Have the Neighbors Left a lot of Valuable Items after the Robbery of the Ukrainian Jews?

Abstract

Currently, the need for solid studios covering problematic and little-studied pages of Ukrainian history during the Second World War and the occupation of Ukraine has increased significantly. It is important to note that long time before the start of World War II, Ukrainian Jews experienced significant pressure, expropriation of valuables, property, and real estate. The article emphasizes that the inseparable components of the Holocaust that raged in Ukrainian cities and villages were pogroms, robbery, persecution and physical extermination of Jews. Jewish property was systematically confiscated and looted during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine.

It is important to emphasize that the Holocaust and its victims were not given due attention in the USSR. It was about the collective concept of “Soviet people” and “the lives of Jews, their losses” seemed to dissolve in it. There was also practically no talk about the robbery of the Jewish population. Only after the 2010s appeared the works of Ukrainian researchers, in which, based on archival sources, the crimes of the occupation authorities are revealed, and the participation and role of the local population – hero-saviors or, conversely, accomplices in terror (conscious or unconscious) – is shown.

The article analyzes the events of the Holocaust, examines memories, interviews from different parts of Ukraine, and provides examples, quotes from the victims of Ukrainian Jews who miraculously managed to survive. Unknown archival documents have been introduced into scientific circulation, which clearly reveal the conditions of the robberies and persecution of Ukrainian Jews. These dark and little-known pages of history have been partially explored in the works of foreign and individual Ukrainian researchers and require thorough study and rethinking in the near future. A big challenge for scientists is to continue searching for both individual objects and collections looted under the Nazi regime. In this regard, cooperation between Ukrainian scientists and foreign experts in this field seems effective.