Український центр вивчення Голокосту

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Bjorn Westlie. My Father’s War

(Translated from Norwegian by D. Nikandrov, M. Schchyrba; published by UCHS)

During the Second World War a young Norwegian Petter Westlie was a Nazi supporter and a Waffen-SS volunteer to fight for Gemany on the Eastern Front. When his son Bjorn grew up to realize his father’s actions, he broke off with him. It was only in many years that Brojn felt that his father wanted to tell his son about this past. Finally, Petter Westlie recorded the story on tape for him.

The story is about an unusual relationship between a man and his father, and also about the experience young Norwegians gained in military service after Nazi attack on the Soviet Union. The author researched all available historical sources to compare his father’s story with facts. He also made a trip in his father’s traces to the sites in Ukraine where the soldiers of invading military squads (including Petter Westlie) committed crimes against hundreds of thousands of civilians, foremost the Jews of Ukraine.

[See the book (in Ukrainian)]

Announcements

4/21/2025
International scientific conference ‘EAST EUROPEAN JEWRY: HISTORY, CULTURE, TRADITIONS’ [More]
4/10/2025
Submissions to the XXV Medvinsky All-Ukrainian Competition ‘History and Lessons of the Holocaust’ are being accepted. The deadline for submitting works: 10 April 2025. [More]
3/27/2025
International Scientific and Practical Conference ‘The Crisis of Modern Geopolitics: The World Between Democracy and Authoritarianism’, Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav, 27-28 March 2025. [More]
3/1/2025
International conference Sex, Gender, and the Liberation of the Jews in Eastern and Central Europe (1860-1945) 24-25 June 2025, Uzhhorod [More]
2/10/2025
I.B. Medvynsky All-Ukrainian Competition of Student Research and Art Works “History and Lessons of the Holocaust” [More]

3/27/2025
XIV ALL-UKRAINIAN DRAGOMANOV READINGS

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3/25/2025
NGO “Mnemonic” presented an audio film about the Holocaust in Rivne

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[More]
3/21/2025
Interview with German national daily newspaper “Die Welt”

At the end of February 2025, the head of the UCHS, Anatolii Podolskyi, gave a lengthy interview to the well-known European, German newspaper Die Welt. The interview was conducted by Austrian journalist Stefan Schocher.
[More]
3/3/2025
“One Stone, One Life: 80 Stumbling Stones for Kyiv”. The Project Continues

The project One Stone, One Life: 80 Stumbling Stones for Kyiv was launched in 2021 and was dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy. The project honours the memory of people whose fate was connected to Babyn Yar, i.e. those who were killed or persecuted by the Nazi regime from 1941 to 1943.
[More]
2/26/2025
Challenges in Holocaust Studies during the Russian War Against Ukraine. Open Lecture at Vinnytsia Pedagogical University

The NotBox educational and research hub of Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University recently hosted a guest lecture for students of the Faculty of History and International Relations. The lecture, titled Challenges in Holocaust Studies during the Russian War Against Ukraine, was led by the head of the Ukrainian Centre for Holocaust Studies Anatolii Podolskyi.
[More]

Bjorn Westlie. My Father’s War

Announcements

Latest News

XIV ALL-UKRAINIAN DRAGOMANOV READINGS

NGO “Mnemonic” presented an audio film about the Holocaust in Rivne

Interview with German national daily newspaper “Die Welt”

“One Stone, One Life: 80 Stumbling Stones for Kyiv”. The Project Continues

Challenges in Holocaust Studies during the Russian War Against Ukraine. Open Lecture at Vinnytsia Pedagogical University