Український центр вивчення Голокосту

The banality of evil: from Auschwitz to Mariupol

The 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

Information and photo gallery

Announcements

11/23/2025
Scientific and Methodological Seminar for Ukrainian Educators at Yad Vashem [More]
10/28/2025
International Scholarly and Practical Conference “War in Historical and Individual Memory” [More]
10/7/2025
On 7 October at 4 p.m. in Kyiv, at 12B Kozhumyatska Street, there will be the unveiling of a stumbling stone in honour of Klavdiia Vynokurova (Pianykh). [More]
9/19/2025
Call for Applications: Seminar-School “Learning from the Past – Acting for the Future. Teaching about the Holocaust and Human Rights” [More]
9/13/2025
The Holocaust as a Starting Point: Polish–Ukrainian Dialogue [More]

12/3/2025
Blasphemy, Indifference, and Russian Propaganda: The Story of the Failed Creation of the Babyn Yar Museum

The Museum of the History of Kyiv has published a study by well-known Ukrainian historian Vitalii Nakhamanovych on the history of attempts to create a museum in Babyn Yar, the struggle for historical memory of this crime and tragedy in the history of Ukraine during World War II, a struggle that continues to this day.

[More]
11/28/2025
Claims Conference European Workshop for Shoah Research, Education and Documentation Organizations

On 17–20 November 2025, an international seminar for teachers and researchers of World War II and Holocaust history was held in Amsterdam at the National Holocaust Museum.
Scientists and educators from 44 European countries and representatives of organisations from the United States took part. The event was organised by the international organisation Claims Conference (Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany).
[More]
11/14/2025
Meeting on the Development of Civic Education in Ukraine

On 2 November 2025, a strategic meeting on challenges and prospects in the field of civic education was held, organised by our partners, the NGO Open University of Maidan.
[More]
11/10/2025
Learning from the Past, Acting for the Future - Teaching about the Holocaust and Human Rights

On 29–31 October 2025, the seminar-school Learning from the Past – Acting for the Future on the History of the Holocaust and Human Rights was held in Kyiv.
[More]
11/5/2025
Unveiling of the Stumbling Stone in honour of Mariia Rozhnovska

On 24 October 2025, as part of the project One Stone - One Life. 80 Stumbling Stones for Kyiv, the final Stumbling Stone of the year was installed in Kyiv’s Ivan Kramsky Square in honour of Mariia Rozhnovska, Righteous Among the Nations.
[More]

The banality of evil: from Auschwitz to Mariupol

Announcements

Latest News

Blasphemy, Indifference, and Russian Propaganda: The Story of the Failed Creation of the Babyn Yar Museum

Claims Conference European Workshop for Shoah Research, Education and Documentation Organizations

Meeting on the Development of Civic Education in Ukraine

Learning from the Past, Acting for the Future - Teaching about the Holocaust and Human Rights

Unveiling of the Stumbling Stone in honour of Mariia Rozhnovska