Commemorative event on 17 June
Wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial to the victims of Stalinism
A public memorial event will be held in Chemnitz on Friday, 17 June 2016 to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the 1953 uprising in the GDR. The event is dedicated to the persecuted and victims in the Soviet occupation zone in the years 1945 to 1949 and later in the GDR, as well as to all victims of Stalinist dictatorships after 1945.
The public memorial event, to which the people of Chemnitz are cordially invited, will begin at 11 a.m. with a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial stele in the area opposite the district court (Hohe Straße 23). The Halmstadt gneiss memorial erected there in 1999 bears the inscription "To the victims of tyranny 1945 - 1989".
Holker Thierfeld, Chairman of the Gemeinschaft ehemaliger politischer Häftlinge, Vereinigung der Opfer des Stalinismus e.V./ Bezirksgruppe Chemnitz welcomes those present.
Words of remembrance will be spoken by Lord Mayor Barbara Ludwig, Member of the State Parliament Hanka Kliese, political scientist Sandra Buchler and Jörg Petzold, former released prisoner of the Kaßberg prison.
The brass quartet from the municipal music school will provide the musical backdrop.