Transcript of a discussion held during the roundtable "Holocaust Education during Russia's War against Ukraine"

During the Russo-Ukrainian War, educators who teach about the Holocaust have become witnesses to the Putin regime's instrumentalization of the history of the Second World War and the Holocaust, in order to justify its brutal aggression against Ukraine. Political leaders and Kremlin propagandists are drawing false parallels between the situation of the Jews during the Holocaust and the Russian people during the Russo-Ukrainian War, seeking to create a narrative of sacrifice. At the same time, the Ukrainian government is using the history and memory of the Second World War for the purpose of national mobilization in the face of the threat to the state's very existence. The aim of the roundtable was to highlight the challenges faced by educators who teach about the Holocaust in Ukraine, Europe, and the rest of the world in connection with Russia's brutal aggression. The participants of the roundtable discussed strategies for reacting to the distortion of history and analyzed the rhetoric being used to justify Russian aggression. Special emphasis was placed on the question of comparisons, that is, between the Second World War and the present day, on the role of Ukrainian history in teaching about the Holocaust, and on how educators are adapting their teaching activities during the ongoing war.

Read the transcript from the discussion here.
(In Ukrainian)