Lviv – Territory of Terror Museum

The new Territory of Terror museum has opened in Lviv, on the site of the former entrance to the city’s ghetto. There seems to be much work still to be done before the museum is complete, but there are some interesting information boards in front of the site entrance. The museum is free of charge to enter and it’s around a ten-minute walk from the city centre.

A carriage, I assume signifying the transportation of Jews to Lviv and then on to the concentration camps, which is situated outside of the museum. Above this on the elevated bank is the mainline rail line which enters the city.

A watchtower which isn’t currently accessible to the public, although it appears that there are plans to develop this section of the site.

There are tens of these blank marble frontages, which I again assume will have the names of victims etched upon them.

The entrance to the museum, which currently consists of just one room of exhibits. The displays are though thought provoking and interesting, with English translations presented for many of the exhibits.

A map of the city’s ghetto.

There were several of these biographies at the museum, some focusing on Jews who had either died during the Holocaust or had managed, against the odds, to survive. The other biographies were of the perpetrators of the Holocaust and those involved in the Second World War.

The above biography is of Baron Otto Gustav von Wächter, a complex and interesting Nazi officer that I’d read about before because of his involvement in the Krakow Ghetto. He certainly seems to have been an articulate and clever administrator and politician, who might in peace-time been able to have been a leader of some ability. However, his involvement in the Holocaust is undeniable and he personally signed off the killing of thousands of Jews. There have been efforts made to suggest that he was a good man, but it’s IMO hard to come to that conclusion given on what happened under his jurisdiction.

Alois Hudal, a so-called Bishop in the Catholic Church, but instead a Nazi who was heavily involved in running the ratlines after the Second World War to help former officers, also helped von Wächter. But von Wächter was to die at the age of 48 for medical reasons, so he was never brought to trial for what he had done.

I’m glad that this museum is here though, as the monument to the Lviv Ghetto which is situated over the road has very little information as to what happened in this area. The museum has now corrected that, and I hope to return when the museum has been able to complete more of the work at its site.