Remembering the Victims of Communism

Written by David E. Smith

What was the most evil regime of the 20th century? Many people instantly picture a crazed Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich rounding up millions of Jewish men, women and children in an attempt to systematically exterminate them. An estimated six million were murdered across German-occupied Europe. That’s truly evil. Yet, if we’re looking at death tallies, consider the human toll inflicted under Communism:

• Sixty million dead in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.
• Seventy million dead under Mao Zedong in China (1949-1976).
• One-fourth to one-fifth of the Cambodian population dead under Pol Pot (1976-1979).

On December 8, 2021, The Heritage Foundation held an important event to mark “Communism’s Dark Tyranny: The 30th Anniversary of the Collapse of the Soviet Union,” which is available online for our edification.

Dr. Alan Kors, the Henry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Pennsylvania, has one question for us: why don’t we memorialize the victims of communist slaughter like we do the Holocaust? The horrors of Nazi Germany rightfully sparked a flood of art, witness, and sympathy on this side of the world. What about the catastrophes of communism?

Do our children and grandchildren understand the horrific realities about the last century’s most brutal dictators? Who needs to give an accounting for the massive death tolls? Are we teaching the next generation the importance of liberty?

We should refuse to forget this dreadful history and make sure the young people in our families and churches understand how evil man can be and how Communism fostered it. Then, in turn, we must also teach how precious God’s gift of self-government has been to us in the United States, and by extension, to the rest of the world. Panelist Dr. Sebastian Gorka rightly points out:

We need to tell the stories of oppression from the people who were oppressed.

…

People need stories. It is how we live. We thirst for stories. That is why C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien have done more to save western civilization than any non-fiction work has ever done.

We highly recommend taking advantage of this great resource. Listen to Drs. Kors, Gorka and the other highly qualified panelists as they speak at this special event and note how they explain the mountain of indifference that our society seems to display toward the carnage that dwarfed even the Holocaust. Are we slouching back toward an embrace of Communism?

Please note that this event is broken up in multiple sessions:

Opening Remarks
Session I: The Collapse of the Evil Empire
Session II: Marxism Inside the Gate
Session III: Communism Today
Closing Remarks: Dr. Elizabeth Spalding, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world,
and men loved the darkness rather than the Light,
for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light,
and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
But he who practices the truth comes to the Light,
so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
~John 3:19-21~

Communism has decided against God,
against Christ, against the Bible, and against all religion.
~Rev. Billy Graham~