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What should a teacher do during the vacation? The right thing to do is to prepare for the new school year. Some people who have only encountered school as students or parents of students are still concerned about the duration of teachers vacation. However, only a few think about the fact that even during summer days (and sometimes nights), individual teachers continue to work. At the same time, any work is more pleasant and productive if you do it in a circle of like-minded people. An attempt to combine the pleasant with the useful, to bring together practicing teachers with academic scientists, and to exchange thoughts and ideas is the Summer Studies for History Teachers from “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies.

The story behind the emergence of this truly unique project deserves a separate podcast, book, or perhaps a film. It is difficult to name the day and time when the phrase “Summer Studies” took on meaning. However, we can accurately point to Iryna Piskareva, head of educational programs at “Tkuma” Institute, and Dr. Igor Shchupak, director of “Tkuma’” Institute, Honored Worker of Education of Ukraine, as the authors of this idea to unite gifted teachers from different regions of Ukraine and thus expand the circle of acquaintances of those who want to develop and become better in the difficult professional activity of a history teacher. The “Summer Studies” were first held in July 2016 in Lutsk and Shatsk. This year, a kind of return to Volyn took place, as the venue for the all-Ukrainian pedagogical seminar was the city of Rivne. Over four days, over 50 teachers (including future teachers) from different regions of Ukraine participated in various activities that combined lecture presentations, workshops, museum and excursion classes, as well as discussions on methodological developments. On the first day of the Summer Studies, an integration meeting was held, moderated by Iryna Piskareva. Thanks to her pedagogical and human talent, and most importantly, her gift of persuasion, people who had seen each other for the first time were able to tell each other about their taste preferences and details of each other's personal lives within an hour.

The next day (July 15) can be conditionally defined as academic. During it, the project participants, together with the lecturers-presenters, discussed the issues of the complex and controversial 20th century, the unlearned lessons of which humanity, unfortunately, continues to overcome in the 21st century. The century of world wars, genocides and unprecedented cruelty left a deep mark on the fates of individual people, communities and countries. During his lecture, Dr. Igor Shchupak clearly demonstrated the importance of studying, and for teachers - creative non-standard teaching, the history of the Holocaust - the "ideal genocide" (in the words of Prof. Yaroslav Hrytsak), which combined all possible elements of human cruelty against representatives of a separate community. There were genocides before the Holocaust (including the infamous Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire). However, the planned, systematic and total murder of the Jews of Europe is considered by many researchers to be universal. By studying and understanding the Holocaust and the mechanisms of this genocide, one can better and more deeply understand the meaning and course of other tragic events of the 20th century – the Armenian Genocide, the Holodomor of 1932-1933, the Crimean genocide, etc.

The lecture of Dr. Petro Dolganov, associate professor of the Rivne Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, researcher at the Mykola G. Center for Contemporary History was based on the results of his research on the Holocaust within the boundaries of a separate city – Zdolbuniv. It is noteworthy that P. Dolganov not only managed to prepare brilliant scientific work, but also to give it important practical significance. Based on this research, a separate exhibition dedicated to the genocide of the Jews was created in the Zdolbuniv Museum of Local Lore named after Oleg Tyshchenko. Thus, the memory of the victims of Nazi terror was honored, and the names of those who, at the risk of the lives of their loved ones, tried to save the persecuted Jews - the Saviors and Righteous Among the Nations of the World of various ethnic origins (Ukrainians, Poles, Germans and Czechs) and religions were restored.

The Jewish history of Mizoch, another settlement in Western Volyn, was the subject of a lecture by Dr. Roman Mykhalchuk, professor of the Department of World History at Rivne State Humanitarian University. Dr. Mykhalchuk has brought into scientific circulation a huge number of sources related to the life of the Jewish community of this town in the 19th - first third of the 20th centuries, as well as the course of the Holocaust there and attempts to memorialize the genocide after World War II. The result of the researcher’s work is dozens of publications and a separate book in which he summarized the history of the Holocaust in Mizoch.

How was the memory of the Holocaust transmitted through generations under the conditions of meticulous Soviet ideological control over the past? Were there underground memorialization projects and who was behind them? This was the topic of the speech of Dr. Yehor Vradii, Deputy Director for Scientific Work of “Tkuma” Institute, Junior Research Fellow at the M. Gaev Center for Contemporary History of the Ukrainian Catholic University. In fact, the scientist's lecture was a presentation of a large-scale project to study the memory of the Holocaust in the 1940s – 1980s. Its results may clarify how the memory of other crimes of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century was preserved and transmitted.

A comprehensive understanding of the meaning of each large-scale phenomenon of the past is impossible without at least two prerequisites: the ability to take an interdisciplinary approach to studying the past and understanding how historical events took place in the life of an individual. The lecture by the brilliant literary critic, writer and translator Prof. Yaroslav Polishchuk, head of the Department of Ukrainian Studies at the Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan, Poland) was dedicated to the figure of Zuzanna Ginczanka (1917-1944) - a gifted poet of Jewish origin, born in Ukraine. Prof. Polishchuk not only spoke about the little-known circumstances of Z. Ginczanka's life (including under Nazi rule) but also showed how the prediction of the future was reflected in the work of this undeniably talented person. It is worth emphasizing that it was J. Polishchuk who translated the poet's works into Ukrainian.

The end of World War II for many people in our country was associated with hopes for liberalization and a relative departure from the horrors of occupation and terror. However, the post-war years, unfortunately, dashed these hopes. The strengthening of state anti-Semitism, the “fight against bourgeois nationalism” – repressive campaigns, because of which the fates of thousands of people were broken, including those who miraculously managed to survive in the clutches of the Nazi regime. The presentation of Dr. Lesya Bondaruk, chief specialist of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, was devoted to the history of life and struggle of Jews – Soviet political prisoners. Many of them miraculously survived during the Holocaust, lost their relatives. However, even after the expulsion of the Nazis, they were forced to undergo the trials of Soviet deprivation. Despite the distance in time, their actions and ability to resist still amaze us, our contemporaries.

A storm of emotions was caused by the language workshop of Oleksandr Cherkas, a lecturer at the National Defense University of Ukraine, a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature at the Ivan Bohun Kyiv Military Lyceum. It would seem to be a philological lesson, but how important things it was devoted to. In particular, the language of memory and what words we use when talking about the past, including sensitive aspects of our history. Together with the interactive approach and energy of the speaker, the workshop aroused extraordinary interest among the participants. After all, the way we speak largely determines how we will be understood and how convincing we ar.

So, this is the story of just two days of the “Summer Studies”. And ahead is a story about the practical part of this all-Ukrainian event. So, wait for the continuation soon.

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