The Consequences of the Hitler-Stalin Pact
On August 23, 1939 the German Reich and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact in Moscow with a supplementary secret protocol appended. In this agreement both dictatorships divided among themselves the Eastern Central European countries. This treaty went down in history as the Hitler-Stalin Pact.
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Ausstellung "Riss durch Europa" 2024 in Düsseldorf
The German attack on Poland on September 1, 1939 benefitted from the agreed passivity of the Soviet Union. On September 17 the Red Army also invaded Poland, shortly thereafter attacked Finland, and in summer 1940 occupied Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as parts of Romania. Their alliance fell apart with the German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.
Up to the present time the consequences of the pact prevent a common European collective memory. In the Western European recollection, the pact is simply a historical event on the way to World War Two. For the Eastern Central European countries, by contrast, August 23, is a crucial historical occurrence that in view of Russia’s attack on Ukraine is more evident than ever.
The exhibition makes the events in Eastern Central Europe between 1939 and 1941 and their commemoration accessible to the general public.
The exhibition “Rift through Europe” is a co-operation project between the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst and the Department of Eastern European History at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
