PUBLIC DISCUSSION: “THE HOLOCAUST AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: LESSONS FOR TODAY”

On December 10, 2024, the Living Memory Exhibition Center of the Babyn Yar National Historical and Memorial Reserve hosted a public discussion entitled “The Holocaust and Social Responsibility: Lessons for Today.”

During the discussion, historians, political scientists, archivists, and cultural experts considered the Holocaust not only as a historical event, but also as a phenomenon that has relevant lessons for preventing any manifestations of mass crimes today. Particular attention was paid to the role of society in confronting injustice and fighting for the protection of human rights and everyone’s responsibility for the future. The event was moderated by Roza Tapanova, director of the Babyn Yar National Historical and Memorial Reserve. Public figures and scholars took part in the discussion.

During the event

Anatolii Podolskyi, a leading researcher at the Department of Ethnopolitical Science of the Institute, PhD in History, made a presentation on “Memory of the Past as a Weapon in Modern Warfare”. In his speech, the scholar emphasized: “the historical calendar of modern Ukraine is already a true history and memory, unlike the times of the communist dictatorship. We must study, remember, and analyze our past. At the same time, it is important that academic research does not turn into propaganda.”

Anatoliy Podolsky speaks

The public discussion also featured video addresses by Oleksandra Matviychuk, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2022, human rights activist, and head of the Center for Civil Liberties, and Pavlo Kozlenko, director of the Holocaust Research Center and Genocide Museum Territory of Memory. The discussion was attended by Kyrylo Vyslobokov, director of the Archival Information Systems company, and Yurii (Amir) Radchenko, PhD in History and researcher at the Mykola Hayevyi Center for Contemporary History at the Ukrainian Catholic University.