One important institution is The Memorial to the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance.¹³13.http://www.memorialsighet.ro; the website can be accessed in four different languages.View all notes The Memorial stands on the premises of the decommissioned Sighet prison. This was an extermination prison for the country’s elite political figures, academics, economists, military officers, historians, journalists, politicians, bishops, and Greek or Roman Catholic priests. The Memorial was created and is administered by the Civic Academy Foundation since 1993. This private initiative came from Ana Blandiana and Romulus Rusan, and the financial support came from a number of Romanians exiled in the West. The range of activities organized as part of recuperative memory include: debates, round tables, numerous exhibitions, the organization of the Summer School of the Memorial for teenagers in 1998, and Remembrance Day, when former prisoners, the victims, their families and friends and those who are interested in understanding and analyzing Romanian Communism come together to keep alive the memory of those who did not survive. Though the Romanian state declared the Memorial a “symbol of national interest,” state financial support was severely lacking, and most expenses were covered by private donations and the support of other non-governmental institutions.