Places of Memory for the victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine: the totalitarian legacy and historical and political challenges of today

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the formation of culture and policy Memory of the Holocaust victims in modern Ukraine. On the example of the international scholar and educational project „Protecting Memory”, which has been going on in Ukraine for more than ten years, the author analyzes the current state, trends, challenges and prospects of creating places of Memory and culture honoring the memory of World War II victims. war, including Ukrainian Jews and Ukrainian Roma. The article also provides a thorough analysis of the fundamental differences in the policy of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust during the communist regime in Ukrainian lands and in modern democratic Ukraine. In the period from 1945 to 1991, the Communist authorities of the Ukraine banned a special memory of Jewish people, which were the victims of the Holocaust, all victims of National Socialism (official title of the Nazi part − NSDAP in German) during World War II were marked by the euphemism of the Soviet regime as „peaceful Soviet citizens”. The anti-Semitic policy was particularly harsh between 1948 and 1953, when Ukrainian Jews affected by the Nazi occupation came under the brunt of Soviet postwar repression. Thus, the feature of the tragic fate of Jewish communities during the domination of the Nazi anti-Semitic ideology and practice was completely leveled. The USSR denied the identities of civilian victims of the Nazi occupation, especially Jewish people and Roma. Only in the days of sovereign and independent Ukraine, the identity and memory of the victims of the Holocaust and the Roma Genocide in Ukraine were revived. One of the most powerful examples of restoring the historical memory of these civilian victims of the Nazi regime in Ukraine was the „Protecting Memory” project. Thanks to this project, during 2010−2020 in five regions of Ukraine − Lviv, Rivne, Volyn, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr regions, 20 Memorials to Ukrainian Jewish people and Roma who were killed by Nazi punitive forces and their helpers during the German occupation of Ukraine in 1941−1944 were established. Key words: Holocaust, Antisemitism, Nazism, Stalin repressions Memory politics, World War II, Ukrainian Jews, Ukrainian Roma.