The Nation's Memory Institute (UPN), which oversees Slovakia's archives from its periods under totalitarian rule, will in 2011 focus on the repressive structures of the former Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) during the so-called 'normalisation' period which followed the crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968, ÚPN board chairman Ivan Petranský announced at the beginning of January.
Specifically, the restructuring of the personnel and organisational structures of the communist-era ŠtB secret police will be examined. According to Petranský, another priorities will be to look into the files of ŠtB officials housed in the Interior Ministry's archives.
"The ÚPN is also planning to look closely at the aryanisation of the property of Jews. This is part of the project called 'Fates of Slovak Jews 1939-1945'," he said, as reported by the TASR newswire. Slovakia's Jewish population was subject to persecution and many were deported to Nazi death camps during World War II by Slovakia's wartime government.
The institute is organising a number of international scientific conferences this year. The ÚPN's audio-visual products will include testimonies of the victims of persecution, including prisoners, priests, monks, nuns and intellectuals.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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