News

December 11, 2018 Berdiansk Regional Museum hosted presentation of the book “Saved Memory. Berdiansk Jews” (author of the idea and project coordinator – Honored Worker of Culture of Ukraine Liudmyla Nozdrina). The collection was published under the support of “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocuats Studies and Yad Vashem joint project. The event was joined by “Tkuma” Institute research associate Valentyn Rybalka.

The edition “Saved Memory. Berdiansk Jews” acquaints readers with pages of the history of Berdiansk Jews from the 19^th c. to the present. The first section of the publication presents the history of the Berdiansk Jewish Cemetery. The second part of the book contains archival documents, photographs from the funds of the Holocaust Museum in Berdiansk, memoirs of members of the Berdiansk Jewish community about Holocaust events in the city. The third section of the collection is devoted to the personalities of the world-famous Jews from Berdiansk – the people of culture, science and art – and preservation of memory about them.

The presentation was joined by the head of the sector of the internal affairs and public relations department of the city executive committee І. Shynkarenko; specialist of the Department of Culture of the city executive committee L. Buchna; representatives of the Berdiansk Jewish community headed by О. Drozdov; Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper “Pivdenna Zorya” V. Mykhailychenko, the head of the city organization of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine Yu. Tuslenko, the head of the city organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine S. Semendiaiev; local historian Ye. Denysov; representatives of the city library system; employees of the Berdiansk Local History Museum, general public of the city.

The author of the publication Liudmyla Nozdrina opened the event and described in detail the history and progress of the project implementation. She paid special attention to the events of the Holocaust in Berdiansk, which were silenced in the Soviet times.

Valentyn Rybalka stressed the sociopolitical and scholarly relevance of this publication, because even today the general public knows very little about prominent Berdiansk Jews: artists І. Brodskyi and Ya. Hast, musician and composer J. Engel, scholars V. Havkin and Ye. Burkser. The researcher noted the active publishing activity of the Berdiansk Local History Museum and stated that this book would become another trademark of Berdiansk.