- January 13, 2026
- 12:26 pm
- Ukraine
The war, which has lasted longer than World War II, has changed not only everyday life in Ukraine but also the very optics of memory. The history of the Holocaust, questions of responsibility, collaboration, and the commemoration of tragedy today exist in a space of constant pressure — military, political, and informational. Historian Yuri (Amir) Radchenko, a research associate at the National Historical and Memorial Reserve “Babyn Yar,” spoke about this in a large interview for Newsru.co.il (January 13, 2026).
According to him, the current frontier of the war is felt differently depending on where you live and what you do. But the general state of the country is fatigue, the displacement of millions of people, and uncertainty about the future. At the same time, cultural and scientific work has not stopped. On the contrary, it has become a way of resistance and a way to maintain normalcy.
War and Memory of the Holocaust
The full-scale war directly affects how society talks about the Shoah. The Russian regime actively uses the history of World War II and the Holocaust as a tool — extracting fragments, substituting contexts, and attaching labels. This is not an attempt to comprehend the past but a way to legitimize aggression against Ukraine.
Radchenko emphasizes: even in the 2000s, Ukraine had complex but necessary discussions about collaboration and the responsibility of different groups. Today, such conversations are more difficult — a society under attack inevitably militarizes and more often seeks support in myths rather than critical analysis. This is a natural, albeit painful, process.
Babyn Yar: From Oblivion to Comprehension
One of the key problems remains the lack of a well-thought-out state memory policy for many years. After 1991, Babyn Yar existed as a space of tragedy without comprehensive understanding — with scattered monuments and contradictory decisions.
The situation began to change in recent years. According to Radchenko, the memorial operates to the maximum extent possible even in wartime conditions. Exhibitions, lectures, and film screenings are held. Among important projects are exhibitions on Nazi propaganda, the Holocaust in Crimea, and the destruction of Bakhmut, where the destruction of the Jewish community in 1941–1942 is compared with the erasure of the city by the Russian army in 2023.
Here, a fundamentally important point is that it is not about comparing sufferings or attempting to “equalize” tragedies. It is about the erasure of memory as such — the destruction of cities, archives, cemeteries, symbols.
Research, Archives, and Unfinished Work
Scientific work in the reserve largely relies on individuals. Radchenko is engaged in cataloging archives, oral interviews, video materials — including the legacy of Ilya Levitas, one of the pioneers of preserving the memory of the Holocaust in Ukraine.
The scientific center as a structure is still forming, but connections are already being established with Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Round tables, book projects, and discussions of contemporary literature about Babyn Yar are planned — a significant part of which appeared after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
A separate, still unresolved task is the marking of destroyed cemeteries on the territory of Babyn Yar: Jewish, Karaite, Muslim. This is complex work requiring precision and respect for all groups of victims.
Karaims, Shoah, and the Complexity of Identities
The interview touches in detail on the history of the Karaims — a group whose fate during the Holocaust differed from that of Ashkenazi Jewry. In most cases, the Karaims managed to avoid total destruction, but there were tragic exceptions.
Radchenko emphasizes: Nazi decisions were often made situationally, at the level of specific commanders. The Nazi authorities poorly understood the complex fabric of Jewish identities and acted primitively and brutally.
The history of the Karaims shows how dangerous simplified schemes are and how important it is to work with sources, not myths.
Collaboration and the War of Memory
Unlike Russia, where the topic of collaboration is used as a propaganda weapon, Ukraine had space for academic discussion before the war. Now it is narrowed — not due to prohibitions, but due to the general state of society.
At the same time, as Radchenko emphasizes, anti-Semitism exists everywhere. But in matters of religious freedom and attitudes towards Judaism, Ukraine, even in wartime, remains one of the most open countries in the region.
Russian Memory Policy as a Tool of Aggression
The historian pays special attention to the Russian law on the “genocide of the Soviet people,” where the Holocaust dissolves into the abstract category of “Soviet victims.” This is a continuation of the Soviet tradition, leveling the uniqueness of the destruction of Jews as a targeted genocide.
Such laws and narratives are part of a strategy to delegitimize post-Soviet states. History is used not for memory, but to justify violence.
Who Will Preserve Memory Further
The generation of direct witnesses of the Holocaust has almost gone. Today, the responsibility for memory lies with museums, memorials, researchers, and public organizations. They become the new bearers of knowledge — not emotional testimony, but documented, comprehended history.
Memory changes but does not disappear. And the context in which it will be preserved depends not only on the past but also on the future.
It is precisely such conversations and texts that NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency records today when history, war, and memory are not abstractions but a matter of responsibility here and now.
