There would have been no terrible Famine in the 1930s in Ukraine, no Holocaust in the Second World War, because the world would have already begun to respond to such crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, it did not happen.
It is immoral to compare tragedies. They cannot be measured; they have no superiority. It is incorrect, in regards to oneself, to one’s own and other nations. Every tragedy is a non-healing wound, and we must not compare our wounds. We must fight together in order to prevent the repetition of such tragedies. Impunity inspires more impunity. And then the scoundrel in power or striving for power begin to speculate in xenophobia, kindling ethnic enmity, clashing nations and leading them away from the solution of the burning economic and political problems.
The international public should monitor at different levels and strictly warn the government that such actions will lead the country and its authorities outside the civilized world. The events in Yugoslavia, maybe not very simple to understand, showed that the world can sometimes take sanctions against the governments that are carrying out genocide against their own people.
Work at the human level is of extreme importance and highest priority for public organizations. In implementing the programs aimed at the training of ethnic and religious tolerance, we in Ukraine teach the young people to take a person of a different nationality or religion as a morally equal one. This forms the most important spiritual and behavioral values now, preventing the authorities to manipulate the minds of their citizens or incite ethnic aggressions in the future.
On January 27, 2005, events took place in Europe devoted to the 60th anniversary of liberation of the prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and timed to the European Memory of the Holocaust Day. The main events took place in Krakow and Auschwitz, Poland. President Victor Yuschenko, son of that camp’s prisoner ¹11 367, who led the Ukrainian delegation, spoke of the terrible crime against humankind, “when hundreds of thousands of people died only for being Jewish or, like the blood brothers of my father, for defending people from Nazism”. He stressed that some terrible tragedies of the 20th century took place in the land of Ukraine: The Famine and The Holocaust claimed the lives of millions. Therefore, “Ukraine remembers what threat intolerance, violence, and aggression pose” to us, he added. He also promised to “always defend the highest human values: respect to other men, freedom, and democracy. There will be no xenophobia or anti-Semitism in any form in Ukraine”, he said.
On April 7, within the framework of his visit to the United States, Yuschenko visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington. After the visit, the president of Ukraine noted that “credit must be give to this Museum for preserving unique memory, great philosophical moral, and a warning to our descendants”. “I often think of the similarities between the dramatic and tragic fates of the Ukrainian and Jewish nations. We have a very close historical parallel – the Famine of 1932–1933, which claimed the lives of 10 million Ukrainians (I use this term to describe all the residents of Ukraine at that time), and the Holocaust which led to the extermination of one third of the nation. Therefore, it is extremely important both for the Jewish and Ukrainian peoples to preserve their historical memory. We speak not so much of common tragedies, but of common values”, said Yuschenko.
These words showed that the new Ukrainian leadership attach great meaning to the preservation of historical memory and fighting xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
Teaching and Study of the History of the Holocaust and Problems of Tolerance in Modern Ukraine
In January 2000, Ukraine signed the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on assisting in the study and teaching of the history of the Holocaust, formation of the atmosphere of tolerance in the society. Over the years that passed after the war, the Jewish community of Ukraine and Ukraine as the sovereign state on the whole pay a lot of attention to the study of the problems of the Holocaust, its historical, sociological, psychological, philosophical, and religious aspects.
In the past 15 years, Ukrainian historiography on the Holocaust problems has formed. It includes hundreds of publications, articles, dozens of monographs, collections of archive documents, testimonies of eyewitnesses, and translations. Scientists – historians, political scientists, philosophers, sociologists, culturologists of the History Institute of Ukraine, the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, and the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine – are involved in serious academic research of the history of the Holocaust in the Ukrainian lands today. In a whole number of universities that have newest history departments, students and professors research this topic, write diploma projects on the history of the Holocaust in Ukraine (for example, the National and Pedagogical Universities in Kiev, Lviv, Chernovtsy, Dnepropetrovsk, Volyn, and Odessa).
In Kharkov and Lviv, there are Centers for the Study of the Holocaust that are sponsored by the Jewish communal and public structures and organizations. Since 2002, research and teaching activities on this topic in Ukraine are coordinated by the Ukrainian Center for the Study of the History of the Holocaust that was set up under the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The Center publishes a research journal on the history of the Holocaust – «Holocaust: Contemporary Research. Studies in Ukraine and the World» and places materials on the problems in the study of the Holocaust in today’s Ukraine on its official website (www.holocaust.kiev.ua).
Since 2000, the Central Ukrainian Fund for the History of the Holocaust “Tkumah” (“Revival”) has been working in Dnepropetrovsk. A lot of efficient projects are carried out there.
Teaching of the history of the Holocaust in Ukraine. On December 29, 2000, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine published an instructive letter “On the Teaching of the Problem of the Holocaust and Formation of the Feeling of Ethnic and National Accord with Students”. The document recommended the teaching of the history of the Holocaust, study courses aimed to promote tolerance among undergraduate students of history and other humanities, including such subjects as «The Holocaust» and «Tolerance» as the part of the social subjects and humanities, to establish the centers for study and teaching of the Holocaust in Ukraine and to organize seminars and conferences on the subject of the Holocaust and tolerance for university students and teachers.
Today, the Holocaust history course is taught in 20 universities of Ukraine, including Kyiv-based International Solomon University and its Kharkov branch. Among non-Jewish universities this course is taught at the history department of the Zaporozhye State University, the Kiev National Dragomanov Pedagogical University, the Kiev Medical University, the Lviv National University “Lviv Polytechnic”, the Kiev Grinchenko Pedagogical University (at teacher training courses), at the Dnepropetrovsk Institute of Education (at teacher training courses) for all groups of teachers throughout the school year. Periodically, lectures on this subject are taught at several universities in Rovno, Vinnitsa, Chernovtsy, Zaporozhye, and other cities.
Since 2003, the Ukrainian Center for the Study of the History of the Holocaust has been involved in work with students, organizing research student schools, seminars for university lecturers and students, student competitions and conferences.
Teaching in secondary schools. Seven years ago, in 1998, the Ministry of Science and Education of Ukraine introduced the subject of the Holocaust into the course of the World history and the History of Ukraine.
The current government-approved curricula on history for secondary schools of Ukraine envisages the study of the subject of the Holocaust as a part of the study of the history of Ukraine and the World history (in the “Second World War” section). According to this document the subject of the Holocaust can be taught in a special lesson and mentioned during the study of other related materials as well; the question on the Holocaust should be put into the list of examination questions for high school graduates; study materials on the history of the Holocaust can be included into textbooks and study manuals on the history of Ukraine and world history; the topic of the Holocaust should be the part of the teachers’ professional skills improvement programs.
The question of the Holocaust is mandatory for the study of history; therefore it is going to be introduced in 100% of schools. Nevertheless, the content and the time allocated for its study are not prescribed, so teachers can determine them on their own.
With the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Research-Methodical Center of the Ministry, teachers widely discuss the question of introduction of a separate study course on the problems of tolerance into the school curricula.
In the middle of the 1990s (1996–1997), Jewish non-governmental educational organizations of Ukraine (the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities (Vaad) of Ukraine, the Center of Jewish Education of Ukraine, with the support of the JDC and others) began to hold all-Ukrainian study-and-methodological seminars on the history of the Holocaust for history teachers of non-Jewish schools of the regional centers and small towns of Ukraine. In 2000, the Center of Jewish Education launched a large project on the “Lessons of the Holocaust”, including methodological seminars for teachers (around 80–100 participants in each seminar) and creative competitions for schoolchildren. Dozens of seminars and five children’s competitions took place up to this point. Since 2002, this work (as well as student and research directions) has been coordinated by the Ukrainian Center for the Study of the History of the Holocaust.
The “Tkumah” Center, jointly with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and regional institutes of post-graduate pedagogical studies organized a system of seminars in every region of Ukraine and joint international events in Belarus, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Russia, and other countries.
Researchers of the “Tkumah” Center developed study programs and films that help towards the spreading of knowledge of the history, traditions of the Jewish people, and similarities of the historical destinies of the nations of Ukraine.
The Holocaust and the problems of tolerance. After the resolutions of the Council of Europe in 1995 and the first Stockholm conference in 2000, many European countries changed the concept of their approach to the Holocaust. They began to study and teach this topic not only as a tragedy of the European Jews but also as an example of the terrible ethnic intolerance that has led to the total genocide of a whole nation for its ethnic origin. They began to see the Holocaust as an example of intolerance that has led to the genocide which is never to repeat itself not only towards the Jewish people but also to other nations. Thus, from a tragic page in the history of the Jewish people, the history of the Holocaust has grown into a tragedy and problem common to all mankind.
This has been the context of many seminars and trainings related to the topic of the Holocaust that have taken place in the past five years, for instance, “Tolerance – Lessons of the Holocaust” or “Study of the Problem of Intolerance on the Example of the History of the Holocaust”.
Project “Lessons of the Holocaust” in non-Jewish schools of Ukraine has being carried out by the Center of Jewish Education of Ukraine since 2000 with the support of the Claims Conference. In 2000–2003, seven study-and-methodological seminars were organized within its framework for schoolteachers of Kiev and region, Kharkov, Sumy, and Nikolayev regions and the Republic of Crimea. Approximately 300 teachers attended these seminars. At the same time, seminars were also organized for undergraduate students of historical departments of the universities of Kiev. Approximately 100 students attended these seminars. What’s more important, is the parallel comparison of the tragedy of the Jewish nation with the tragedies of those nations among which the Jews are dwelling, for example, the Famine in Ukraine, the Armenian tragedy, the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, etc.
In 2001, teachers of the Center of Jewish Education of Ukraine organized the course of lectures on the Jewish history and the history of the Holocaust for students of non-Jewish schools. The lectures were delivered at the Israeli Cultural Center in Kiev. During three years, app. 200 students attended to these lectures.
Approximately 300 secondary school students took part in the annual all-Ukraine competitions of creative and research works on the Holocaust. The winners participated in international youth conferences on the history of the Holocaust.
In the process of preparation of their research works, the participants of these competitions had round-table discussions, conferences, open lessons on the Holocaust, and tours; they look for eyewitnesses of the crimes during the Second World War and the Righteous Gentiles; they interview the witnesses, find the sites of massacres and burials, and erect memorial signs there. Teenagers reflections are expressed in the form of poems, stories, pictures, and slogans.
In June 2002, the International School of Teachers of the History of the Holocaust took place. More than 70 teachers from the CIS countries took part in it. The School was organized by the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, the Center of Jewish Education of Ukraine, the Russian Holocaust Foundation, and the Yad Vashem Institute with the support of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine.
An important path in the development of inter-ethnic dialogue, mutual understanding and experience exchange in the training of tolerance among the youth was the International Pedagogical Conference organized by the “Tkumah” Center in Kiev on February 14–16, 2005, with the support of the “Taskforce”. Teachers from every region of Ukraine as well as Great Britain, Israel, and Lithuania highly appreciated the meaning of the Conference for the further implementation of the ideas of humanism and tolerance in the teaching process.
The “Lessons of the Holocaust for Non-Jewish Schools of Ukraine” was extended into the program of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress “Tolerance – Lessons of the Holocaust”, which was aimed at the promotion of tolerance through the prism of history and the lessons of the Holocaust. Since 2002, study-and-methodological seminars were organized for teachers of non-Jewish schools and university students in Armenia (50 participants), Belarus (50), Georgia (30), Kazakhstan (two seminars: 140), Kyrgyzstan (30), Moldova (50), and Uzbekistan (70). More than 500 people from the above mentioned seven countries were involved in the seminars. Competitions of secondary school students creative and research works on the Holocaust became annual in Belarus and Georgia. More than 200 students have already participated in them. Methodologists from Ukraine provide local teachers the organizational support for the seminars, consult them how to teach about national tragedies in the countries where the seminars are organized.
One of the outstanding examples of teaching tolerance on the example of the Jewish tragedy is the international project «Anne Frank – History Lesson», which has been carried out in Ukraine for the third time. It was initiated and financed by the government of the Netherlands and sponsored by the well-known Museum “House of Anne Frank” in Amsterdam and the Anne Frank Center in Germany. From Ukrainian side the following organizations became partners in this project: the Center of Jewish Education of Ukraine (Kiev), the Association of Teachers of Humanities “Nova Doba” (Lviv), the Ukrainian Center for the Study of the History of the Holocaust (Kiev), the Jewish Studies Institute (Kiev), and the Jewish Fund of Ukraine (Kiev). The project is the part of the traveling exhibition “Diary of Anne Frank” organized in 13 cities of the country, teacher training seminars, training of peer-guides, the competition of secondary school students creative works on the subject of “The Ethnic Minorities in the Modern Ukrainian Society”, school competitions, publication of literature on the Holocaust and tolerance.
More than 400 teachers have already taken part in the project, and more than 400 students have taken part in the competitions.
The “Tkumah” Center has developed the program «Tolerance and Accord: Lessons of the Holocaust and Famine – Memory of History for the Sake of the Future». The objective of the program is to form an atmosphere of ethnic accord and tolerance in the Ukrainian society, to preserve historical memory and realization of the need to strengthen democracy, independence, and unity of Ukraine on its basis.
Implementation of the declared goals and tasks is conducted through the system of interrelated programs and projects. In particular, we should note the successful work of “The School of International Communication”, which includes meetings of leaders and members of national societies, seminars on the history, culture, and traditions of different nations.
On the whole, in today’s Ukraine the topic of the Holocaust is studied (literature publication, research, teaching and memorial work) by the Ukrainian Center for the Study of the History of the Holocaust, the Vaad of Ukraine, the Jewish Studies Institute, the “Tkumah” Center, and other non-governmental organizations. Lately, they’ve received support from the government-run structures and independent charity funds of the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Austria, Germany, Israel, Sweden, and the USA. Due to the support of these organizations, tours and expeditions were organized, as well as youth camps, whose participants visit places in Ukraine related to the Jewish history and culture, as well as to the history of the Holocaust.
Pilot Project – inter-ethnic children camp “Sources of Tolerance”.
Inter-ethnic children camp “Sources of Tolerance’ was organized in 2002 for young representatives of the 17 national communities of Ukraine (Poles, Jews, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Germans, Romanians, Moldovans, Volga Tatars, Armenians, Ukrainians, Crimean, Tatars, Russians, Greeks, Buelorussians, Bulgarians, Azerbaijanians). The camp’s mission is to promote the values of civil society, to overcome prejudice and xenophobia, to develop an active life attitude, to form national self-awareness, to create peer-leaders network.
The Camp is sponsored by the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, the Vaad of Ukraine, the State Committee of Ukraine for Nationalities and Migration, and the Ministry for Family and Youth Affairs of Ukraine, as well as some political blocs and parties (in 2004 – Victor Yuschenko’s bloc “Our Ukraine”).
The main principle of the camp is personal contact, “feeling into”, and an attempt to live though a day through the eyes of a Different Person. Personal acquaintance, personalization, helps to destroy biased opinions, lower the level of indifference, aggressiveness and fear of a Different Person.
Children are not divided into groups depending on their ethnic belonging, that is why children from different nations don’t have to compete with each other and prove which nation is better. Poles, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Russians, and Armenians live one common camp life. Thus, the principle of “whom shall we be friends against?” loses its meaning here. Joint activities, dwelling of children of different nations in one room, and rich friendly fellowship change “friendship against someone” to merely friendship.
Each day the camp plunges into a world of culture, language, symbols, customs and traditions of one nation. Each morning starts with the national anthem or song of a particular nation. During their morning classes children learn about culture and history of this nation, learning words from its mini-dictionary to be able to greet one another on that day. It is important for children to feel that they are not alone in this world, that they are surrounded by many cultures, that they are different from one another but each of them is interesting and unique.
Classes are held in an interactive game form; children discuss specifics of traditions of a nation, comparing their ideas of this nation with real facts. In cafeteria they can taste ethnic dishes, in clubs – learn dances and songs of different nations, as well as traditional ethnic trades and sports. Children of that particular culture feel special on that day, telling the others about their nation’s traditions, games, and holidays.
In the evening, the whole camp is invited either to a Tatar feast or Greek Olympiad, Ukrainian party or Jewish salatron. It includes national games and competitions. Each group makes a gift – a dance, a song, or a play to the children of a birthday nation. At the final international festival children demonstrate those new things that they have learned in the camp.
Projects team: tutors from ethnic minorities of Ukraine and professional psychologists. Special educational and evaluation seminars for the tutors are held on the regular basis.
More than 850 teenagers from Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus participated at the camp’s program.
The concept of the camp and its practical outcome were highly evaluated by public organizations of ethnic minorities, domestic and foreign experts. The camp program was widely covered both in national mass media and the press of the ethnic minorities.
A network of such camps will be created in different regions of Ukraine.
As the logical continuation of the summer camps, the “Club of Tolerance” was opened in Kiev on November 26, 2004. The club unites the efforts of national minorities of Ukraine to combat xenophobia and anti-Semitism and to provide tolerance education for youngsters, to create the peer guide network.
Among the working topics of the club are: “The History of Countries, Nations, and Religions”, “Ethnic Culture and Folk Trades”, “School of Young Counselors for “Sources of Tolerance” Camp”, “Psychology and Ethnic Psychology for Teenagers”, debates, and training sessions.
The club meets on a weekly basis. Teenagers are engaged not only with cognitive methods, but with visual and creative ones as well. Art sections deal with the culture of different nations, studying and comparing the national folk elements and symbols.
Participants of the school for young tutors develop and conduct lessons devoted to the tolerance topics at secondary schools.
Teachers of civics are welcome to get consultations and materials on intercultural tolerance education in our clubs.
The long-term program of the club is to create the network of clubs in Odessa, Lviv, Simferopol, Kharkov, and Mariupol.
Our task is to provide the understanding of the fact that the Holocaust is not a Jewish problem but a terrible example of genocide, of what intolerance can lead to. We aim to promote tolerance and to preserve the variety of this world.
God created all of us to be different by character, temperament, and ethnic background. The fact that God created us as different ones does not mean that some of us are better than the others. In reality God is very wise. God created beautiful diverse world. And our task is to preserve this diversity. To convince our children that every person is equal to them; that none has superiority over them or they have over anybody else.
Perceive others as they are, with their traditions, customs, temperaments, moods, and characters. Perceive the pain of every nation as the pain of the whole humankind. Actually these are the principles of the democratic future. |
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© design - Elena Zaslavska 
© editor - Anna Lenchovska