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Falling on 23 August the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact provided the inspiration for establishing that date as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes in 2008. This is an initiative of the European Network of Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS), an international organisation that promotes the study of European 20th-century history.

Established in 2005 the ENRS has taken up the challenge of remembering the Nazi-Soviet Pact through an educational campaign entitled 'Remember: 23 August'. As part of this initiative there is implemented a variety of popularisation activities by: distributing pins and posters, convening meetings and conferences, production of short films presenting the stories of victims of totalitarian regimes. As the organisers themselves write, the main purpose is: "(...) to disseminate knowledge which is free of falsehood and disinformation and to provoke an honest discussion". Let us state further that the members of the Network are Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, while the observer status have: Austria, Albania, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania and Latvia.

The motivation for the annual observance of the Day of Remembrance is the conviction that Europeans are not yet fully aware of how crucial, from the perspective of the Second World War, which was about to break out, was the strategic cooperation between the communist Soviet Union's with the Nazi Third Reich. On 23 August 1939. Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov, signed a non-aggression pact with a secret additional protocol on behalf of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. According to some historians, in particular researchers cooperating with the ENRS, the details of the pact, which facilitated Hitler's attack on Poland and gave Stalin time to arm himself at the prospect of a possible war against Germany, should be more widely known today and, looking more broadly, the criminal face of the communist system should also be demonstrated much more.

The Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice bears the stigma of both totalitarianisms. We encourage you to read the post on the museum's Facebook page: https://bit.ly/45I1PGX