About the FoundationThe Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a non-profit educational organization, was established by an Act of Congress to build a memorial in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the more than 100 million victims of communism. The Victims of Communism Memorial was dedicated by President George W. Bush on June 12, 2007. The dedication ceremony featured the unveiling of the "Goddess of Democracy," a bronze replica of a statue erected by Chinese students in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China in the spring of 1989. Many world leaders have already visited the memorial site to pay their respects and lay wreaths. It is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and New Jersey Avenue, NW on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The mission of The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is to educate this generation and future generations about the history, philosophy, and legacy of communism. The Foundation is currently developing The Global Museum on Communism, the first museum on the Internet dedicated to telling the complete story of communism. It will include exhibits on each nation and people that suffered under communism and a global Victims Registry. The exhibits will include interactive timelines, maps, and archives. The museum will launch June 16, 2009. HR 3000, co-sponsored by Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Representative Robert Toricelli, Senator Claiborne Pell, and Senator Jesse Helms, became Section 905 of Public Law 103-199, which passed unanimously in December 17, 1993. It was signed by President Clinton, Speaker Foley, and President pro tem of the Senate, Robert Byrd. It was renewed through Section 326 of PL 105-277, approved October 21, 1998, until December 17, 2007. The Public Law authorized The National Captive Nations Committee, Inc. to construct, maintain, and operate in the District of Columbia an appropriate international memorial to honor the victims of communism, tragically numbering more than 100 million. The victims were struck down in an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust through conquests, revolutions, civil wars, purges, wars by proxy, and other violent means. Totalitarian terror countenanced no challenge, from individuals, institutions, political parties, or faiths. Instead, it set out the "big lie" that a classless utopian society with human dignity for all was its goal, then cynically produced exactly the opposite in nation after nation which succumbed to its armed might, shameless intrigues, and hypocrisy. Soviet communism's collapse in 1991, accelerated by heroes within and outside captive nations, came only following a tragedy of lost generations. Those who died must not be forgotten, nor those who remain under communism. This memorial will assure that they are, instead, remembered forever and that the history of communist tyranny will be taught to future generations. The National Captive Nations Committee was encouraged by PL 103-199 to create an independent entity to perform this function; the independent entity created is The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. |