The territory of Terror is a memorial museum of totalitarian regimes located in the former ghetto (1941-1943). More than 130 thousand Jews passed through it. The ghetto was created in the poorest district of Lviv, and the area was fenced with wire. Thus the Germans tried to isolate the Jews from the rest of the city.
Later, the territory became the property of another totalitarian regime, in the format of the transfer prison No. 25. One of the largest "transfer stations" in the Ukrainian SSR was used to collect prisoners (prisoners of war and people involved in the national liberation movement) and transfer them to the Gulag camps (1944-1955).
The museum's exhibition is partially open for viewing. Follow all the news and announcements on social media.
Nowadays
The Territory of Terror Museum was created on the initiative of the Lviv City Council. Its construction lasted from 2014 to 2016. The museum complex is an example of the memorialization of the heritage left behind after World War II and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The museum's objective is to research and present the tragic pages of the history of Ukraine and Lviv during the totalitarian regimes. Its activities include exhibition and educational projects, collecting and documenting oral history evidence of these events, creating documentaries, and cooperating with specialized institutions in Ukraine and other countries. The museum offers guided tours, lectures, and various exhibitions on historical topics.
Museum exposition
Today, the museum includes watchtowers, two barracks with exhibitions, barbed wire around the perimeter, and a site with a collection of Soviet monumental art.
At the entrance to the museum, there is a trolley car; its base is an original design made in 1951 in Germany. Inside, you will see stacked suitcases with "cards" - stories shared by deportees. Due to inhumane conditions, long travel times, and infectious diseases, not all survived to the place of deportation. The property of deportees that remained in their homes was looted or transferred to state ownership.
The museum consists of several rooms. The first illustrates the pre-war period, with authentic items donated by Lviv residents. The next one is about the period when the war broke out. Here is a large map with red dots symbolizing the stories of people who witnessed those events. The third room is a post-search apartment with scattered belongings. The next is a room with bunks as art objects symbolizing the three categories of people who were most often imprisoned: political prisoners, Jews, and military personnel.
The museum is still researching the Yaniv concentration camp, so the few things that have been preserved are on display. In addition, you can listen to the tango of death, performed by an orchestra during torture and ill-treatment. It was the last song the victims heard before being shot.
The following rooms contain exhibits of the German and Soviet totalitarian regimes. For example, copies of posters from the Nazi occupation illustrate the process. Then there is an imitation of the Soviet secret service archive, a maze of boxes with files; Soviet authorities opened on people. The last room is the White Room, which contains copies of hundreds of photographs from family archives.
In the courtyard near the museum is a collection of Soviet monuments that appeared here after de-communization. The exposition consists of monuments, stained glass windows, and mosaic samples. For example, five massive figures from Lviv's Glory Monument weigh more than a ton.
