Posts Tagged ‘checkpoint charlie’

28
November 2011

Berlin Exhibit Explores Magnitsky Case

New York Times

A permanent exhibition at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum (Friedrichstrasse 43-45; mauermuseum.de) in Berlin exposes a modern-day saga of governmental corruption, coercion and torture. The Sergei Magnitsky case revealed egregious abuses of power that continue to plague Putin’s Russia and which ultimately led to the tragic demise of the 37-year-old tax attorney Magnitsky, while he was held captive in a maximum security Russian prison.

His crime? Uncovering a vast conspiracy that sought to rob the Russian state and its citizens of millions of dollars in fraudulent tax refunds, allegedly executed by police officers and governmental officials.

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21
November 2011

Checkpoint Charlie Museum: One man’s heroic determination to fight tyranny with truth

Human Rights Foundation

While there are hundreds of military museums around the world, Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, or the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, is one of few memorials that expressly document the tyrannical force of dictatorship — in this instance, the Communist cruelty that operated with an iron fist thanks to a methodically conceived Iron Curtain. The museum ranks with far wealthier museums that document the horrors of fascist tyranny, such as the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

The story of the Berlin Wall begins on Saturday, Aug. 12, 1961, a seemingly lackluster summer day in Berlin. Residents from the eastern and western parts of town traveled to their favorite summer spots, to luxuriate in the last summer rays of the sun. Little did they know that something strange was unfolding, and by the end of the night, casually traversing to the opposite end of the city would become impossible. It would be a day Berliners would never be able to forget, and a day Rainer Hildebrandt’s Checkpoint Charlie Museum will try to make sure the world too never forgets.

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16
November 2011

Russia Ignores Magnitsky Anniversary

The Moscow Times

Supporters of the late lawyer Sergei Magnitsky are marking the two-year anniversary of his death on Wednesday with events around the world — with the notable exception of Russia.

“In Russia, the only official thing that is going on is the continued cover-up by officials,” a spokesman for Magnitsky’s firm, Hermitage Capital, told The Moscow Times.

By contrast, the U.S. Helsinki Commission in Washington is hosting the performance of a play, “One Hour Eighteen,” depicting the last moments before Magnitsky died in custody in 2009 while awaiting trial on widely criticized fraud charges.

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16
November 2011

Second anniversary of Magnitsky death to be marked abroad

Interfax

A series of events to mark the second anniversary of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death at a Moscow detention center, will be held in the United States and Europe, the Hermitage Capital’s press service has reported.

In memory of Sergei Magnitsky’s heroic resistance to corruption and bureaucratic tyranny, politicians, rights campaigners and cultural figures will hold a series of important events in the capitals of the United States, Britain and Germany, a Hermitage Capital spokesman told Interfax.

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09
November 2011

Checkpoint Charlie Museum – One man’s heroic determination to fight tyranny with truth

National Review Online

While there are hundreds of military museums around the world, Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, or the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, is one of few memorials that expressly document the tyrannical force of dictatorship — in this instance, the Communist cruelty that operated with an iron fist thanks to a methodically conceived Iron Curtain. The museum ranks with far wealthier museums that document the horrors of fascist tyranny, such as the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

The story of the Berlin Wall begins on Saturday, Aug. 12, 1961, a seemingly lackluster summer day in Berlin. Residents from the eastern and western parts of town traveled to their favorite summer spots, to luxuriate in the last summer rays of the sun. Little did they know that something strange was unfolding, and by the end of the night, casually traversing to the opposite end of the city would become impossible. It would be a day Berliners would never be able to forget, and a day Rainer Hildebrandt’s Checkpoint Charlie Museum will try to make sure the world too never forgets.

Read More →

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