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The banality of evil: from Auschwitz to Mariupol

insidethegatesThe YouTube channel "10 Questions to a Historian" featured an interview about the history of the Auschwitz death camp, which has become an undisputed symbol of Nazi crimes in World War II. This is the story of how some people (including educated and seemingly mentally healthy people) killed other people on a scale and systematic basis that had never been seen before. The "banality of evil" was that the virtue of loyalty turned bureaucrats into committed genocide performers.

Today, the Russian-Ukrainian war is the most urgent and painful problem for our country. The entire civilised world is paying attention to the events in Ukraine. Today, Russia is destroying the post-World War II system of international relations, undermining international peace and security by waging the largest continental war in Europe since World War II against a sovereign state. Now, just as eighty years ago, Ukraine is fighting against totalitarianism; fighting for the future - its own, and the future of Europe and the entire civilised world.

With the unfolding of russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, everyone felt that the memory of the crimes and experiences of the Second World War was being reflected in current events. The students already knew the interpretation of the words "genocide", "filtration camp", "Gauleiter", "ghetto" from their history classes, when they studied the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century. But the worst thing is that they have all heard these words in the context of the present, and they have encountered them in the twenty-first century.

Analysing the feedback, we can state that the meeting with Anatolii Podolskyi was definitely not without effect, as everyone received new historical knowledge and enjoyed the emotional presentation of the material.

Yuliia Rudenko, PhD, Associate Professor

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  • Research on the Jewish Historical and Cultural Heritage of Ukraine

    On 1 October 2025, [the Judaica Department of the Manuscript Institute] at the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine held a seminar entitled Research into the Jewish Historical and Cultural Heritage of Ukraine (on the 10th anniversary of the Ukrainian Association of Judaica).

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  • Babyn Yar: Thousands of Memory Ravines Across Ukraine

    On 9 September 2025, the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience held a teleconference between Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Zakarpattia, dedicated not only to the tragedy of Babyn Yar, but also to tens of thousands of sites of mass crimes throughout Ukraine.

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  • Seminar ‘How to Talk About the Holocaust with Schoolchildren’

    On 26-28 September 2025, a methodological seminar entitled How to Talk About the Holocaust with Schoolchildren was held in Kyiv. Educators from nine regions of Ukraine gathered to learn, exchange experiences and seek answers to difficult questions. The seminar participants had already successfully completed the online course How to Talk About the Holocaust with Schoolchildren, which began on 10 June 2025, and now had the opportunity to continue their training in the format of direct professional communication.

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  • Unveiling of the Stumbling Stone in honour of Petro Chetverykov

    📅 23 September at 16:00

    📍 25a Beresteyskyi Avenue (near the T. H. Shevchenko Central Library for Children)

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  • A Ukrainian Jewish Century

    The exhibition A Ukrainian-Jewish Century, organised by the educational organisation Centropa and previously shown in numerous cities across Ukraine, opened in early September at the Menachem Begin Heritage Centre in Jerusalem, Israel.

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