Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is a non-profit anti-communist organization in the United States, authorized by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1993 for the purpose of "educating Americans about the ideology, history and legacy of communism."[3]

Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
Founded1994
Founders
TypeNon-profit
52-1920858
FocusAnti-communism
Location
Key people
Websitevictimsofcommunism.org

The organization was responsible for building the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C. It is a member of the European Union's Platform of European Memory and Conscience.

History

In 1991, Senator Steve Symms and Representative Dana Rohrabacher introduced concurring resolutions in the United States Congress urging the construction of "an International Memorial to the Victims of Communism at an appropriate location within the boundaries of the District of Columbia and for the appointment of a commission to oversee the design, construction and all other pertinent details of the memorial."[4][5]

In 1993, Rohrabacher and Senator Jesse Helms sponsored amendments to The FRIENDSHIP Act of 1993 which authorized such construction.[6] The Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on December 17, 1993.[7] The Act cited "the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims in an unprecedented imperial holocaust" and resolved that "the sacrifices of these victims should be permanently memorialized so that never again will nations and peoples allow so evil a tyranny to terrorize the world."[3]

The Victims of Communism Memorial is a recreation of the "Goddess of Democracy", which was destroyed in Tiananmen Square by the government of the People's Republic of China

According to Title IX, Section 905 of Public Law 103–199, an independent organization was to be established to construct, maintain and operate the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C., as well as to collect the contributions for the establishment of the memorial and to encourage the participation of all groups suffered under Communist regimes.[8] In 2007, the foundation completed the Victims of Communism Memorial, which was dedicated by President George W. Bush.[9] In 2016, the foundation released a list of 51 prisoners of conscience in Cuba just before President Barack Obama visit and meeting with Raúl Castro.[10] In 2020, the organization released a report calling attention to organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs in China.[11]

In 2016, the Dissident blog of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation made an effort to compile updated ranges of estimates and concluded that the overall range "spans from 42,870,000 to 161,990,000" killed, with 100 million the most commonly cited figure.[12] According to anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee and professor Scott Sehon, the 100 million estimate favored by the organization is dubious, as their source for this is the controversial introduction to the The Black Book of Communism by Stéphane Courtois.[13] Ghodsee and Sehon also write that "quibbling about numbers is unseemly. What matters is that many, many people were killed by communist regimes."[13]

According to Ghodsee and Sehon, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is a conservative anti-communist organization which seeks to equate communism with murder, such as by erecting billboards in Times Square which declare "100 years, 100 million killed" and "Communism kills".[13] Ghodsee posits that the foundation, along with counterpart conservative organizations in Eastern Europe, seeks to institutionalize the "Victims of Communism" narrative as a double genocide theory, or the moral equivalence between the Nazi Holocaust (race murder) and those killed by Communist regimes (class murder).[13][14] These efforts have intensified in the wake of the global financial crisis.[14] In April 2020, the organization announced they would be adding the global victims of the COVID-19 pandemic to their death toll of Communism, blaming the Chinese government for the outbreak and every death caused by it.[15]

Programs

Victims of Communism Memorial

The memorial was dedicated on June 12, 2007, the 20th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan's "Tear down this wall" speech in Berlin. The unveiling of the statue in Washington DC earned international press attention.[16]

The land was a gift of the US Parks Service, and the remaining cost, over $1 million, was raised from private sources.[17] Sculpted by Thomas Marsh, it is a 10-foot bronze replica of the Papier-mâché Goddess of Democracy statue made by student democracy protesters leading up to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.[18]

Museum

The foundation aims to build a museum in Washington, D.C.[1] The foundation is working on a proposed budget for a museum near the National Mall, and has received a $1 million grant toward the museum from the government of Hungary.[19] Plans for the museum include exhibit space, an auditorium, archives, and resident scholars.[20][21]

Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom

The Foundation annually presents its Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom at an event which honors opponents of communism and has been used to raise funds for the construction of the memorial.[22] Past recipients include Myroslav Marynovych, Chen Guangcheng, Tom Lantos, Pope John Paul II, Vaclav Havel, Yang Jianli, Fr. Nguyen Van Ly, Yelena Bonner, William F. Buckley Jr., Richard Pipes, Guillermo Fariñas, Lane Kirkland, Armando Valladares, János Horváth, Lech Wałęsa, Anna Walentynowicz, National Endowment for Democracy, and Henry M. Jackson.[22][23][24][25][26]

Projects

In 2015, the foundation released a biopic video series called Witness Project, featuring interviews with witnesses of communism.[27] Other projects include national seminars for high-school teachers and for college campuses.[28]

Lobbying

The foundation opposed the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act on the grounds that it would protect unlawfully acquired artwork held by Russian museums.[29]

People
Chairman Edwin J. Feulner

VOC's chairman is Edwin J. Feulner, founder and former president of the American conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. Its chairman emeritus and co-founder is scholar Lee Edwards,[2] a founding member of Young Americans for Freedom[30] and distinguished fellow at the American conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.[31] Lev Dobriansky previously served as chairman emeritus. The national advisory council includes Dennis DeConcini, Paul Hollander, John K. Singlaub, John Earl Haynes, and George Weigel. Former or deceased members include Robert Conquest, Richard Pipes, Rudolph Rummel, and Jack Kemp.[32]

The international advisory council includes Sali Berisha, Vladimir Bukovsky, Emil Constantinescu, Mart Laar, Vytautas Landsbergis, Guntis Ulmanis, Armando Valladares, and Lech Walesa. Former members include Yelena Bonner, Brian Crozier, Árpád Göncz, and Václav Havel.[32]

Jay K. Katzen was the Foundation's president from June, 2003 until his death in April 2020. As of January 2021, VOC launched a search for a new president and CEO.[33]

See also

References
  1. Smith, Dinitia (December 23, 1995). "For the Victims of Communism". The New York Times. Retrieved November 4, 2009.
  2. "Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Announces New Board Leadership". Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. December 30, 2020.
  3. Rauch, Jonathan (December 2003). "The Forgotten Millions". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 4, 2009.
  4. "S. Con. Res. 55". thomas.loc.gov. Library of Congress. July 26, 1991. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
  5. "H. Con. Res. 228". thomas.loc.gov. Library of Congress. 1991. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
  6. "U.S. Laws Catch Up to the New Russia". The New York Times. November 29, 1993. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
  7. "Bill Summary and Status". thomas.loc.gov. Library of Congress. December 17, 1993. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
  8. Public Law 103-199
  9. "China Blasts Bush Tribute to Victims of Communism". Reuters. June 13, 2007. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  10. Rhodan, Maya (March 21, 2016). "Advocates List Cuba's Political Prisoners After Castro Says There Are None". Time. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  11. Lipes, Joshua (March 12, 2020). "Uyghur, Falun Gong Detainees Likely Source For China's Organ Market: Report". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  12. "Victims by the Numbers". Dissident. Victims of Communist Memorial Foundation. 28 July 2016. Archived 14 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  13. Ghodsee, Kristen R.; Sehon, Scott; Dresser, Sam, ed. (22 March 2018). "The merits of taking an anti-anti-communism stance". Aeon. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  14. Ghodsee, Kristen (Fall 2014). "A Tale of 'Two Totalitarianisms': The Crisis of Capitalism and the Historical Memory of Communism". History of the Present: A Journal of Critical History. 4 (2): 116-117,136. doi:10.5406/historypresent.4.2.0115. JSTOR 10.5406/historypresent.4.2.0115.
  15. "Blame the Chinese Communist Party for the Coronavirus Crisis". Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. April 5, 2020. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  16. "Bush Blames 100 Million Deaths on Communists". Kommersant. June 13, 2007. Archived from the original on October 10, 2012. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  17. Butler, Don (March 6, 2015). "A tale of Two Monuments: Washington vs. Ottawa". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  18. Miller, John (December 12, 2005). "Memorial Day: Honoring the victims of Communism". The National Review. Retrieved November 4, 2009.
  19. Kilmas, Jacqueline (June 17, 2014). "Cold War Casualties of Communism Seek Museum on National Mall". The Washington Times. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  20. Last, Jonathan (December 1, 2014). "First a Memorial, Then a Museum". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  21. Kirchick, James (August 25, 2014). "Communism's Victims Deserve a Museum". The Daily Beast. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  22. Clyne, Meghan (December 13, 2005). "D.C. Monument To Be Built In Honor of Victims of Communism". The New York Sun. Retrieved November 4, 2009.
  23. Nordlinger, Jay (July 25, 2014). "Sweet Solidarity, Part II". National Review. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  24. "Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom". Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  25. "Chinese Dissident Receives Political Award in Washington". Asia Times. November 16, 2015. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  26. McMorris, Bill (June 14, 2013). "Feature: Chinese dissident Yang Jianli awarded Reagan-Truman Medal of Freedom at sixth anniversary of Victims of Communism Memorial". Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved March 24, 2019.
  27. Abigail Clevenger (May 8, 2014). "What About Communism". Philanthropy Daily. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
  28. "Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Programs". www.guidestar.org. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  29. Gwoździewicz-Matan, Paulina; Jakubowski, Andrzej (2019). "Enhancing the mobility of collections and access to cultural heritage: immunity of cultural objects from seizure in Poland". International Journal of Cultural Policy. 25 (3): 350–362. doi:10.1080/10286632.2017.1284827.
  30. Olmstead, Gracy. "Lee Edwards: When the 'New Right' Was New". The American Conservative. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  31. "Lee Edwards, Ph.D." The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  32. "Board & Advisory Councils". Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  33. "Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Launches Search for New CEO". Victims of Communism. January 20, 2021.

Further reading
  • Neumayer, Laure (2018). "Introduction". The Criminalisation of Communism in the European Political Space after the Cold War. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781351141741.
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