Post Bellum

They organize various other projects and activities to raise awareness of modern history. The stated aim of the organisation is to "understand the past through authentic testimony". An associate member of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience.

• Name — Post Bellum • Formation — 2001 • Full Name — Post Bellum z. ú. • Purpose — memorial • Headquarters — Španělská 1073/10, 120 00 Prague 2 - Vinohrady • Leader Title — Director and Founder • Leader Name — Mikuláš Kroupa • Leader Title2 — Director of Operations • Leader Name2 — Jan Polouček • Website — https: www.postbellum.cz/international/

The organisation has created an archive of oral historical testimony entitled Memory of Nations, in partnership with the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and Czech Radio. The archive is the largest online collection of testimonies in Central Europe, documenting the stories of "war veterans, Holocaust survivors, political prisoners, as well as members of the Communist Party, the Secret Police, and the People’s Militias". Witnesses are interviewed in their original language, then translated into English. The interviews are then archived online, where they can be browsed using different categories, dates, places, and so on, in order to locate anecdotes and interviews regarding specific events. Initially, Czech Radio provided the technical support to carry out the interviews and witness recordings, which were made exclusively in audio form and were available in wav or mp3 formats. In 2014, the organisation began using Eye Direct technology to record the testimonies. As of May 2025, there are 19,455 witnesses in the database, 10,872 published stories, as well as over 160,000 images and 65,000 clips. • Illustration — Post Bellum team in 2013. Notable people who have provided testimony for the database include Václav Havel, Helga Hošková-Weissová, Petr Pithart, Vladimir Oravsky, Magdaléna Vášáryová, Milan Knížák, František Zahrádka, Felix Kolmer, and Rudolf Bereza.

Established in 2016, the Run for Memory of Nations (Běh pro Paměť národa) is an annual charitable running event organized by Post Bellum to honor individuals who resisted totalitarian regimes and to support the documentation of their testimonies. The registration fees collected are used to fund Post Bellum's work to record, edit, and publish personal testimonies. Participants can choose to join the run from various cities across the Czech Republic or virtually from any location worldwide. Participants are encouraged to dedicate their run to a specific individual whose story is published on the Memory of Nations archive.

Stories from the 20th Century is a radio show telling witnesses' stories from Post Bellum's Memory of Nations archive, that has aired every Sunday since 2006 on Czech Radio. The people interviewed include war veterans, Holocaust survivors, political prisoners of Nazi and Communist times, and members of minority groups. Stories from the 20th Century was also the name of a documentary series that aired on Czech Television, focused on life during Normalization. The series featured interviews with StB agents, miners, members of the Communist party, gay people, and black market currency dealers. Some episodes were adapted into books by the authors of the programme, Mikuláš Kroupa and Adam Drda. In 2008, the book Cruel Century (Kruté století) was published, followed in 2009 by the publication We didn't want to live under communism (V komunismu jsme žchtěli nechtěli). In 2014 and 2015, the authors contributed to the Unknown heroes (Neznámí hrdinové) book series.

• Illustration — Open Air Exposition opening organised in 2009 by Post Bellum in Prague. Post Bellum is involved with a number of initiatives aimed at increasing public knowledge of totalitarian regimes, especially among young people. Through the Memory of Nations Schools Network, they use witness testimonies as part of workshops in which students are encouraged to think critically about historical events. Among these educational initiatives are Experience Workshops, which involve immersive, dramatized simulations in which students role-play historical figures and navigate scenarios from key moments in modern Czech history, such as the Communist coup of 1948 or the Normalization period. These workshops help participants better understand the moral dilemmas faced by individuals living under authoritarian regimes. 'Stories of Our Neighbors' is a long-term educational program in which students interview and document the life stories of eyewitnesses from their own communities, which are then retold through radio or TV. Students also conduct outside research into the witnesses' experiences, which is then presented together with the testimony. Additionally, Post Bellum has published a number of educational books such as We Are Still At War and Forced Labour, graphic novels based on true stories of people affected by totalitarian regimes. Post Bellum also maintains resources and professional development programs for educators, including lesson plans, workshops, and an online database of testimonies which can be used to support history teaching.

Memory of Nations Institutes (MNI) are multimedia exhibitions about the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, based on the testimonies of those who directly experienced them from the Memory of Nations archives. The first MNI was inaugurated on 15 March 2022 in Pardubice. The institute's core exhibition is "Quiet Heroes", which narrates stories from the 20th century using a blend of projections, unconventional effects, augmented reality, and interactive displays. The exhibition immerses visitors in World War II alongside two witnesses, Jaryna Mlchová and Tomáš Sedláček, and also includes three themed workshops: "Jews in the Protectorate," "The Second Resistance," and "Political Prisoners." The second MNI opened on 22 March 2022 in Olomouc, with an audiovisual exhibit entitled "Revealed Stories of the 20th Century", highlighting the stories of five witnesses to the Second World War and the Communist era in the Olomouc Region. Later that year, another MNI was inaugurated in Brno. Post Bellum held 47 public events at the institute's city-center location at Radnická 10, including discussions featuring war veteran Roman Kopřiva, author Pavel Kosatík, and historian Denisa Nečasová. During autumn 2022, debates were convened with three of the candidates in the 2023 Czech presidential election: Danuše Nerudová, Marek Hilšer, and Pavel Fischer.