Young people who know little or nothing about the Iron Curtain or the Berlin Wall now have a web site that opens to them the truth about the millions of victims of communism.
The Global Museum on Communism is the first interactive platform of its kind on the Internet set up to collect and document the untold stories of individuals who experienced the tyranny of the Marxist-Leninist ideology. The museum is a project of the non-profit Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation founded in 1993.
“We want to reach younger people and that’s one of the reasons we are doing this on-line,” said Dr. Lee Edwards, who is chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. “When they look at the Korean War Memorial and Vietnam War Memorial we want them to know that those wars were fought because of communism and there were 100 million people who died because of communism.”
Beginning on Tuesday, a global registry will be available at the museum web site for victims and their families to post information. It will be possible to add vital statistics on parents and grandparents, for example, who died under communism. Over time, Edwards anticipates that videos and audio could be used to enhance the initial postings and make full use of Internet technology.
Some of the strongest support for the project has come from parts of Eastern Europe in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania where the painful memories of Soviet communism remain fresh, Edwards said. Representatives from these same countries have said they will share material to be added to the online historical record.
“They have been among our best friends and colleagues in this effort,” Edward said. “We have very good relations with them and they will help to get people connected with the site so they can tell their stories.”
The on-line museum will also target audiences in China and Cuba where communism continues to hold sway. Edwards has already recruited and contacted individuals from China who had firsthand experience with the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989.
“We now have technology so that we can stream into mainland China and into Cuba with our museum and tell our stories and get the truth about communism,” Edward said. “We can get around the firewalls, including the great China firewall, which is being erected. We will keep shifting and move our streamlining so we can reach the people.”
Unfortunately, it will be more difficult to reach the people of North Korea at least for the time being, since the country remains so isolated, Edwards said.
“This is the most difficult challenge right now,” he said. “It’s very hard to get feedback.”
Creating a permanent record of the suffering communism inflicted upon millions of people is vital to create sense of justice to prevent a possible resurgence of pathological ideologies that subtract away from human liberty, according to the mission statements available on the museum web site.
