In the autumn of 1989, a family, a nation, and the European continent faced profound changes. The invincible human spirits of their people brought out the best in them. However, the weight of history, particularly the horrific memories of 1930s Fascism and late-1940s Soviet Communism, still lingered. In 1989, the Czechs and East Germans were still under communist control. For 50 years, the authoritarian subsets of Fascism and Communism imposed restrictions on their freedoms of assembly, expression, and even thought.
The vulnerabilities in the Iron Curtain became apparent through the uprisings in Budapest in 1956 and in Prague in 1968. Still, a divided communist regime did not mean a defeated one. The ongoing challenges of Russia's military invasions in 2008 Georgia and in 2014 and 2022 Ukraine underscore the urgent and ongoing nature of the fight for democratic values against authoritarianism.