Righteous Among the Nations and Other Rescuers During the Holocaust

"Righteous Among the Nations and Other Rescuers During the Holocaust: Ukraine’s Example in a Comparative Context"

Description

During this uneasy period for Ukraine, when society is split by historical memory, history becomes a means of manipulating consciousness, and false interpretations become a political weapon to create a community’s position to events in the country, it is time to remind the world that Ukraine’s history has positive examples of good neighborly relations from which we must learn unity and tolerance. Fraternity and victimhood is best understood through the study of the theme of the “Righteous Among the Nations” and an understanding of the motives for rescuing people in extreme conditions in general and during the Holodomor, the Armenian genocide, and other cases in particular.

The conference will consider the following issues:

• Historiography and the review of historical sources.
• Jews and other nationalities on the eve of and during the first years of the war: the character and dynamics of the relations.
• Different aspects of actions of rescuing: Who hid Jews? When and why?
• The relationship between individual decisions and institutional interests: the occupying authorities, the underground, the partisan movement and the church.
• Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi and other rescuers of Jews: the dilemma of moral choice under conditions of totalitarian regimes.
• The historical memory about the rescuers of Jews and the phenomenon of “Righteous Among the Nations.”
• The dilemmas of moral choice during the rescue of people in extreme conditions.

Scholars and public figures from around the world invited to the conference. Among the speakers and discussants are Mykola Balaban (Lviv), Krzysztof Bielawski (Warsaw, Poland), Aharon Weiss (Jerusalem, Israel), Wacław Wierzbieniec (Rzeszow, Poland), Faina Vynokurova (Vinnitsa, Ukraine), Liliana Hentosh (Lviv, Ukraine), Maxim Hon (Rivne, Ukraine), Vladyslav Hrynevych (Kyiv, Ukraine), Lyudmyla Hrynevych (Kyiv, Ukraine), Yaroslav Hrytsak (Lviv, Ukraine), Vasyl Hulay (Lviv, Ukraine), Oleksandr Davlyetov (Zaporizhya, Ukraine), Andriy Kravchuk (Toronto, Canada), Oleksandr Kruglov (Kharkiv, Ukraine), Myroslav Marynovych (Lviv, Ukraine), Taras Martynenko (Lviv, Ukraine), Anna Medvedovska (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine), Joanna Elżbieta Potaczek (Rzeszow, Poland), Shimon Redlich (Jerusalem, Israel), Evgeny Rosenblatt (Minsk, Belarus), Oksana Sikorska (Lviv, Ukraine), Kai Struve (Germany), Oleg Surovtsev (Chernivtsi, Ukraine), Igor Shchupak (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine), and others.

Conference organizers:

"Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine" Museum (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine)

Peter Jacyk Program for the Study of Modern Ukrainian History and Society at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta

Ivan Franko Lviv National University

"Tkuma" Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine)

Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (Toronto, Canada)

Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv, Ukraine)

With the assistance of: Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Warsaw, Poland) and other institutions and organizations.

On June 24, at 14.00 a seminar will be held for methodologists and teachers in schools from throughout Ukraine devoted to the study of World War II and the history of the Holocaust. For details please call (+38095) 934-6241 or e-mail: [email protected]