The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation is a leading supporter of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), an educational, research, and human rights organization devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million people killed by communist ideology worldwide and to pursuing the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes.
A Deeply Personal Mission
For Ambassador Aldona Woś, supporting VOC is profoundly personal. Born in Warsaw, Poland under communist rule, she is herself the child of Polish victims of both Nazi and Communist oppression. Her father, Paul Zenon Woś, survived Flossenbürg Concentration Camp and was later honored with the “Righteous Among the Nations” medal from Yad Vashem. Her mother, Wanda Krystyna Woś, survived Nazi Germany’s child slave labor. Ambassador Woś’ s aunt, Wanda Woś Lorenc—who fought as a teenage messenger and nurse during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising before being captured and sent to the Flossenbürg and Ravensbrück concentration camps—was featured in VOC’s Witness Project documentary series, sharing her harrowing story of resistance against both Nazi and Soviet oppression.
Two Decades of Leadership
Ambassador Woś and Mr. DeJoy have been key allies and supporters of VOC since 2006, with Ambassador Woś serving on its Board of Trustees since 2009—over 15 years of dedicated leadership. She currently serves on the Board’s Executive Committee as a Trustee, helping guide the Foundation as it expands its education, research, and human rights programs to reach new audiences and assist those victims still suffering under remaining communist regimes.
Congressional Authorization and Memorial
VOC was authorized by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1993 (Public Law 103-199), signed by President Bill Clinton, to educate Americans about the ideology, history, and legacy of communism. The legislation cited “the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims in an unprecedented imperial holocaust” and resolved that these sacrifices should be permanently memorialized so that “never again will nations and peoples allow so evil a tyranny to terrorize the world.”
The Foundation was responsible for building the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C.a 10-foot bronze replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue erected by student protesters during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The Memorial, located within view of the U.S. Capitol, was dedicated on June 12, 2007, by President George W. Bush on the 20th anniversary of President Reagan’s historic “tear down this wall” speech. VOC is also a member of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, an international organization working to preserve the memory of totalitarian crimes in Europe.
Lead Sponsors of the Victims of Communism Museum
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation made a significant leadership pledge to support the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, D.C., which hosted its grand opening on June 8, 2022. See News Release.
“We are incredibly thankful for the Louis DeJoy & Aldona Woś Family Foundation’s pledged commitment to the Victims of Communism Museum, which will serve as the free world’s central hub for the remembrance of the more than 100 million people who suffered and died under communist ideology, and the more than 1.5 billion people still living under its oppressive yoke,” said VOC’s President and CEO, Ambassador Andrew Bremberg, at the time of the pledge announcement.
Located two blocks from the White House at 900 15th Street NW, the museum serves as VOC’s schoolhouse and the hub of its educational activities. The first and only museum of its kind, it features three permanent galleries and rotating temporary exhibits—including exhibitions on Tiananmen Square, Cuban communist prisons, Václav Havel’s journey from dissident to president, and Venezuela’s deadly toll under socialism. Since opening, the museum has educated thousands of visitors, hosted 42 school groups for tours and presentations with experts and witnesses of communism, and welcomed teachers, dissidents, victims, and diplomats from around the world.
VISIT WEBSITE – Victims of Communism Museum
Supporting the Witness Project
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation supports the VOC Witness Project, an award-winning short video series and podcast that tells the tragic and powerful stories of the victims of communism, past and present—from the Killing Fields of Cambodia to the labor camps of the Soviet Union and the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square.
The Triumph of Liberty Gala and Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom
On November 8, 2019, the DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation was a major supporter of the Triumph of Liberty Gala Dinner and Presentation of the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom, to His Excellency Joachim Gauck, held at Union Station in Washington, D.C.
On November 7, 2019, Ambassador Aldona Woś and a delegation of victims of communism, organized by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, visited President Trump in the Oval Office as the White House commemorated the National Day for the Victims of Communism.
