“Sarajevo, the biggest concentration camp in the world,” wrote Arma Tanović at the age of 15. Arma was one of the Sarajevan kids and teenagers, who, a year into the siege, sent letters to their American pen pals, in which they introduced themselves and their daily challenges hardly imaginable for others, and asked their unknown friends to do everything they could to stop the war.

Miklós Horthy passed away in Portugal on February 9, 1957, 65 years ago today. We revisit contemporary press reactions through his Biographical File compiled at the RFE/RL Research Institute. The operations of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), to broadcast across the Iron Curtain in Eastern Bloc countries, was assisted by its own Research Institute.

“Citizens of the Polish People’s Republic! I turn to you today as a soldier, and as the head of the Polish government. I turn to you in a matter of supreme importance. Our country has found itself at the edge of abyss. The achievements of many generations, the house erected from Polish ashes, is being ruined. The structures of the state are ceasing to function.” These were the first lines of General Wojciech Jaruzelski’s speech aired 40 years ago at 6 am, on December 13, 1981.

I usually encounter three typical reactions when I mention that I deal with education for democratic citizenship (for the sake of simplicity, let us call it “democratic civic education”): firstly, a wry grin signalling that my conversation partner has no idea what I am talking about (most people, but especially my parents’ generation). Secondly, a fierce indignation that there is no need for civic education, and we know all-too-well how similar top-down, compulsory programs turned out (my grandparents).