Panel Discussion “Remembering in War – Memory in Transition. Ukrainian Memory Culture in the Context of the Current War”
On 4 May 2026, the panel discussion “Remembering in War – Memory in Transition. Ukrainian Memory Culture in the Context of the Current War” will take place at the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Berlin. The event is dedicated to the transformations of memory culture under the conditions of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Photo: Volodymyr Leush, Unsplash.
When:
Monday, 4 May 2026
Admission: 5:30 p.m.
Start: 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Where:
Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation
(Stresemannstraße 90, 10963 Berlin)
Entrance:
Free, registration required
Language:
German and Ukrainian (simultaneous interpretation available)
Programme
Welcome speeches:
- Silke Krohn (Head of Education and Outreach at the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation)
- Kristiane Janeke (Member of the Federal Executive Board of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.)
- Dr. Kateryna Rietz-Rakul (Director of the Ukrainian Institute in Germany)
Panelists:
- Robin Wagener (Chair of the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Group)
- Franziska Davies (Research Associate at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History)
- Yurii Savchuk (Director General of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War in Kyiv)
- Jörg Morré (Director of the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst)
- Yevheniia Moliar (Art Historian at the Technical University of Berlin)
Moderator: Dominik Tomenendal (Head of the Department for Memory Culture and Network Activities at the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.)
Reception: following the event
The discussion will focus on the following questions:
- Emancipation and identity: How is Ukrainian memory culture breaking away from Soviet narratives and what place is it seeking today within a shared European framework of values?
- Commemoration on the ground: How is Ukrainian society responding to the war? What initiatives and forms of remembrance are emerging locally to document individual fates and to defend the country’s own history against the threat of erasure?
- A changing memorial landscape: How are German museums and memorial sites responding to the current situation? What role can German-Ukrainian dialogue play in this context, and what can both sides learn from each other at present?
A cooperation between the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V., the Ukrainian Institute in Germany and the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation.
The panel discussion “Remembering in War – Memory in Transition. Ukrainian Memory Culture in the Context of the Current War” is part of the Ukrainian Remembrance Week taking place in Berlin from 4 to 8 May 2026. It is organized by Vitsche e.V.