Concept

The Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” is intended to reflect the depth of the Holocaust tragedy, as well as the unique and rich Jewish civilization, which was almost completely destroyed. History of the Jews in Ukraine is considered within the context of the world history. The Museum reveals the most important, key-events of the history of the Jews in Ukraine, the tragic culmination of which was the Holocaust.

An important feature of the Museum is that it is situated on the Ukrainian land, and special attention is paid to the Ukrainian-Jewish relations, breaking down the negative stereotypes of anti-Semitism and Ukrainophobia, creating mutual respect of the Ukrainians and Jews on the basis of an objective analysis of the lessons of history, youth educating on the positive examples of mutual assistance and cooperation.

Our Museum shows major tendencies and events of the Jewish culture development in Ukraine. Meanwhile, great attention is paid to the Jewish community history of Katerynoslav – Dnipropetrovs’k – Dnipro and its revival in our days.

History of creation

The museum was opened in October, 2012. More than 25,000 people visited the exposition during the first months of the work. Annually, the museum guests are inhabitants not only of Ukraine but also Austria, Great Britain, Greece, Estonia, Israel, India, Spain, Kazakhstan, Canada, China, Columbia, Moldova, Germany, Norway, Poland, USA, Turkey, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland and other countries of the world.

Igor Shchupak, Leonid Finberh, and Victor Hukailo were responsible for the Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” concept, meanwhile historians, cultural specialists, artists from Israel, Canada, Germany, Poland, the USA, Ukraine and other countries became scholarly advisors and consultants. Mark Shliak, the member of Dnipro Jewish Community Supervisory Board, coordinated the Museum creation project. Oleksandr Sorin, the chief architect of the Museum, is the author of “Menorah” Center architectural solution, as well as the head of architectural design studios “D7”. Victor Hukailo is the Museum’s chief designer. The building process was led by Oleksandr Khanis.

The Museum creation became possible due to the activity of Dnipro Jewish Community headed by Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki, strong organizational and financial support of the community leaders Hennadii Boholiubov and Ihor Kolomoiskyi, as well as “Tkuma”, Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies staff work under the auspices of “Joint” (or JDC) and other Jewish organizations.

The unique artifacts for the Museum exhibition were donated by Shmuel Kaminezki, Ihor Kolomoiskyi, Oleh Korban, Oleksandr Kreinin, Leonid Livshyts, Lada and Leon Sherman, organization “Hvardiia Dnipro” and others.

During the exhibition creation the achievements and experience of world leading museums and museum-exhibition centers were used, as well as unique artistic methods and design, the newest informational, audiovisual and multimedia technologies.