In the Jewish Museum of Dnipro, an exhibition on the consequences of the Hitler-Stalin pact “Scar Across Europe” was opened.

Imagine the map of Europe in 1939. Two shadows — Hitler and Stalin — leaned over it and drew a black line. But it was not a line on paper. It was a cut through the living — through cities, borders, destinies. A scar that stretches even today.

On October 1, in Dnipro, at the museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine,” an international exhibition “A Scar Across Europe: Consequences of the Hitler-Stalin Pact” opened.

Not just a document, but destinies

The project was created together with the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum, Heinrich Heine University, and German cultural institutes. It reminds us: the secret protocol of 1939 was not just a diplomatic trick. It became a sentence for millions. Poland, Ukraine, the Baltics — entire regions were divided as if the people in them did not exist.

The museum director, Irina Radchenko, stated directly: the memory of totalitarianism is especially sharp today when Russia once again tries on the imperial uniform.

Voices from Berlin and Dnipro

The curator of the exhibition, Christoph Meissner from the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum, noted in his address: it’s not just about a piece of paper with signatures. It’s about people whose lives were torn apart by this pact. The exhibition has already visited Lviv, Chernivtsi, and Kamianets-Podilskyi. But in the frontline Dnipro, it resonates differently — here history becomes too similar to the present.

When you can see it

The exhibition runs until November 3, 2025. Every Wednesday and Sunday — from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (entry until 6 p.m.).

This is not just an exhibition. It is a mirror in which Europe sees its old scars — and understands that they have not yet healed.