Galyna Fesenko

Fellows from Ukraine (12/2023-03/2024)

Holocaust Memory in Ukraine: Discourses of the Urban Memorial Landscapes

The project focuses on examining the key memorial transformations that took place on the sites of the Holocaust in Ukrainian cities from the end of the Nazi occupation to the present, as well as to analyse the extent to which these territories have become places of Holocaust memory. The project aims to describe the mechanisms of embedding this memory into the symbolic space cities (Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa). These cities were chosen for the study because they are the most sensitive to Holocaust memorial culture and public Holocaust museums function here. This is remarkable, since there is still no national Holocaust Museum in Ukraine. The project justifies the need to apply cultural analysis to each place of memory.

Galyna Fesenko, PD, Dr.Sc., Professor at the Department of History and Cultural Science at O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv (Ukraine). A specialist in cultural urbanism, memory politics, gender studies, she has published extensively on these topics with a comparative focus on Ukraine and East-Central Europe. In recent years her research interests include genocide, searching for relevant approaches to the Holocaust memorial landscape (at the Institute of Culture Studies and Theatre History of the Austrian Academy of Sciences).

Roman Shliakhtych

Fellows from Ukraine (03/2024-05/2024)

Involvement of Local Police in the Holocaust on the Territory of the Southeast of Ukraine (On the Example of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson Regions)

Research of the participation of local policemen in the Holocaust has been neglected by Ukrainian historians for a long time. It was assumed that only the Nazis committed crimes in the occupied territories. These crimes were indeed initiated by the Nazis, but their scale would have been much smaller without the participation of local perpetrators. This project involves researching the participation of local policemen in the Holocaust. The project methodology is a history from below. It is planned to show the activities of the local auxiliary police through the eyes of the police, as well as of eyewitnesses and people who managed to escape. Such an approach will reveal behavior patterns of criminals, their victims, and outside observers. It will also make it possible to understand the motives of criminals, as well as to reconstruct the crimes themselves. It is also planned to involve the methods of social psychology for a more complete reconstruction of the functioning of the collective of local police officers and the relations within such a collective.

Roman Shliakhtych was born in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. In 2006 he finished his MA as Teacher of History and Law at the Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University. In 2011 he received his Candidate degree in History (equivalent to a Ph.D) at the National University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", Ukraine. Since 2021 he is a docent at the Department of Social-Humanitarian Science at the State University of Economy and Technology, Kryvyi Rih. Shliakhtych is the author of two monographs and published more than 40 studies in professional publications. Since 2014, he has been researching the participation of local policemen in the Holocaust on the territory of the Reichskommissariat "Ukraine". During this time, he was a fellow at leading Holocaust research centers such as Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yahad-In Unum, etc. Since 2023 he is a doctoral student of the Dnipro National University named after O. Honchara

Andrij Kudrjatschenko

Fellows from Ukraine (10/2022-12/2022)

Holocaust: ukrainischer Diskurs, europäischer Kontext

Die wichtigsten und moralisch einflussreichsten Repräsentant:innen des Holocaustgedenken auf Ebene der Nationalstaaten waren anfangs Deutschland, Israel und die USA. Doch der Zivilisationsbruch war und ist für alle Demokratien Europas von hoher Relevanz. Der Holocaust hat in der ukrainischen Wissenschaft einen anderen Stellenwert als in Westeuropa. Schließlich stellt der Holocaust für den Westen den Eckpfeiler der Erinnerung an den Zweiten Weltkrieg dar und gilt als ausdrucksstärkstes Symbol für die Verbrechen des Nationalsozialismus sowie zentrales historisches Ereignis des 20. Jahrhunderts, das zu einer tiefgreifenden Neubetrachtung der europäischen Geschichte seit der Aufklärung geführt hat.
Auch für die Betrachtung der ukrainischen Geschichte spielt der Holocaust eine wichtige und aktuelle Rolle. Gleichzeitig sind es ukrainische Realitäten, die oftmals die Betrachtung dieses Themas verkomplizieren. Ziel des vorliegenden Projekts ist es, die ukrainischen Spezifika dieser Betrachtungsweise im Vergleich mit der westeuropäischen Darstellung herauszuarbeiten.

Andrij Kudrjatschenko, Professor für Zeitgeschichte, Direktor des Instituts für Weltgeschichte der Nationalen Akademie der Wissenschaften der Ukraine. Diplomat, Gesandter der Botschaft der Ukraine in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1998-2000 in Bonn und Berlin), Korrespondierendes Mitglied der Nationalen Akademie der Wissenschaften der Ukraine (seit 2018). Vorsitzender der Fachzeitschriftsredaktion Probleme der Weltgeschichte, Mitglied mehrerer Redaktionen von Zeitschriften in der Ukraine und im Ausland. DAAD Stipendiat Göttinger Arbeitskreis, Stadtbibliothek Berlin (November – Dezember 2008).
Stipendiat des United States Holocaust Memorial Museums (Juli 2020, Juli 2021 Washington, DC). Stipendiat des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte (Oktober-November 2021). Seine Forschungsfelder sind Holocaust, Hungersnot in der Ukraine, ukrainisch-deutsche Beziehungen Mitte des 20. bis Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts, das historische Gedächtnis der Ukrainer:innen. Seine aktuellen Forschungen konzentrieren sich auf ukrainischen Diskurs und europäischen Kontext des Holocaust.