23 August 1939: #Nazi #Germany and #SovietUnion sign non-aggression pact.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/nonagres.asp
The world is shocked—but would have been much more shocked had it known what the secret protocol contained and what it would mean for #Poland and the #Baltic states
23 August 1939: non-aggression pact between #Nazi Germany & #Soviet Union: a prelude to their joint dismemberment and occupation of Poland.
Today, it is European Day of Remembrance of Victims of All Totalitarian & Authoritarian Regimes (variant: for All Victims of Nazism & Stalinism)
Advocates saw this as a long-overdue recognition of the crimes of Stalinism & their consequences. (Some critics feared moral equivalence)
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2022/733610/EPRS_ATA(2022)733610_EN.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Ribbon_Day
#WWII #WorldWarII 3/n
Stunned delegates at 21st #Zionist Congress in Geneva hear news of #Nazi-#Soviet nonaggression pact, 23 August 1939.
Caption from Conor Cruise Obrien (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conor_Cruise_O%27Brien) The Siege (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Siege:_The_Saga_of_Israel_and_Zionism)
"They look like people who have heard a death sentence passed on members of their own family"
Testifying to the Peel Commission on #Palestine (1936-1937), Chaim Weizmann said "Six million Jews need a home."
4/n #Mazeldon
@CitizenWald Some called Stalin's communism Red Fascism, Красный фашизм.