Conference: Contested Memories of the Difficult Past

The German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), with other partners, is organising the conference “Contested Memories of the Difficult Past. Eastern Europe and Its History of the 20th Century” in Kyiv. This conference marks the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Jar massacre, where on 29 and 30 September 1941, SS and SD units, supported by local militia, massacred 33,771 Jews from Kyiv. In the following months more than 100,000 people were murdered there, including Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, communists and Ukrainian activists.

The conference addresses questions related to victimisation and responsibility, how art and culture are dealing with competing historical narratives, and the influence of the diaspora on practices of remembrance in post-socialist countries. It will also discuss how discourses of remembrance and political decisions influence each other at the local and international level, and how transnational remembrance and genocide research can contribute to a critical view of the past in Eastern Europe.The conference also aims to develop adequate strategies for making younger generations more aware of this topic.

For more information, check the conference page.