On 26 January, on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Donetsk Regional Local History Museum held an educational discussion entitled ‘The Holocaust in World and Ukrainian Literature’. The aim of the event was to outline the role of fiction in understanding the tragedy of the 20th century and shaping historical memory, as well as to develop the critical thinking of the participants in the discussion and involve them in interpreting traumatic historical experiences through artistic images in the context of empathy.
The discussion became a platform for exchanging views on the place and role of fiction in preserving historical truth and in understanding the scale of the tragedy of the Jewish people. Its participants, senior pupils of the school ‘Leader’ of the Kramatorsk City Council and the Bilbasivsky school I-III degrees of the Sloviansk City Council, came to a consolidated understanding that the greatest evil on earth is any any activity aimed at the brutal extermination of a particular people, that the most terrible evidence is that of children about the crimes of misanthropic regimes, and that the author's artistic fiction about the events of the Holocaust does not distort memory but, on the contrary, contributes to a deeper understanding of the tragedy.
The discussion concluded with the idea that even in the most terrible conditions, there is room for values that saved lives then and continue to save lives in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The event once again demonstrated that the museum is an important space for the exchange of personal beliefs in the context of shaping historical memory.
The Donetsk Regional Museum of Local History expresses its gratitude to the participants of the discussion for their fruitful cooperation.