World Freedom Day, 2020

( printed page 72549) Proclamation 10117 of November 6, 2020 World Freedom Day, 2020 A Proclamation On World Freedom Day, we commemorate the historic fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which liberated the people of East Germany from the grip of tyranny. This watershed event marked the triumph of freedom and liberty for hundreds of millions of people who rejected the oppression of Soviet communism and its Marxist-Leninist ideology. Today, we celebrate the blessings of freedom in Germany and across the world, and reaffirm our Nation's support for all who wish to be free. Following World War II, the Soviet Union built an Iron Curtain between the East and West, isolating the city of West Berlin and shutting off the free flow of goods and people. Determined to prevent the light of liberty from being extinguished, our Nation stood with the United Kingdom and France against the Soviet demand that the West withdraw from Berlin. To defeat this demand for surrender, the United States Air Force and our allies fearlessly airlifted food, fuel, and supplies to the starving people of West Berlin, and together, we were resolved to restore freedom to the German people. For almost 30 years, the Berlin Wall symbolized the divide between the free world and communism. On its eastern side, the rights that democratic societies hold dear—the fundamental freedoms of religion, speech, the press, association, and petition—were replaced by forced secularism, oppressive censorship, monolithic propaganda, and inhumane division. Hundreds of brave Germans died attempting to escape this brutal fate, as the Stasi used landmines, armed watchtowers, and barbed wire to intimidate those who dreamed of freedom and to kill and harm those who braved any attempt to escape. Those whose escapes failed, those who facilitated successful or attempted crossings, and those who crossed the Stasi in some other way were tortured, imprisoned, and executed in horrifying violations of human dignity and rights.…