Holocaust

The Holocaust as a Starting Point, Poland-Ukraine dialogue

What Is “The Holocaust as a Starting Point”?

Developed by the Mémorial de la Shoah (Paris) and its partners since 2015, The Holocaust as a Starting Point is an international program offering regional and transnational training for educators. Each year, around 500 teachers enhance their knowledge of Holocaust education and strengthen their pedagogical tools to address antisemitism and discrimination.

The program responds to a shared European reality: many current divisions stem from World War II and the Holocaust. Using this history as a foundation, the trainings explore complex contemporary issues - such as conflicting memories and politicized narratives - through evidence-based approaches.

Backed by a network of 30 European partners, the initiative will host over a dozen training sessions in 2025.

From October 21st to 23rd, the Hotel Forum Lublin hosted the first edition of the Holocaust as a Starting Point dialogue between Poland and Ukraine. Co- organized by the Centre for Education Development (Poland), the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies (Ukraine), and the Memorial de la Shoah (France), this training gathered 38 educators from the two countries.

Holocaust education. The lecturers focused on giving the trainees key elements to better understand the Holocaust and its development in Europe, and more specifically in Poland and in Ukraine. A whole session was dedicated to the interethnic Violence in Volhynia and Galicia.

On the second day, the whole group attended a guided tour of Lublin’s Ghetto. This visit allowed the group to understand the story of the Lublin Ghetto, which was mostly destroyed on purpose during World War II, and the life of Jews in Lublin through the centuries.

The Ukrainian delegation included scholars Oksana Sushchuk, Tetiana Borodina, and Nadiia Honcharenko, who delivered lectures based on their research into the Holocaust and interethnic violence during World War II.

You can find more details and personal reflections in the Ukrainian-language news piece linked below 

https://holocaust.kyiv.ua/News/details/gen_toch_vidl_2025

The organization of this training would not have been possible without the financial support of the Claim’s Conference.

[Seminar photo gallery]

[Photo gallery of the excursion during the seminar]