On January 20-22, 2017 Kyiv hosted all-Ukrainian Scholarly and Practical Seminar for history teachers Historical Narrative and the Methods of Oral History in Teaching World War II and the Holocaust History, organized by “Tkuma” Institute and the Holocaust Museum under support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

The seminar was opened by Dr. Joel Rappel, director of Elie Wiesel Archive at Boston University, curator of the exhibition “Elie Wiesel: from Sighet to New York via France and Israel” (USA) and Prof. Dan Laor, head of the Center for Jewish Heritage (Israel). The program of the seminar included presentation of new editions released by “Tkuma” Institute on the Holocaust studies conducted by Denys Shatalov, deputy head for research at “Tkuma” Institute and the Holocaust Museum. Dr. Igor Shchupak, “Tkuma” Institute and the Holocaust Museum director delivered the lecture dedicated to the history of the Holocaust in the context of World War II and “Great Patriotic War”.

During the seminar teachers from different regions of Ukraine had an opportunity to learn about different aspects of history and methodology of teaching World War II and the Holocaust history via reports of scholars, educators and history teachers: Dr. Faina Vynokurova (Vinnytsia), Olena Voitsenko (Lviv region), Mykola Zerkal (Mykolaiv), Oleksandr Kononchuk (Rivne), Tetiana Kosenko (Luhansk region), Prof. Tetiana Ladychenko (Kyiv), Tetiana Lanevska (Kharkiv region), Liudmyla Riznyk (Cherkasy region), Oleh Rudyi (Khmelnytskyi), Iryna Selivalova-Zerkal (Mykolaiv), Valerii Snehiriov (Luhansk region), Liudmyla Tashkevych (Kherson region), Natalia Tymoshenko (Kropyvnytskyi), Tetiana Chernenko (Chernihiv region). Participants of the seminar also reviewed documentary by Israeli director Boris Maftsir “We Allow You to Die”, which caused a lively discussion among educators.

The seminar teachers met volunteers from Italy and Germany and discussed with them experience of teaching the Holocaust history in their countries.