Workshop within the European Research Infrastructure Consortium Project

On February 27, 2025, the Center for Urban History in Lviv hosted a meeting of researchers and actors in the field of Holocaust history and Holocaust remembrance in Ukraine. Nearly thirty participants discussed the possibilities of our country joining the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Consortium (EHRI-ERIC).

Over the past decades, a dynamic field of Holocaust studies has developed, with academic institutions and initiatives and researchers working in different regions of Ukraine. In the context of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, knowledge of the Holocaust tragedy, which affected millions of people and every region, has become even more important for Ukrainian society. Therefore, it is now an urgent task to create a sustainable network of Holocaust research institutions in Ukraine that will facilitate integration with European infrastructures, strengthen existing collaborations, and promote new ones. For this purpose, it is critical to network research initiatives within the country and to involve Ukraine in the pan-European EHRI-ERIC consortium.

The EHRI is a transnational network that brings together institutions working on the Holocaust (research institutes, archives, and universities in the EU, Israel, and the United States). The network facilitates and simplifies access to sources held in Europe and beyond, provides opportunities for new collaborations, and promotes the use of digital technologies in Holocaust research and source management.

After fourteen years of existence, the network is institutionalized as ERIC, the European Research Infrastructure Consortium. The inauguration of the first cohort of member states took place in late January in Warsaw. Since ERIC is a special legal form that ensures the functioning of the research infrastructure as a separate legal entity recognized and supported by the European Union, the ERIC members are states at the ministerial level. Ukraine is invited to join EHRI-ERIC. 

The program of the meeting included both introductions to EHRI and discussions of the possibilities for Ukraine to join the consortium. In particular, Karel Berkhoff, a Dutch Holocaust scholar and co-director of the EHRI, presented the history of the research infrastructure, the network of partnerships, and the benefits of research infrastructure for Ukraine. Taras Nazaruk, Head of Digital Projects at the Center for Urban History, shared the experience of the Center's cooperation within EHRI, in particular through digital resources and infrastructures. Researchers Ulyana Kyrchiv and Iryna Radchenko, for their part, spoke about their participation in the EHRI scholarship program. Throughout the day, the participants had the opportunity to discuss the prospects of EHRI-ERIC and work in smaller working groups, as well as join the discussion on infrastructure development in Ukraine. Researchers and representatives of organizations from Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Rivne, Uzhhorod, Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernivtsi, and Lviv expressed their interest in joining EHRI-ERIC.

The joint meeting became a platform for uniting the efforts of all stakeholders by cooperating in identifying the steps that will enable Ukraine to join the Consortium. The participants discussed the importance of networking within Ukraine and internationally, and the need to increase internal professional mobility in Ukraine. Also during the meeting, a working group was formed to work on facilitating Ukraine's accession to EHRI-ERIC.

The Center for Urban History has been a member of the EHRI since 2020 and was honored to initiate and facilitate this meeting. As part of the cooperation between the Center and EHRI, in October 2022, the seminar "Documenting War: Past and Present" was held, and a public program on documenting the experience of violence and warfare "Source as Choice" was launched. 

• 

• 

Credits

Cover Image: a map of EHRI Fellowship program

Gallery: photos by Maryana Mazurak, Bohdan Yemets