Exhibition date: 17 November 2021
Place.
Author of texts and selection of visual documentation: Grzegorz Górny
Organized by the Polish Institute, the Archbishopric of Prague and the Hungarian Institute in Prague
The exhibition was created on the occasion of the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Visegrad Group, which will be commemorated in February 2021, and to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Paul II, the first pope from Central Europe and an important symbol of the struggle for freedom in the region. The exhibition also highlights the role of the Catholic Church during the totalitarian era and the importance of four prominent Central European cardinals: Josef Beran, Jan Chrysostom Korc, József Mindszenty and Stefan Wyszyński.
In cooperation with the Polish Institute and the Libri prohibiti library, the Museum of the Memory of the XXth Century prepared two exhibitions about these important historical events in its new headquarters in the House of Pážat in Hradčany on the occasion of the anniversary of 17 November 1989 - one of them was this exhibition. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was not possible to allow interested parties to visit the exhibitions in person, so the museum has prepared guided tours of them, which are available online from 17 November 2020. On this occasion, the museum's future headquarters, the House of the Passionists in Hradčany, was also presented. The past activities of this Prague institution, which celebrated its first anniversary on 17 November 2020, were also presented. Petr Blažek, historian and member of the museum's board of trustees, and Maciej Ruczaj, director of the Polish Institute in Prague, spoke about the exhibitions. Alexander Vondra, former spokesman for Charter 77 and co-founder of the Civic Forum, also spoke. The tour was accompanied by a few songs by Jaroslav Hutka, an actor of the November 1989 events, folk singer, dissident and signatory of Charter 77.