On the initiative of the newly created Czechoslovak government, in 1947 the National Suffering Memorial was opened on the site of the suffering of tens of thousands; it was later on renamed the Terezin Memorial. The key mission of the Terezin Memorial, the only institution of its kind in the Czech Republic, is to commemorate the victims of the Nazi political and racial persecution during the occupation of the Czech lands in World War II, to promote museum, research and educational activities, and look after the memorial sites connected with the suffering and death of dozens of thousands of victims of violence.