„THE HOLOCAUST: WHAT WAS THE POST-WAR CONTEXT?” (INTERVIEW ON HROMADSKE RADIO)

On April 24, 2023, Anatoliy Podolskiy, a leading researcher of the Department of Ethnopolitics of our Institute, Candidate of Historical Sciences, gave an interview to the Hromadske Radio as part of the “Meetings” project.

The interview was devoted to the problem of the post-war life of those who suffered during the Second World War, from the anti-human, criminal ideology and practice of National Socialism, and how does it apply to modern Ukraine? What awaits us after the Victory in relations between people who received different experiences during the Russian aggression. It was in the context of comparisons with modernity. The fate of people in the occupation, the fate of refugees, events at the front.

Anatoliy Podolskiy in the studio of Hromadske Radio

During the interview, Anatoliy Podolskiy drew attention to the fact that “we are doomed to compare the current war against Ukraine by Russia with the Second World War. Ukrainian and Western intellectuals compare the regime, dictatorship, ideologies, practices of National Socialism, Communism, and modern Russia. And in that regard, the Holocaust is also a subject of discussion.”

We are talking, the scientist noted, about the fate of Jews during the Second World War and Ukrainians today. Larisa Yakubova, a well-known Ukrainian researcher, wrote last year in March that the Ukrainian political nation, citizens of Ukraine of various ethnic origins during the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, are as ethnic Jews in World War II. It is about the fact that today such crimes against the civilian population, the enemy’s hatred of Ukrainian statehood and citizenship, are compared to the hatred based on the racial policy against the Jews in the times of National Socialism. It is important to responsibly compare the entire spectrum, talk about typology, and features.

Historians, political scientists, philosophers discuss comparing the crimes of Hitler’s Germany and Putin’s Russia. It is important that such a comparison is based on academic, professional, scientific approaches –  stressed Anatolii Podolskyi.

 Text and audio recording of the interview