Projects for School and University Students

On February 6-7, the History faculty of the Dnipropetrovsk National University conducted the second stage of the Ukrainian Competition and Defense of the Research Works of the Students-Members of the Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. This year “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust became a partner of this competition.
Dr. Igor Shchupak, Institute Director, and Denis Shatalov, Institute Research Associate, became the members of Expert Committee and participated in the defense in the sections “History of Ukraine” and “Local History Studies”.
In his speech, Dr. Shchupak emphasized the need of studying the tragic events of the 20th century as the basis for formation of tolerance in the society. The Institute Director told students and their curators about the prospects of cooperation between young researchers and “Tkuma” Institute, including the possibility of taking part in national and international seminars and competitions. In addition, “Tkuma” Institute plans to publish the collection of the best works.

Denis Shatalov shared his impressions from this year’s competition: “The defense was held in the sections “History of Ukraine”, “Local History Studies”, “World History”, “Ethnology” and “Archaeology”. In general, 77 works were presented. Students chose various subjects for their researches; however, we can see that the most popular topics were World War II and the Holocaust. In particular, in the section “History of Ukraine” 2 works, out of 23, were related to the issues of World War II, 2 were devoted to the Holocaust and 1 described the Jewish history of 19 - early 20 century. In the “Local History Studies” section 8 works, out of 27, were related to the problems of World War II, 2 were devoted to the Holocaust, and 1 highlighted the anti-Jewish pogrom in 1905. In the “World History” section 1 work out of 16 was related to the war, 1 – to the Holocaust, 3 – to the problems of the Jewish history, and 1 – to the Armenian Genocide.

Besides the quantitative indicators we should also mention the quality of works on these topics. Thus, in the “World History” section the first place was taken by Yelyzaveta Bordunova with the work called “Hanukkah as the Factor of Preserving the National Identity”; in the section “History of Ukraine” the winner is D. Dunda with the work called “Jewish Agricultural Colonies in Southern Ukraine in 19 and early 20 c.” The second place was taken by A. Pogorila with the work “Dnipropetrovsk Jewish Children during the Holocaust”; the third place was taken by K. Guseva with the work “Nazi Machine for Extermination of Jews in the Territory of Ukraine during the Holocaust”. The works of winners had reference on “Tkuma” Institute publications.