June 24 in Slovakia is dedicated to remembering the victims of the communist regime. It marks the 1954 trial of Catholic dissident Silvester Krčméry, who famously declared in court: "You have power in your hands, but we have the truth."
The day honors the more than 70,000 people convicted and imprisoned for political reasons between 1948 and 1989; over 50 people executed; 13,000 people sent to forced labor; and nearly 5,000 nuns and monks interned. Krčméry became a symbol of moral resistance against totalitarian repression. His "crime" was organizing religious communities without political aims.
Source: STVR, TASR
Veronika Ščepánová, Photo: OZ Nenápadní hrdinovia
