On December 16, 2025, in Kyiv, at the Institute of World History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, an International Scientific Conference “Peculiarities of the Formation of Holocaust Scientific Discourse in European Countries“ took place. The forum brought together historians, memory researchers, representatives of the academic community, and international organizations working to preserve the historical truth about the Catastrophe of European Jewry.
The conference became part of a broader process of rethinking the role of the Holocaust in modern European and world historical science — especially against the backdrop of new political challenges, attempts to revise history, and growing interest in national models of historical memory.
How the scientific conversation about the Holocaust is changing in Europe and the world
One of the central topics of discussion was the theoretical and methodological foundations of Holocaust research in the 21st century. Participants analyzed how the modern scientific and socio-political discourse of memory is formed in Western Europe, North America, Israel, and Eastern Europe.
Special attention was paid to the differences in research approaches. While Western schools of historical science have traditionally focused on the institutional mechanisms of Nazi extermination policies, Eastern European studies increasingly raise questions of local experience, regional memory, and the consequences of totalitarian regimes for post-war society.
Sources of memory and the role of international justice
During the plenary session, key sources for studying the Holocaust were discussed — archival documents, oral testimonies of survivors, court materials, and international research conducted in Ukraine, the USA, Poland, France, Switzerland, and the UK.
A separate block of discussions was devoted to the impact of international justice on preserving the memory of the victims of Nazi terror. Experts emphasized that the legal assessment of 20th-century crimes remains an important tool against historical denial and political manipulation of the past.
It is precisely such scientific platforms that form a sustainable space for historical dialogue, which is regularly written about by NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency, drawing attention to the connection between Ukrainian, European, and Israeli experiences in preserving the memory of the Holocaust.
Babi Yar as a symbol of the struggle for historical truth
One of the notable presentations at the conference was the report by Vladislav Grinevich, regional manager of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE) in Ukraine and a graduate student at the Department of World History at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University.
His research was dedicated to resisting the Soviet policy of silencing the tragedy of Babi Yar — one of the key symbols of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.
The report was based on a historiographical analysis of the collective monograph “Babi Yar: History and Memory”, prepared by an international group of researchers with the support of UJE. Work on the book began back in 2015 as part of the preparation for the 75th anniversary of the Babi Yar tragedy, held in Kyiv in September 2016.
The value of the publication lies not only in the international composition of the authors — scientists from Ukraine, Canada, the Netherlands, the USA, Israel, and France. The main result was an attempt to form a specifically Ukrainian view of the history of Babi Yar as part of the pan-European tragedy of the 20th century.
The study emphasizes an important historical thesis: responsibility for the tragedy was considered in the context of the actions of two totalitarian systems — the Nazi and Stalinist regimes. Although Nazi Germany was the immediate organizer of the Holocaust, the political processes that led to the war accelerated the catastrophe of European Jewry.
The voice of a witness: the speech of Boris Zabarko
A special place in the program was occupied by the speech of Boris Zabarko — a well-known Ukrainian historian, Holocaust researcher, and former ghetto prisoner, whose personal biography is directly connected with the tragic events of World War II.
For decades, Zabarko has been collecting testimonies of survivors — former ghetto and Nazi concentration camp prisoners, war children, and witnesses of the destruction of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. His works have become an important part of international Holocaust research, as they bring back into historical science the voices of people long excluded from the official Soviet historical narrative.
The historian’s speech combined academic analysis and personal experience of the tragedy. For conference participants, it was a reminder that the study of the Holocaust goes far beyond a scientific discipline and remains a moral obligation of modern society.
International cooperation and the future of memory research
The conference in Kyiv demonstrated the growing integration of Ukrainian Holocaust studies into the global scientific context. Participants emphasized the need for further international cooperation, exchange of archives, joint publications, and educational programs.
A symbolic moment of the event was the presentation by Vladislav Grinevich of books published with the support of UJE to Boris Zabarko — a distinguished figure in science and technology of Ukraine, former prisoner of the Sharhorod ghetto, and long-time chairman of the All-Ukrainian Association of Jews — former prisoners of ghettos and Nazi concentration camps.
Such scientific meetings confirm: the memory of the Holocaust remains not only a part of the past but also an important element of modern European identity. The study of the tragedy, preservation of testimonies, and open academic dialogue become key conditions for preventing the repetition of crimes by totalitarian regimes in the future.