ARCHIVES Danyliw Seminar 2017
ARCHIVES Danyliw Seminar 2017
Program Committee
Program Committee
ARCHIVES Danyliw Seminar 2018
John-Paul Himka
University of Alberta (Canada)
John-Paul Himka is a professor emeritus in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta. He has contributed to eight books and has written four monographs on Ukrainian history. He is currently writing a monograph under the working title "Ukrainian Nationalists and the Holocaust: Pogroms, Police, and National Insurgency."
PRESENTATION
Abstract
OUN-UPA and the Holocaust: A Survey of the Historiography
John-Paul Himka
This paper deconstructs the historiography of the role of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the Holocaust. Splitting the elapsed time since WWII into three distinct periods, this paper guides the reader from post-WWII neglect of the topic and lack of sufficient information to breakthroughs later in the century. These revelations were made possible by the opening of new archives and by the testimonies and memoirs of the victims of OUN-UPA violence. This study shows how denial and the repression of information can have profound impacts on the course of a narrative. As the government of Ukraine began to honor OUN and UPA as national heroes, research on the historiography of these groups has accelerated, making Himka’s paper both very timely and relevant to modern Ukrainian.