(Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Krivoi Rog, Donetsk, and Kyiv) Report of a ...

106
In response to a question, Ms Yanover said that the total Lo Tishkach budget for
Ukraine in 2010-2011 (September to September) is $80,000, excluding her salary and
certain special projects. Her office is awaiting news on several grants for which they
have applied.
69. The Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies was established in 2002 as a nongovernment
organization in partnership with the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies
of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. It maintains a small office in a building
of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv. Its staff consists of five local individuals
along with an Austrian volunteer. 95 The writer spoke with Anatoly Podolsky, director of
the Center, during a visit to the organization’s office.
Dr. Podolsky stated that the Center works in two areas,
Holocaust research and Holocaust education. 96 In the area of
research, he continued, the Center organizes several annual
study trips to Poland and one to Yad Vashem in Israel. It
maintains very good contacts with Poles in relevant positions,
he said. The Center publishes a scholarly journal every six
months that reports results of research in Poland, Ukraine,
and other countries. At the present time, Dr. Podolsky stated,
there is great interest in comparing the fates of Jews and
Roma who lived in the Carpathian mountain area during the
Holocaust. 97
Efforts of the Center in education include various conferences for teachers and pupils,
as well as publications suitable for various groups. It encourages research into the
Holocaust by high school students. A three-day competition in the topic is held every
year in Kyiv, and the most noteworthy papers are published in an anthology. This
program is partially financed by grants from the Embassy of the United States, said Dr.
Podolsky.
The Center’s publishing program is diverse, said Dr. Podolsky. It includes student
research, its own research, memoirs of survivors, various official records of the period,
and translations of useful materials published abroad.
Dr. Podolsky stated that the government of Ukraine provides little political, moral,
or financial support for Holocaust studies. The Holocaust is remote to them; they
know that the Holocaust occurred in Europe, but somehow Europe does not include
95 The Austrian volunteer, a young man, serves as an intern in lieu of military service in Austria.
96
Dr. Podolsky earned his Ph.D. at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. The topic of his dissertation was The
Nazi Genocide of Jews in Ukraine (1941-1944).
97 The northernmost location of the Carpathian Mountains is in the border area between Slovakia and
Poland. The Carpathian Mountains extend southward through western Ukraine and eastern Romania.