On 15-17 October 2017 the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) with support from the German Federal Foreign Office held a conference on the studies Holocaust and its realization in Eastern Europe.
The aim of the conference is to provide an overview of the current state of research and emphasize current historical discourses of memory conflicts in political-historical debates. Within three lectures days, the issues of extreme violence, genocide, terror on occupied lands, POW treatment and many other have been risen.
Among conference speakers well known professionals, scholars of Second World War and Holocaustus from different universities and research bodies of Europe and the world. Notably Karel Berkhoff (a senior researcher at NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), Ray Brandon (historian at the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin), Martin Cuppers (Scientific Director of the Ludwigsburg Research Center at the University of Stuttgart), Oleksandr Zaytsev (Department of Modern and Contemporary History of Ukraine, Ukrainian Catholic University), Andrej Umansky (University of Cologne), Andreas Umland (Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation), Yana Barinova, Sandra Petrukonyte, Borys Glasunov, Vladislav Grynevych (Department of Jewish History and Culture, Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).
Moderators of the event : Mr. Demian von Osten, Ms. Louisa Slavkova.
Conference scientific advice: Uwe Neumärker, Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
More than 200 participants, mainly actors working in the field of remembrance register to participate. As well as freelancers, artists, journalists, members of NGOs, researchers from related fields. The event was attended by NGO “Poruch” volunteer Roman Nekoliak.
Overall the conference has provided unique opportunity for networking and further cooperation between researchers, NGO activists. The conference proposal becomes a basis for a future publication.
Soon speeches and papers of the conference will be announced at the Mapping Memories [ http://www.bpb.de/veranstaltungen/format/kongress-tagung/218789/mapping-memories] official website.
The discussions at the Conference were organized in four thematic sessions covering different aspects of Holocaust research:
- History and memory of Babyn Jar.
- The Holocaust in Ukraine.
- The German War Extermination in the East : Poland and the Soviet Union.
- After 1990/91.
Discussions at the conference were united around the central lectures :
| History and memory of Babyn Jar | |
| Events between 1941 and 1944 | Karel Berkhoff |
| Struggles with memory after the end of the war | Vladislav Grynevych |
| Initiatives for Babyn Jar as a place of remembrance | Yana Barinova, Alti Rodal, Borys Glasunov |
| The Holocaust in Ukraine | |
| Events and figures | Andrej Umansky |
| After the war and remembrance during real socialism | Oleksandr Zaytsev |
| Contemporary forms of remembrance | Andreas Umland |
| The German War Extermination in the East : Poland and the Soviet Union | |
| A presentation on the German war of extermination in Poland | Andrea Low |
| Soviet Union | Martin Cuppers |
| After 1990/91 | |
| Belarus, Maly Trostinez | Adam Kerpel-Fronius |
| Ukraine, Yahad-In Unum | Andrej Umansky |
| Ukraine, Protecting Memory | Ray Brandon, Mikhail Tyaglyy |
| Lithuania, Lost Shtetl | Sandra Petrukonyte |
Venue: Radisson Blue Hotel, Yaroslaviv Val St, 22, Kiyv 01054, Ukraine
German Federal Agency for Civic Education [ http://www.bpb.de/die-bpb/138852/federal-agency-for-civic-education ] (bpb) – is a federal public authority providing citizenship education and information on political issues to all people in Germany.
Mapping Memories [ http://www.bpb.de/veranstaltungen/format/kongress-tagung/218789/mapping-memories] – is the German Federal Agency for Civic Education project aiming to trace post-communist cultures of memory and their historicization in the current interpretation and reception of history in Europe.
Deutsch-ukrainisches Sprachenjahr 2017/2018 [ https://www.goethe.de/ins/ua/de/kul/sup/dus.html ] – the purpose of the Ukrainian-German language year is to deepen existing cooperation between education and culture institutions of both countries and launch new long-term partnerships and projects.
The organizers of the Ukrainian-German language year 2017/2018 are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Embassy of Germany in Ukraine and the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine (project coordination), with the agreement of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
German Federal Foreign Office [http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/DE/Startseite_node.html ] (German: Auswärtiges Amt, AA) – is the foreign ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany, responsible for the country’s foreign policy and its relationship with the European Union.
