Slovak Award Ceremony 2018
On 22 June 2018, the winners of the 13th Slovak History Competition were awarded at the premises of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic in Bratislava. Under the topic "Fragility of Liberty” 64 participants handed in 37 entries. Most of them were group works.
Zuzana Jezerska, Coordinator of the Slovak EUSTORY programme and Executive Director of the Slovak Center for Communication and Development opened the event.
The keynote was held by the Slovak radio and TV journalist Soňa Gyarfášová who has been monitoring and mapping victims of two Slovak totalitarian regimes for the past years.
This year’s topic was inspired by the years ending with an “8” because many historical events occured in those years, such as 1918 - establishment of Czechoslovakia, 1938 - annexation of parts of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, 1948 – communists came to power, 1968 – Prague Spring. Nevertheless, the encouragement was mostly given to search for “crimes of communism”.
Two winners took their inspiration exactly out of this period and researched about the prosecutions of concrete people and their families on the base of conspiracy processes. One entry dealt with the persecution of the Roma population during WW II.
First place: Simona Böhmová and Natália Šlesárová:
“Condemned by Regime”
Second place: Miroslava Šarköziová:
“To be Romany Means to be Free”
Third place: Veronika Kašová and Alexandra Melušová:
“Imprisoned Person, Free Faith”
Two special prizes were awarded to works with strong authentic audio material:
Roman Debnár: “The Story of Respectable Clergyman”
Patrik Líška: “On Dividing Line – Episode from the Time of Collectivization”
Since 2009, the Slovak competition has been organised by the Slovak Centre for Communication and Development (SCCD), a non-profit organisation that was founded in 2005. Since 2017, the competition is held under the auspices of the Slovak Commission for UNESCO.