In the heart of Europe: Historic responsibility of Germany towards Ukraine/ Mitten in Europa – Deutschlands historische Verantwortung für die Ukraine/ Україна – епіцентр Другої світової? Історична відповідальність Німеччини
With the Euromaidan, the annexation of the Crimea by Russia and the war in the eastern part of the country, the events in Ukraine have become one of the most controversial issues in Germany. While the historical responsibility of Germany towards Russia is undisputed, the responsibility towards Ukraine and other Central Eastern European countries, where the greatest humanity crimes of the World War II were committed, is often underestimated or is missing from both academic and political discourse altogether. What does historic responsibility mean for today’s “Osteuropapolitik”? On 20 June 2017, Member of the European Parliament Marieluise Beck and her colleagues from the fraction of the Bündnis 90/Green Party in the German Parliament (Bundestag) organised an open discussion of this issue (which followed official hearings organised in the Bundestag a few weeks earlier). Historian Prof. Timothy Snyder (Yale University, USA, the author of “Bloodlands”, “Black Earth”, etc.) delivered a brilliant keynote speech on the topic, and writer Katia Petrovskaya and translator and writer Yurko Prohas’ko joined in the podium discussion in front of some 150 participants of the event.
Livestream video of the event (both original and simultaneously translated into German, Ukrainian, English and Russian)
Link to the DW Report (in Ukrainian)