Shin Dong-hyuk was born in a labour camp (Camp 14, Kaechon, Total Control Zone). He escaped and dedicated his life to bearing witness to how people are born and die in the camps. “I think I am still evolving – from an animal to a human,” he says in his book Escape from Camp 14, which he wrote with journalist Blaine Harden and which became a worldwide bestseller.

Another Havel’s Place memorial is to be unveiled in honour of Václav Havel, who would have reached the age of 78 on 5 October, in Hradec Králové, a city that hosts the Theatre of the European Regions international theatre festival.

“Perpetual motion, or seven days of Mr. A”

This virtually unknown libretto of a pantomime, authored by Václav Havel, was created in spring 1989 at the request of friends in prison.

A copy of the letter to Olga Havlová in which the writer included the libretto is preserved in the archive of the Václav Havel Library. The text has been studied by artists and teachers form the Department of Pantomime at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The evening is being held to mark the occasion of what would have been Václav Havel’s birthday.

Presentation of a study "New Power, New Responsibility" jointly prepared by Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) and German Marshall Fund. The discussion with Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller (from the German Marshall Fund) and Lenka Pítrová (Director of Strategies and Institutional Department, Office of the Government of the Czech Republic) will be moderated by Jan Macháček, journalist and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Václav Havel Library.

Author and visual artist Petr Mano will read from his prose collection Šarlák. The author of the literary event of the year describes 12 different jobs that he held over a 12-year period.

The lecture series Memory of Dissent is organised by the Historical Sociology department at Charles University’s Faculty of Humanities and the Václav Havel Library and headed by sociologist Nicolas Maslowski.

An evening dedicated to one of the key figures of the New Wave of Czechoslovak cinematography in the 1960s, a close friend of Václav Havel’s, author of now legendary Diaries (Book of the Year in a Lidové noviny poll in 2004), and an artist persecuted by the regime who died a mere six months before 17 November 1989.

A one-off evening to mark a quarter of century of existence of Respekt attended by deputy of editor-in-chief Petr Třešňák and other important figures (e.g. Sylvie Lauder, Jáchym Topol, Tomáš Brolík a Milan Jaroše) from the weekly’s past and present. The evening will be hosted by journalist Tomáš Sacher.

After a promising period in the ‘90s, when Russia seemed to be working towards a liberal political system, there was a major turn. The process of political regression finds its expression in the person of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the best known prisoner of conscience in the history of modern Russia.

A panel discussion on Václav Havel's legacy and on his vision of the future of democracy. Introduced by Marta Smolíková, Director of the Václav Havel Library, moderated by Tomáš Vrba, Chairman of the Forum 2000 Board of Directors. The panelists are John Shattuck, President and Rector, Central European University, Hungary/USA; Jan Macháček, journalist and Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Václav Havel Library, and Michael Žantovský, Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Continuation of a year-long series from the archives of the Václav Havel Library on the emergence and activities of civic initiatives in the breakthrough year of 1989. Jáchym Topol will host a debate with movement founder Bára Štěpánová.

For the most part economics talks about wealth creation, a “cake” to be divided among inhabitants, companies and state functioning in the framework of a given economy. However, the current crisis has shifted attention to the distribution, respectively the redistribution, of resources. Is it necessary to consider how much particular people can bite out of the whole cake?

The Václav Havel Library will be represented at the 23rd Autumn Book Fair in Havlíčkův Brod by Gabriela Romanová, Tereza Johanidesová and Pavel Hájek. A discussion with readers, a reading of excerpts, and a presentation of the VHL archive and programme will take place.

A series of popularising evenings focused on the main paradigms in the creation of cities in the 21st century.

A moderated interview with distinctive figures selected according to the principle of complementary opposites. Two different fields, two different perspectives on the city, both relevant and important for the creation of the city. The third evening in the series will be given over to a dialogue between an architect and a developer.

The lecture series Memory of Dissent is organised by the Historical Sociology department at Charles University’s Faculty of Humanities and the Václav Havel Library and headed by sociologist Nicolas Maslowski.

How the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted arose, how it worked, who created it, who it defended and how the trial of its members went. The Committee was founded by a group of Charter 77 signatories in 1978. Among other activities, its members provided legal, financial and other aid to political prisoners and filed requests for redress with the Czechoslovak authorities.

The Václav Havel Library will present it activities within the World of Books joint exhibition at the 19th International Book Fair in Krakow, which is being held at the city’s EXPO exhibition and congress centre.

Presentation of Walter Ciszek’s book S Bohem v Rusku (A Farewell in Russia), the gripping testimony of a Jesuit priest who was arrested in Poland after the outbreak of WWII and imprisoned by the Soviet regime for over 20 years. It was not until 1963 that he was exchanged for a Soviet agent and allowed to travel to the US.

On 18 October 1939, the first transport of Jews in the history of the Holocaust was dispatched from Ostrava, organised by Adolf Eichmann. It was headed for Nisko. The deportees were forced to build a camp that was to be a destination for further transports.

An evening dedicated to Milena Jesenská, writer, journalist, translator, femme fatale, provocateur, fashionable cosmopolitan, mother, anti-Nazi fighter and prisoner.

A series of lectures by historian David Svoboda (Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes) on the subject of Ukraine’s 20th century, disputes and tragic milestones.

Another memorial in honour of Václav Havel is being unveiled in Plzeň, which has been named a European Capital of Culture 2015.

Another of Havel’s one-act plays, Unveiling, will launch a series of staged readings in the new season. Dissident writer Vaněk again faces the paradoxes of Czechoslovak reality in the totalitarian period. A play about superficiality, snobbism and human vacuity.

A meeting and discussion with Olga Romanova, a blogger in the informal Sitting Russia group, which brings together relatives, friends and acquaintances of the unjustly imprisoned; it also provides information about those who are unjustly prosecuted and on the Russian prison system and justice, which are not just familiar to the members of Pussy Riot. Chaired by Rostislav Volvoda. In cooperation with the Kulturus festival.