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For years, the victims of Nazism have received fair recognition in many countries<\/strong>, so that the world never forgets the atrocities and genocide perpetrated by Adolf Hitler's dictatorship. However, most of the monuments to the victims of communism are in the countries that suffered the most<\/strong>, which were subjected to communist dictatorships imposed by Stalin, a dictator and mass murderer<\/a>, at the end of World War II.<\/p>\n In Western Europe, monuments to the victims of communism are very rare or simply non-existent.<\/strong> In fact, in some countries in this part of the continent, communism continues to present itself as a movement defending freedom, despite its support for dictatorships such as Cuba, Venezuela, communist China, North Korea and Nicaragua<\/strong>, which still today continue to violate the most basic human rights of millions of people.<\/p>\n The municipal government of a small town in southeastern France has taken a step to change this situation. This Saturday, the town of Saint-Rapha\u00ebl inaugurated France's first monument to the victims of communism<\/strong>, coinciding with the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarian Regimes, established on August 23 by the European Union in 2009. Mayor Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Masquelier, of the centrist Les R\u00e9publicains (LR) party, spoke these words<\/a> during the inauguration of the new monument:<\/p>\n \"France has erected monuments to its soldiers, to the resistance, to the deportees of the Armenian genocide, to the victims of nazism<\/strong>, slavery, and terrorism. But never before has it set in stone the memory of the victims of Communism. Today, this silence ends!<\/strong>\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Masquelier added: \"We are honoured to be the first city in France, with the support of the Var department, to officially recognise the memory of these victims<\/strong>, who have been deliberately ignored.\"<\/em> The mayor of Saint-Rapha\u00ebl stressed that totalitarianism, whether brown or red, proceeds from the same deadly logic, and pointed to a fact that is resoundingly supported by history: \"Nazism and communism, despite their opposing banners, are two sides of the same disastrous coin: the cult of the leader, a single party, the suppression of freedoms<\/strong>, mass propaganda, the designation of enemies to be defeated, state terror.\"<\/em><\/p>\n The new monument depicts a man breaking through a wall and offering a ray of hope<\/strong>, a clear allusion to the Berlin Wall, cynically built by the communist dictatorship of East Germany under the name of \"anti-fascist protection wall,\" when in reality it served to prevent people from fleeing an oppressive regime, murdering those who tried. This monument \"is intended to be a warning for future generations,\"<\/strong> notes the city council<\/a>, a warning explained in these words by the mayor:<\/p>\n \"This stele is more than a judgment on the past; it is an oath for the future. An oath for freedom and youth,<\/strong> to whom we say never to be seduced by ideologies that promise paradise but sow chains. Let this stele be, then, a sentence and an oath. A sentence against an inherently totalitarian ideology. An oath that we will never accept its return,<\/strong> in any form.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![](\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54740807472_6ab1d3a146_c.jpg\")
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