26 September 2016
Yad Vashem will be marking 75 years since the wartime massacre of 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar with a series of events and projects.
On Wednesday, 28 September 2016 between 09:00 – 13:00 The Moshe Mirilashvili Center for Research on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union will host a seminar at Yad Vashem, entitled "Killing Sites in the Occupied Territories of the Former USSR: History and Commemoration." Mirilashvili Center Director Dr. Arkadi Zeltser will address for the first time how the local Jewish population commemorated the Jewish victims of various murder sites, specifically during the Soviet regime. Additionally, Yad Vashem Chief Historian Prof. Dina Porat will present a lecture characterizing the first stage of the implementation of the "Final Solution" in the occupied Soviet territories, and the earth-shattering discovery of the mass murder of Jews at killing sites near their places of residence. Press interested in attending this event should register with the International Press Section.
Cutting-Edge Online Educational Tool tells the Story of the Holocaust of the Jews of Kiev Yad
Vashem is continuously developing new online tools and methods to educate the public about unique stories from the Holocaust, such as those of Jews murdered in the German-occupied territories of the Soviet Union. With the support of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies recently launched the "Babi Yar Learning Environment," an online multimedia educational tool used to teach about the Holocaust of the Jews of Kiev and surrounding areas. The Learning Environment presents lesson plans and video testimonies, and is based on the Yad Vashem online research project Untold Stories, making it available to a much wider audience. By using Yad Vashem's unique pedagogical approach, teachers are now able to present this difficult topic to students of different age ranges and backgrounds in the classroom. The program provides educators with rich historical information and an overview of the larger story of the Jews of Ukraine, and describes the lives the Jews lead in the area before the majority of them were murdered during the Holocaust at Babi Yar by the Nazis and their collaborators.
About The Moshe Mirilashvili Center for Research on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union
In May 2016, Yad Vashem's International Institute for Holocaust Research opened The Moshe Mirilashvili Center for Research on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union as the leading global academic center promoting discourse on the Nazi-led persecution and slaughter of Jews in Soviet territories during WWII. Aimed at strengthening ties with relevant researchers and organizations, encouraging international scholarly cooperation and advancing pioneering research in all related areas, the Mirilashvili Center is poised to support new research projects, publications and testimonies, and organize workshops, seminars and conferences for senior and young scholars alike.
