Webinar report "Researching the Holocaust in a Time of War"

The Russian war against Ukraine raises fundamental questions about the history of the twentieth century. These questions are in the focus of the work of the Mykola Haievoi Center. The webinar addressed questions of Holocaust research in Ukraine and in a broader European context before the background of the current war.

MHC Co-director prof.Yaroslav Hrytsak gave an introduction into the development of knowledge and research about the Holocaust in Ukraine and its role in the research programme of the Mykola Haievoi Center. He emphasized that during Soviet times in Ukraine in particular the Holocaust had been a supressed topic. “I will speak of myself as an example”, said professor Hrytsak. “I graduated in history in 1982, but I had no idea about the Holocaust nor about its dimensions. I just knew that the Nazis had killed Jews.” Hrytsak underlined that common research in this field is promising, “with Ukraine as a significant region where the killing took place, and Germany’s present Holocaust research with one of the leading, maybe the best team of researchers in the world.” Within the Ukrainian part of the MHC, 8 out of 14 scholars are doing research on Holocaust-related topics.

Prof. Martin Schulze Wessel, co-director of the Mykola Haievoi Center, discussed in his introduction the general research programme of the Center and emphasized the aim of strengthening Ukrainian experiences and perspectives in general discussions of European history in the twentieth century. These included not only experiences with mass murder and violence during German occupation, but also under Soviet rule, most importantly during the Holodomor in 1932-33.

Afterwards, Dr. Yuri Radchenko, researcher at Mykola Haievoi Center in Lviv, presented his recent book (Auxiliary Police, Local Administration, the SD and the Shoah in the Ukrainian-Russian-Belarusian Borderlands (1941-1943), Kyiv, Feniks publishers, 2024) that addressed an especially controversial topic of local collaboration in the mass murder of Jews. Yuri Radchenko presented his findings on the composition, activities and motivations of members of local police and administration in Kharkiv, Donetsk and other regions of eastern Ukraine. Kai Struve explained that the post-Soviet societies faced a legacy of “many falsifications of history, not only concerning Soviet crimes, but even many aspects of the German occupation during World War II. The image of Ukrainians as henchmen of the German Nazis was an important element of Soviet propaganda. This, eventually, caused that many people would reject any discussion of the topic at all.” After Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in 2000, state propaganda used this element again in order to support Russia’s imperial ambitions. “The climax of this came with the aggression against Ukraine since 2022 and the claim that ‘Nazis’ were ruling in Kyiv.” He emphasized that not least before this background Yuri Radchenko’s findings about diverse motivations, background, and actions of local police and administrations are important.

Panelist Prof. Andrea Löw, head of the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, gave an assessment of research in recent years and situated Yuri Radchenko’s book in this field. “Holocaust studies have become very much international and have increasingly focussed on the social dynamics among local populations and local authorities under German occupation. Also, research into, so to speak, the social history of occupied Ukraine is advancing.” Professor Löw added that, in the context of the occupiers’ terror, “the German forces found helpers and facilitators throughout Europe. These discussions have recently lead to the question whether the Holocaust wasn’t, ultimately, a European project. Let me stress as a German historian that this perspective is not aimed at minimizing the German role in the Holocaust.”

Radchenko and Löw discussed a range of motives for collaboration with the Nazis, spanning from the wide-spread “simple motive of survival” (Löw) to improving one’s personal situation; in the words of Radchenko, “the absolute majority of local policemen who killed Jews did it not for political reasons, but in order to get a good position, clothing and food, vodka etc.” Löw suggested to look also at Jewish-Gentile (non-Jewish) relations before the war, antisemitism, the “slogan of Judeo-Bolshevism” and other elements. “Keep in mind that the behaviour during occupation could change within one person, from betraying a Jew to helping a Jew. The category of bystanders doesn’t really help us, it is far to static.”

Dr. Kai Struve summarized: “The webinar demonstrated that, precisely against the backdrop of Russia's current war against Ukraine and its propagandistic exploitation of the history of the World War II, it is important to continue historical research into the controversial issues of this period. Only sound historical knowledge can counteract propagandistic exploitation.” MHC Co-director Martin Schulze Wessel addressed the question how “engaged” research can be: “Yes, we are doing engaged research, and at the same time we are pursuing a critical approach in research. There is no contradiction between the two.”

The webinar which took place July 22nd, 2025, was overshadowed by the fact that a young Ukrainian MHC historian, now a soldier, returned injured from the frontlines these days. The MHC is looking forward to deepen these topics during its annual public conference, featuring "The Politics of Nazi Accusations: The Soviet Union and anti-Soviet Nationalisms in the Cold War". The English-language conference will be held in Lviv, Western Ukraine, October 6-7, 2025.