.
Of course, the awareness that there are no essential differences among totalitarianisms brought, I can say, not insignificant disappointment. Even as a teenager, I realised that there was no similar process condemning Italian fascism as an ideology and the individuals who upheld it, following the Nuremberg Trials against the leading Nazis. The next disappointment came when, after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, including Slovenia, there was no “Nuremberg process” organised for the communist leaders. The acceptance of the Resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism alleviated this disappointment. I followed with great interest and approval how the parliaments of European countries, one after another, supported this resolution. However, a new disappointment followed when the Slovenian National Assembly has not yet adopted this resolution to this day.
Dear readers, allow me to express my opinion in conclusion. I believe that the most appropriate way to celebrate August 23rd, a day worth celebrating, would be for members of parliament who are committed to European civilisation and democracy to submit a request to the National Assembly for the adoption of the Resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism, every August 23rd until the National Assembly accepts this resolution. We should realise that we cannot build our future on lies and concealment.