Forum Digest
Notes
To All Those Who Suffered...
The Aula Maxima of the Faculty of Law was filled with men and women of renown, primarily lawyers who have found an outlet for their skills in the government or in parliament; those who work in ministerial posts and those who preside over the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic... On the afternoon of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War (5 May), all these accepted the invitation of the Vsehrd Association of Czech Lawyers and the Vsehrd Foundation-The Rand Fund to the ceremonial unveiling of a memorial plaque by the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, Pavel Tigrid. The gathering was greeted by the chair of the Vsehrd Association, Petr Polak: "Your presence here testifies to the fact that the text which is carved on the plaque is not an empty phrase for you," he said. He reminded those present that, with this plaque, it had finally been possible to fulfill one of the wishes of their predecessors in Vsehrd, primarily Emil Randsdorf, an idea which dated back to the first years after the end of the Second World War.
The Minister of Culture then, after a short reminiscence of his student years, when he had himself been a member of Vsehrd (he was unable to complete his studies after Munich), unveiled the plaque of Italian marble, which is the work of the sculptor Ales Hnizdil. The short text is dedicated to all lawyers, without regard to their ethnicity, generation, or religion, who fought, died, or suffered in the period of unfreedom. Its aphoristic brevity is touching:
"In memory of the lawyers
and law students
who suffered and died
in the days of the struggle for law and justice".
(mich)
(vol. 1, no. 4, 1995)
Pavel Tigrid, Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic (and a new member of Vsehrd), in conversation with the honorary president of Vsehrd, JUDr. Dagmar Buresova.
Photo: Michaela Zindelova
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