Holocaust Remembrance Day: the issue of documenting the tragedies in the Museum of Civilian Voices founded by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation

Today, January 27, is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a period during which the German Nazis exterminated millions of people simply because of who they were. On this day, 80 years ago, in 1945, the prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland were liberated. The Museum of Civilian Voices founded by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has a lot of materials dedicated to documenting the memory of this tragedy – and the parallels between Hitler’s and Putin’s history.

Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and President of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, historian and public figure Piotr Cywiński emphasises that it is extremely important for Ukraine to collect as much evidence as possible about russia’s war against Ukraine.

“Not to analyse it immediately, but to look for ways to collect and, most importantly, to preserve information. The availability of a lot of data from the war is extremely important from the point of view of history. It is very important not to lose these materials. Now there is an opportunity to create the largest military archive in the history of mankind,” said Piotr Cywiński during the Oral History Forum of Ukraine, organised by the Museum of Civilian Voices founded by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.

According to the historian, the project, which records stories about the experiences during the war, is extremely important not only for history but also for people themselves. After all, it is important for future generations to hear about their grandparents and understand what really happened to their families.

“Usually, a person who has experienced a tragedy wants to share it from the very beginning, and then falls into a period of silence, after which they begin to learn to live again – with this trauma. It is important to take these stages into account when collecting data,” said Dr Cywiński.
He emphasises that the events of the Holocaust are not fully documented. In particular, historians now lack narratives from SS or Gestapo soldiers.

“I believe that what Ukraine really needs are the records of prisoners. So that they can tell us what motivated them, what they were thinking at the time. This is presented in the media very cursorily. But this is very important information that will play a huge role in the future analysis,” says Piotr.

Read more and listen to the interview with Piotr Cywiński at https://bit.ly/3CyYBg3

The Museum of Civilian Voices founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation collects first-person stories of Ukrainian civilians about the war. Its archive contains more than 120,000 stories.

Tell yours on the Museum’s portal https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/ or call the toll-free hotline 0 (800) 509 001.