“In Bulgaria there are many other camps and prisons but Belene has come to be regarded as a synonym of communist repression and communist brutality,” said President Petar Stoyanov (1997-2002), addressing the people, including former camp inmates, gathered to commemorate the victims of the totalitarian communist regime at Site No. 2 on Persin island in the River Danube where Belene concentration camp once stood. Petar Stoyanov went on to say that these horrific methods remain unknown to people outside the country, but also to the broad public inside Bulgaria.

• Book on Belene Concentration Camp 1949 – 1987 – largest research of communist crimes

Petar Stoyanov pointed out further that it would be an unforgivable sin if we didn’t build the memory of the Belene concentration camp, and of all other sites – symbols of the horrific communist regime, into the national memory.