A memorial ceremony dedicated to International Holocaust Remembrance Day, featuring the opening of the exhibition “The Auschwitz Experience in the Art of Former Prisoners,” was held at the Dnipro Museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine,” the leading cultural-historical institution of the Dnipro Jewish Community.
The memorial ceremony was led by the Director of the Museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine,” Candidate of Historical Sciences and Doctor of Philosophy, Iryna Radchenko, who lit six memorial candles in honor of the six million innocent victims of the Nazi genocide in Europe. The central part of the memorial event was the opening of the exhibition “The Auschwitz Experience in the Art of Former Prisoners,” created by the research staff of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Poland) and translated into Ukrainian by the Museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine.”
The exhibition materials illuminate various aspects of camp life for prisoners and speak in their voices, as well as through artistic images created after the end of World War II. The artistic images, combined with the direct experience of the horrors of the man-made Nazi hell, immerse the visitor in the terrifying atmosphere of the largest death factory.
“On November 1, 2005, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the day of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp as International Holocaust Remembrance Day and called on member states to develop educational programs to preserve the memory of this tragedy for future generations, to prevent future acts of genocide, and to preserve the historical sites of the mass murder of Jews,” emphasized Dr. Iryna Radchenko. “The history of the Holocaust is an integral part of Ukraine’s history, which was under Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1944. Every fourth victim of the Holocaust, meaning 1.5 million human lives, was connected to Ukraine. Therefore, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a significant memorial date for Ukraine.”
The exhibition can be visited until March 22, 2026, on Wednesdays and Sundays from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
The option for group tours by prior arrangement is also available on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Phone for booking: +38050 452 21 63.
To recall: on January 27, 1945, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army entered the territory of the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, located near the occupied Polish city of Oświęcim. One of the first to set foot on the camp grounds was Anatoly Shapiro, an officer of the Red Army and a Ukrainian Jew, who witnessed with his own eyes the place where approximately 1.2 million people were killed over five years. Among the other groups of Nazi victims whose lives were taken in the death camp, Jews constituted the majority. This is why Auschwitz-Birkenau became one of the most well-known symbols of the Holocaust – the genocide of European Jews.
