International Partnership Forum at Yad Vashem - the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, March 13-15, 2023
The Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies is part of a large and friendly community of state and public organizations that implement Yad Vashem approaches in research, teaching, and methodological work. The 2023 Yad Vashem Partner Forum once again proved the importance of international cooperation and support, bringing together representatives of 55 countries. In the conditions of russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, the participants of the Forum expressed their sincere support for the UCHS in the fight against discrimination and xenophobia, caused by the war crimes and violation of human rights by the russian occupiers.
It was important for us to understand that we are not alone, that there is a large community of people nearby who understand that the history of the Holocaust and the events of the Second World War are repeating themselves in the XXI century in the center of Europe. Also, a large number of participants (Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, Great Britain and others) cooperate with forced migrants from Ukraine, noting the need for protection, support and struggle.
The Forum discussions were focused on the basic challenges in teaching the history of the Holocaust, exchange of experiences, best practices (digital, in particular), training in the field of human rights, combating discrimination, xenophobia and anti-Semitism; discussion of new strategies and plans for further development of the network.
For example, Yad Vashem projects, which are being implemented now and are available for participation are the following:
• Ready2Print Exhibition (Portugal and Spain);
• Memorial Projects with Jewish Communities (Italy);
• Graduates Network Seminars (Czech Republic, Slovakia);
• Earl Bales Memorial Project (Canada);
• Partner Schools (German-speaking countries);
• Reading Together (Germany);
• Easy Language (Czech Republic);
• Heroes Project (USA);
• Young Leadership Seminar (Israel);
• Chinese and Japanese Universities Project (Hong Kong, China, Japan);
• Bar-Ilan University - Yad Vashem Cooperation; M.A & PhD International Program (Israel).
More details you can find on Yad Vashem website.
The Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies presented its new publications at the Forum, in particular, the methodical guide "How to teach about the Holocaust after February 24, 2022", created by a working group of teachers and presented on our website. The relevance of the presented work of the UCHS is confirmed by a quote from a meeting with the third generation of people who survived the Holocaust: "You are not born as a human being, but you have learned to live as a human being".
Nadia Pavlyk,
the representative of the UCHS at the Forum
