Presentation by Prof. em. Dr. Valters Nollendorfs (Chairman of the Board Occupation Museum Association of Latvia Occupation Museum Association of Latvia) on the occasion of the EESC hearing on the Europe for Citizens Programme for 2014-2020 (Brussels, 3 May 2012)

1. Latvijas Okupācijas muzejs
The Museum of the
Occupation of Latvia (1940-1991)
Prof. em. Dr. Valters Nollendorfs
Chairman of the Board
Occupation Museum Association of Latvia

2. The present building of the
Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.
Formerly the Museum of the Red Latvian Riflemen.

3. Design of the future
Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.
Anticipated completion 2014.
Architect Gunnar Birkerts.

4. The future Museum of the Occupation and
Memorial to Victims Of Communism
2014

5. Latvijas Okupācijas muzejs
The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
 Founded 1993. Motto: REMEMBERING, REMINDING, COMMEMORATING.
 Owned and operated by the Occupation Museum Association.
 Permanent exhibition completed 1998. Ehibition covers three occupations: Soviet 1940-1941,
Nazi-German 1941-1944/45, Soviet 1944/45-1991.
 Departments: Archive, Documentation, Education, Public History, Memorial Sites, Publication.
 Annual number of visitors 100 000 plus.
 Estimated number of foreign visitors ~70 000.
 Number of employees 38 (including service personnel).
 Annual operating budget ~EUR 500 000.
 State/municpal support ~EUR 70 000 (14%).
 Main sources of revenue: supporters, donations, projects.
 State accredited Museum; included in State Diplomatic Protocol.
 State-owned building dedicated to the Museum by state law.
 Fundraising goal for a new exposition and furnishings: LVL 1,5 mio.
 New modern exhbition and an expanded building scheduled for 2014.
 Founding Member Platform of European Memory and Conscience 2011.
 Participation in major international projects: “Different Nations-Shared Experiences” (Estonia,
Sweden, Finland). EU European Regional Development Fund; Centrral altic Interreg IV A
Programme.

6. The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
Europe for Citizens Programme projects
“Active European Remembrance”
 2008: “Development of an Interactive Map of
Stalinist Deportations.” Ref. No. REM-2008-007.
Budget: EACEA EUR 39 000; Co-Fin. EUR 26 000;
Total EUR 65 000. Visitors since 2009: ~250 000.
 2010: “Virtual Exhibition on the History of Stalinism
and Nazism in Latvia.” Ref. No. 511937.
Budget: EACEA EUR 55 000; Co-Fin. EUR 53 000;
Total EUR 108 000. Unique visits to date 8500; of
those 15% returning visitors; page views 19 000.
 2012: ???

7. “Map of Stalinist Deportations” in the
Museum of the Occupation of Latvia

8. Beginning of the “Map of Stalinist Deportations”
Latvian, English, German, Russian

9. The Mass Deportation 14 June 1941

10. Map of GULAG prison camps in the Soviet Union

11. Additional information:
-Deportation arrest orders.
-Mementoes from the
GULAG prison camps.
-Video testimonials about
imprisonment in the GULAG.

17. Temporary Exhibition “Rumbula: Anatomy of a Crime 1941”.
Commemorating the Holocaust in German-Occupied Latvia.

18. Temporary Exhibition “Rumbula: Anatomy of a Crime 1941”.
Transition from a virtual exhibition to a new permanent exhibition.

19. The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
Grantwriting Experience and Desiderata
 The experience with the Programme “Active European Remembrance” has
been in general positive and fruitful.
 The paperwork, though considerable, has not been onerous and both the
application and accounting forms are reasonably clear as compared to
many others the Museum has had to deal with.
 The staff has been responsive and helpful.
 The self-financing percentage is high but manageable; it cuts down on
projects that an institution may consider marginal.
 The restriction of projects to 1953, the death of Stalin, seems arbitrary and
must be lifted both for political and practical reasons.
 In evaluation projects, it is hoped, consideration is given to those with long-
term and value-added benefits.
 Consideration should be given to major significant projects that cannot be
carried out within the current grant ceilings and/or completed in a year’s
time.

20. The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
Recommendations for Future Consideration
There is every reason to continue, improve and
expand the Europe for Citizens programme
“Active European Remembrance.”
 The number of memorial sites, museums, civic organisations
and research institutes dealing with recent European history and
social memory is growing.
 There exists urgent need for a common understanding of 20th-
century European history and its representation in social memory as a
basis for a future European identity and solidarity.
 The “European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and
Nazism” is only a beginning of a long process of coming to terms with
50 years of divided European history and memory.
 The scope of the Programme must be expanded by calling the
totalitarian regimes and their crimes by their right names -
Communism and National Socialism - and removing the
strictures that limit them articficially to their worst forms of
expression and time periods. Their legacies haunt European social
memories still today and must be overcome lest they overcome us.