The Bautzen-Committee was founded shortly after the end of the “German Democratic Republic” by former inmates of the Bautzen prisons and their relatives.
Its aim was the exploration of the crime of the communist tyranny and the preservation of the remembrance of the suffering of the many innocent victims of the prison. So i. e. the Committee organized from 1992-1994 together with the German War Graves Commission and with the help of the German Army the search for the remains of the thousands of victims, who died there and where buried in unmade mass graves outside of the prison on a hill called Karnickelberg (Rabbit Hill). The remains of 184 corpses could be found in a short time but finally, the work had to be closed in view of more than 10 m of rubble, garbage, and boulder the East German police placed on the graves.
Today the remains of 248 victims of Communist dictatorship, who died in the Bautzen prisons now rest in a new cemetery in ten rows of graves and there is also a memorial chapel, where friends and relatives can remember the victims in a dignified way. The site also commemorates the dead who can no longer be located. That is a result of the work of the Bautzen-Committee as well. Another important work is to help and advise former prisoner or their surviving dependents to get their justice and financial compensation. We work in close cooperation with the staff of the Bautzen memorial, who create a permanent exhibition of the historical periods of the prison.
Together with the annual Bautzen-Forum of the Friedrich-Ebert-Donation, we have the annual meeting of the members of the Committee.
More than 40 years of political prosecution and imprisonment under the communist regime left us a huge work to do, for which we need any support and helping hand. We are a charitable corporation.