An official website of the United States government A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website Share sensitive information only on official Emergency Information for American Citizens supported the preservation of frescoes inside St A crew works on the restoration of the Old Academic Building at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv Both the interior and exterior of the historic Black House in Lviv Picturesque aerial view on castle and palace complex in Vyshnivets General view of the Orthodox Christmas service in St (Photo by Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Ukraine is home to unique historical and architectural landmarks built centuries ago for educational The United States values and helps preserve Ukraine’s cultural heritage Since 2001, the United States has provided more than $1.7 million to support 18 cultural preservation projects in Ukraine Support is provided by the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the U.S “This shows our respect for Ukrainian cultural heritage and Ukraine’s contributions to world culture,” said Bill Taylor Here are examples of some recent projects: the Old Academic Building at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy is the first building in Ukraine built for educational and cultural purposes gained notoriety when he joined Swedish King Karl XII in battle in 1708 against Russian Czar Peter I at Poltava This resulted in Mazepa being declared an enemy of the Russian Empire his excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church and his subsequent erasure from Ukrainian history until after the Soviet period A $405,000 renovation project in 2019 restored the Old Academic Building including its domed Ukrainian Orthodox “Church of the Annunciation.” “I’m very pleased that the United States can support Ukraine in preserving this historic site,” Taylor said about the project in 2019 the 16th-century building is a prominent feature of the city’s historic Rynok Square (which translates to Market Square in English) The “Black House” is an example of the far-reaching influence of Western European architectural design A $275,000 grant from the United States in 2016 aided conservation efforts inside and outside the building The museum features exhibits on modern history, such as the 2004 Orange Revolution and the Maidan demonstrations of 2013–2014 It also includes a memorialization of Ukrainians who died in Soviet death camps The Vyshnivetsky Palace in western Ukraine is a symbol of Ukraine’s independence it was redesigned in the 18th century by architects who were trained in France The Ukrainian noble family who built and lived in the palace for nearly 400 years founded the first Zaporizhian Cossack military force in the 16th century This force would later play an influential role in the historical and democratic development of the Ukrainian state and the election of the first Rada The Vyshnivetsky family also hosted Mazepa the Zaporizhian Cossack Hetman and founder of the Mohyla Academy; the 19th-century Ukrainian nationalist poet Taras Shevchenko; and other defenders of Ukrainian independence at the palace The ground floor of the palace boasts an 80-meter “Hall of Mirrors,” a replica of the same hall in Versailles French novelist Honoré de Balzac called the site a “little Versailles” after a visit grant in 2015 supported the restoration of the hall and reinforcement of retaining walls The palace is part of a reserve known as the “Ternopil Region Castles” in western Ukraine George’s Church in Drohobych is considered an exceptional example of a traditional tserkva unique to the Carpathian region of Ukraine and Poland George’s features the most advanced wooden dome construction technologies of its time fire has damaged the church and it had to be restored several times The United States provided an $85,000 grant to wire the church for fire detection and prevention and to restore the interior wall paintings Sophia Cathedral was home to princes who hosted foreign ambassadors and concluded treaties grant in 2011 supported the conservation of 12th-century mosaics The mosaics had been rescued from the original St Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral nearby in advance of the Soviet-led demolition of that cathedral in the 1930s and relocated to St To get a closer look at some of these projects, watch this three-minute video from the U.S The latest Department of State travel updates and guidance on travel.state.gov Have an emergency? 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'personalization_storage': cmplz_in_array( 'preferences' 'analytics_storage': cmplz_in_array( 'statistics' 'ad_user_data': cmplz_in_array( 'marketing' 'ad_personalization': cmplz_in_array( 'marketing' as the TM template needs to be sure it's cmplz_ The reported attack comes just days before Russia's Victory Day parade and three-day "truce." MPs will be able to ask questions and learn more about the details of the agreement in meetings with Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko May 6-7 MP Serhii Sobolev told the news outlet Suspilne The ratification vote is scheduled for May 8 Attacks against the border villages of Bilopillia and Vorozhba damaged civilian infrastructure and triggered emergency evacuations the regional military administration reported "I look forward to working with President Erdogan on getting the ridiculous war between Russia and Ukraine ended — now!" U.S Putin's Victory Day truce "doesn't sound like much if you know where we started from," Trump told reporters at the White House on May 5 Far-right Euroskeptic candidate George Simion head of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan placed second with 20.99% of the vote and the candidate from the ruling coalition "It requires the continuation of contacts between Moscow and Washington which have been launched and are now ongoing," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said set to operate within the Council of Europe will focus on Russia's political and military leaders up to 20 Russian soldiers were killed and their equipment destroyed The move represents an apparent violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions passed in the wake of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests "We are ready to deepen our contribution to the training of the Ukrainian military," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on May 5 by Olena Goncharova, The Kyiv Independent news deskIndependence Square at night in Kyiv (Andrew Kravchenko/Bloomberg via Getty Images)Editor's note: This is a developing story and will continue to be updated Explosions rocked the skies above Kyiv on the morning of Feb. 7 amid Russia's latest mass missile attack, according to the Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents to remain in shelters as air defense has been active in the city since 6 a.m First responders were called to the capital's Dniprovskyi district following the reports of explosions Air raid alerts were activated in all Ukrainian oblasts and in the city of Kyiv at around 6 a.m. local time on Feb. 7 following the Air Force warning of incoming cruise missiles Lviv Oblast Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said via his official Telegram page that cruise missiles have been maneuvering between Lviv Several explosions were also heard in Drohobych There were no reports of casualties or damages in the city The General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces said at 9:15 a.m local time that the trajectory of the Russian missiles was being observed and that "Polish and allied aircraft have been activated." "All necessary procedures to ensure the safety of Polish airspace have been launched," the General Staff added Drohobych is located some 80 kilometers from the Polish border 2017By Marcel DrimerMy “pilgrimage” to Drohobycz started a few days after the Holocaust Days of Remembrance and my own First Person interview and after my talks to high schools and synagogues about the Holocaust That work turned out to be a kind of preparation for the exhausting on May 9 for the beautiful landscapes of the Italian lakes where we spent the following eight days with my sister The overwhelming feeling of peace and serenity I felt there did not bring back the dark memories of the Holocaust we traveled to Israel where we met with relatives and old friends Each time we visit Israel it seems more beautiful and more affluent During one horrific traffic jam on our trip back from Jerusalem to Holon we got stuck in a taxi for over three hours The driver happened to be a young Israeli Arab Irena and the driver spent the time discussing If only the politicians could be as enlightened The conclusion of the discussion was that neither government really wants peace at this time and it was time to begin what would be the most exciting part of our trip In the late evening of May 31 we met at the Ben Gurion Airport with members of the Drohobycz Boryslaw group to participate in a Roots trip to Drohobycz The plane took off at midnight and landed in Lviv (Ukraine) airport at 2:30 a.m I could not sleep because I was so excited and anxious wondering what the next few days would bring I had left Drohobycz in December of 1945 as an 11-year-old child and the sightseeing was limited strictly to sights of Jewish suffering In the group there were four Holocaust survivors many children of survivors (second generation) showed the group the still-existing house of his grandparents located near a forest where many Jews were murdered She was saved by a Polish or Ukrainian woman and remembered only the woman’s first name: Jadwiga She hoped to find Jadwiga or some members of her family to thank for saving her Yael was given to a Jewish couple for adoption and later to an uncle in Israel where she now lives The other two survivors in our group were me and Irena It rained all day while we walked through the narrow streets of Drohobycz which were vaguely familiar to me from memory and from reading Bruno Schultz’s* stories of places connected with Jewish life before the war and the places of Jewish suffering and killing during the Holocaust the monuments to the victims did not identify the victims as Jews though they were the largest group among the victims we participated in the opening of an exhibition Photos of Ania and me were part of the exhibition The synagogue was built in 1726 and is the biggest in Eastern Galicia but the inside requires a lot of renovation the great-great-granddaughter of Jan and Zofia Sawinski who saved my family during the Holocaust by hiding us on their small farm It was Marya who found my name on the Internet and invited all of us to Drohobycz She and her younger brother waited to meet us at the entrance to the synagogue There was applause when the organizer of the exhibit introduced Marya The reserved young lady appeared to be touched by the gesture we were invited to talk to Marya and her classmates The university from which Marya had recently graduated was located in a building originally erected in the 1920s as a Jewish orphanage It was one of the best orphanages in Poland The mother of one of the group members was brought up there There is still a Star of David above the entrance Irena and I offered to talk to the students in English or Polish They chose Polish because the Ukrainian language is similar to Polish which used to be part of Poland until 1939 Talking about the Holocaust where it actually took place seemed strange When I talk in the United States it is about “there,” thousands of kilometers from “here.” In Drohobycz it was “here,” the site of the ghetto was a few blocks away the Sawinskis’ farm and the house of my grandparents—where I was born—were just a few kilometers away When I mentioned my grandparents’ neighbor who picked up our family photos from the mud after they were scattered during the pogrom showed me a document from before the war listing donors to a charitable organization with my father’s name on it Irena and I loved and admired our father; it was good to see that in addition to being a brave man he had also been a generous and good hearted man Marya’s professor mentioned that the history department would like to establish a Judaic Studies or Holocaust Studies program The Museum has a contact and helps the Taras Shevchenko University in Kiev with this subject I suggested the local university contact the Kiev university There is a great need to educate the Ukrainian public about their national heroes and their treatment of the Jews A major hero in Ukraine’s history is Bogdan Chmielnicki a 17th-century leader of the Cossacks and a leader of a peasant uprising against Polish rulers He and his followers murdered about 100,000 Jews a Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi sympathizer who helped the Germans fight the Russians and kill Jews and Poles during World War II Monuments of these two men are in every city and town; there are streets and car washes named after them Sometimes dishes in restaurants are named after them like the Chmielnicki salad or Bandera sausage In order for Ukraine to look objectively at the history of the Holocaust the Ukrainians will have to find different heroes we went with her extended family to the cemetery where Mrs Sawinski is buried to lay flowers on her grave I had waited for this moment for a very long time It was a modest thank you to her for saving my life The cemetery is located on a hill in Mlynki Szkolnikowe where I was born in my grandparents’ house and where I was saved at the Sawinskis’ farm I had tears in my eyes and said a quiet kaddish for this brave woman who put her and her family’s lives in danger to save mine Visible from the cemetery are the remnants of the oil refinery in Galicia where my grandfather was a foreman Uncle Bumek Gruber also worked in Galicia as a butcher and smuggled food to the Sawinski farm where we and nine other Jews were in hiding From the cemetery we were invited for lunch at Marya’s parents’ apartment Extended family and friends attended; one of them was Marya’s grandfather who was the Sawinskis’ grandson and remembered them We looked at their family photos and listened to stories We all exchanged gifts; they gave us books and we gave them a generous amount of cash The remaining time we spent with the group traveling by bus and walking on muddy roads to places of mass executions and sang the “Hatikva.” It was heartbreaking We repeated this ritual at several other places We heard stories of mass murder and individuals’ miraculous survival One member told a story of her ten-year-old cousin who fell into the trench that was a mass grave this child was able to get out from under the dead bodies and survived Another person eulogized his little sister while standing at the station from where she was taken to the Belzec killing center there are only small plaques indicating that the sites had been Jewish cemeteries The third cemetery was overgrown with grass and wild bushes Several former synagogues had been converted to churches still with a Star of David above the entrance and mezuzahs on the door frames I mourn the loss I saw of a rich Jewish cultural and religious community that will never come back It was an unforgettable trip; I will always remember the beauty of the Italian lakes the loving reception of friends and family in Israel the places of death and destruction of my family and fellow Jews in Drohobycz I will remember the emotional meeting with Marya whose great-great-grandparents allowed me to live this good life and art teacher born in Drohobycz to Jewish parents He is regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century His prose has been translated into many languages Both the Poles and the Ukrainians claim him as theirs and audio and video clips on this website are available for limited non-commercial or for fair use as defined in the United States copyright laws Listen to or read Holocaust survivors’ experiences told in their own words through oral histories The roots of Russia's invasion of Ukraine go back decades and run deep The current conflict is more than one country fighting to take over another; it is — in the words of one U.S official — a shift in "the world order."Here are some helpful stories to make sense of it all Residents hold a remembrance ceremony during the 90th anniversary of a great famine known as the Holodomor Ukraine — As bells rang out at a centuries-old monastery misty night to light candles in memory of the devastating famine of 1932-33 This annual commemoration was especially poignant this year marking 90 years since the famine gripped Ukraine Many here say Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was trying to destroy Ukraine then At the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide spoke in somber tones of suffering old and new he recalled stories his grandmother told him They were not allowed to leave their village So they didn't know what was happening elsewhere," he said Then he spoke of pain that's much more recent the Russians shot and killed my sister and her husband," he said softly Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union when Stalin seized private farms and turned them into state-run operations It was an absolute disaster in this fertile farming region known as the "breadbasket of the Soviet Union." Other farming regions also suffered famine An estimated 4 million Ukrainians died within two years though there's no precise figure and some historians say the toll may have been significantly higher and nearly 20 other countries now agree — though not Russia One country that shares Ukraine's position is Poland he will become the Stalin of the 21st century," Morawiecki said Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelenskyy also made the link between then and now "We see what is happening today in the world but most estimates point to tens of thousands of Ukrainian deaths among soldiers and civilians since Russia invaded in February Nearly 8 million Ukrainians fled the country it remains the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II Millions more Ukrainians have fled their homes in the east and the south of the country and taken refuge in other parts of the country Zelenskyy marked the anniversary of the famine by hosting an international conference Saturday on food security A total of 20 countries pledged $150 million to to help deliver Ukraine's farm exports by ship Russia blocked Ukraine from using its main export channel via the Black Sea in the early months of the war Ukrainian wheat and other products are now flowing Prices for basic foods remain expensive on the international market straining the budgets of developing countries in Africa and Asia in particular "We do not just send Ukrainian foodstuffs to those countries that suffer the most from the food crisis We affirm that never again should hunger be used as a weapon," Zelenskyy said Two boys fill a sack with potatoes that had been hidden during Ukraine's devastating famine in the 1930s They're filled with the names of those who died in the famine often looking for relatives they never knew Many say they heard firsthand accounts of the famine from grandparents or great-grandparents who survived "People were trying to live by eating grass and roots Kopalova said that as the fighting neared their village outside Kyiv her 6-year-old daughter understood that the Russians were the enemy should I speak Russian now?' But we just fled our home we didn't wait for the Russians to arrive," Kopalova said speak to a country that's endured so much hardship It explains why the national anthem begins with the words the man who lost his sister and brother-in-law this spring came over to say more about the couple's two orphaned children Greg Myre is an NPR national security correspondent currently on assignment in Ukraine. Follow him @gregmyre1 A pair of documentary filmmakers from Hamburg—​Benjamin Geissler seventy-​three—​stood in the cheerless stairwell and knocked on the door of apartment 3 They had come in search of Bruno Schulz’s last known artworks lost for decades behind the Iron Curtain in a three-​story building in Drohobych the villa had served as a police headquarters before World War II and as home during the war to Felix Landau (Before the war the address was 12 Jana Street When the area was absorbed into Soviet Ukraine Its stern gray walls and steeply gabled roof The Geisslers had been brought here not by curiosity but by penance Christian Geissler was the son of a “convinced Nazi” (in Benjamin Geissler’s description) who died in battle on the eastern front near Poznań in World War II Christian titled his first novel The Sins of the Fathers A committed left-​wing Catholic social critic in his youth and an anti-​imperialist radical leftist who sympathized with the Red Army Faction (RAF) had “the blessing of late birth.” (Ohrbeck a town in the German region of Lower Saxony was the site of a Gestapo-​run forced labor camp from January 1944 to April 1945.) Christian had harbored a fascination with Bruno Schulz since the autumn of 1961 when he read a German edition of Cinnamon Shops he went to an exhibition of Schulz’s drawings in Munich and learned from the show’s catalog about Bruno Schulz’s lost murals he suggested to his stepson that they make a documentary about the murals “The old man goes from door to door,” he told Benjamin “and the boy makes a film.” Benjamin Geissler and his wife would later name their son Bruno The Geisslers made their first trip to Drohobycz in December 2000 they concluded that the kitchen pantry in a second-​floor apartment in Villa Landau had once served as the playroom of Felix Landau’s two children They approached Schulz’s former student Alfred Schreyer a survivor of the Płaszów and Buchenwald concentration camps He said that together with his musical talents the craft skills he’d learned in Schulz’s classes had more than once saved his life in the camps Schreyer was the last Jew living in Drohobych born before World War II “I was born in Drohobycz,” he told an interviewer Polish was the only language spoken at home I was brought up in the spirit of Polish patriotism and I assure you that until the last day of my life Schreyer led the Geisslers to Apolonia Klügler the son of a high-​ranking military official who’d lived in Villa Landau immediately after the war Protasov disclosed that he had seen Schulz’s murals with his own eyes in the room he had once used as a photographic darkroom Protasov pointed out the room on a diagram of the apartment the Geisslers drove their Volkswagen van from Hamburg via Lviv to Drohobych Christian deliberately took a route past the sites of former concentration camps: Neuengamme the Geisslers met up with their Polish sound operator a highly educated native of western Ukraine and a practicing psychoanalyst he had been enraptured by a Polish edition of Schulz’s work on his parents’ bookshelf and taught himself Polish by reading it Prochasko had come across a Ukrainian translation of some of Schulz’s stories in a literary magazine and found in it a “revelation.” solid woman wearing an apron over a loose house robe with fraying hems Alfred Schreyer introduced himself and Geissler She peered at the unexpected visitors through thick-​lensed glasses and reluctantly admitted them Her mind was elsewhere: on grieving for her son and on caring for her cancer-​ridden husband The elderly couple had lived in the drab apartment for forty-​four years Nikolai was a World War II veteran; he had been conscripted to fight against the Germans near Stalingrad the Kaluzhnis had been resettled here as part of postwar Sovietization Nadezhda became suddenly ashamed of the squalor Nadezhda clasped her knobby fingers tightly over her chest She told the Geisslers that decades earlier Polish researchers had searched for Schulz’s murals in vain had come to this very apartment in search of the murals.) “Nothing,” she said the Geisslers and Schreyer crowded into her narrow pantry (240 centimeters long by 180 centimeters wide or just under eight feet long by six feet wide) which had a single small window at the far end their eyes scouted faint but discernible shadows of figures behind shelves swelling with tarnished pots and half-​forgotten pickling jars beneath smudges of mildew and several layers of pale pink paint It was as though father and son were practicing muromancy the obscure art of reading the spots on walls as the past reasserted itself and in its unrushed way let itself be seen again Christian Geissler recalled how staggered he was to find Schulz’s images “in the shadows of degradation” (“in den Schatten einer Erniedrigung”) “death is a master from Germany,” Christian said he felt as though they were witnessing at that moment an encounter between Schulz and “the master from Germany.” This wasn’t the first time Schulz’s art had unexpectedly resurfaced a hitherto unknown drawing of three figures Schulz had made in 1935 was donated to a small private museum in Israel Nothing was known about the drawing’s provenance except a name and profession stamped on the reverse: Dr It’s not clear when or how Chajes acquired the Schulz drawing nor why the Drohobycz-​born lawyer sent it to Israel A parcel containing more than seventy of Schulz’s drawings (and a notebook of sketches Schulz had done at age fifteen During the war Schulz had entrusted it to Zbigniew Moroń a math teacher at the Drohobycz high school where Schulz taught Moroń claimed to have believed that it had been destroyed when Nazis looted his home in 1945 His heirs found it in a timeworn suitcase in Gdańsk and arranged for the works to be sold to the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Warsaw had mysteriously appeared at an auction in Łódź was purchased by the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature the reanimation of Schulz’s fairy-​tale murals—​like Snow White opening her eyes again—​would prove by far the most sensational Benjamin Geissler alerted Drohobych mayor Oleksy Radziyevsky; Ukraine’s minister of culture Bohdan Stupka; Poland’s undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Stanisław Żurowski; German secretary of culture Michael Naumann; Schulz expert Jerzy Ficowski; Michael Krüger of Hanser Verlag publisher of Schulz’s work in Germany; and representatives of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem But two million people visit Yad Vashem annually.” Benjamin Geissler convened a confidential meeting at the Drohobycz library—​in the very room where Schulz had been obliged to sort books for the Nazi occupiers In attendance: Schulz’s former student Alfred Schreyer; three art experts (Agnieszka Kijowska and Wojciech Chmurzyński from Poland and Boris Voznytsky from Ukraine); the Drohobycz official in charge of cultural affairs Mikhail Michatz; the Geisslers’ assistant Jurko Prochasko; their translator Roman Dubassevych; and the Polish consul in Lviv Sawicki had written his master’s thesis on Schulz at the Catholic University of Lublin Now he took a hectoring tone toward Geissler: “As a German,” the consul said “you have the least rights to this heritage.” An audio recording of the meeting would later be handed over to Ukrainian prosecutors the team of Polish and Ukrainian art experts crammed into the pantry and began the unhurried work of removing layers of paint to reveal Schulz’s brushstrokes beneath an expert in Schulz’s art and a former head of the art department at the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature (where he had curated a major Schulz exhibition in 1992); Boris Voznytsky a Ukrainian art historian and the director since 1962 of the Lviv Art Gallery; and Agnieszka Kijowska an art conservator at the National Museum in Warsaw and a specialist in wall paintings Kijowska had been part of a team that used advanced techniques (X-​ray fluorescence spectrometry and laser ablation) to recover decorations painted between the seventh and fourteenth centuries in churches in Nubia (today’s southern Egypt and northern Sudan) she had restored murals in a pharaoh’s crypt in Egypt Kijowska lifted her eyes and caught a first glimpse of Schulz’s murals Dim presences seemed to gather palpability She beheld a miraculous case of pentimento (the word is derived from the Italian pentirsi a reappearance in a painting of an original that had been painted over in this case not by the artist but by other hands “There is no dead matter,” a character says in one of Schulz’s stories; “lifelessness is only an external appearance behind which unknown forms of life are hiding.” appeared on the front page of the Polish right-​wing daily Life (Życie) Just promise me this will remain quiet.” Benjamin Geissler had given his assurances Sawicki had taken the liberty of informing the press and journalists were soon swarming outside the Kaluzhnis’ door we can do what we want,” Nadezhda Kaluzhni told the Guardian “No one told us these paintings were valuable It would be different if they were frescoes “We knew about this house’s past,” Nadezhda told another reporter “about that Gestapo monster [Felix Landau] shooting people from the balcony but who could have imagined we’d never get any peace thanks to some old smears on the wall?” Her husband threatened to “take an ax” to the remaining murals in his apartment if he and his wife were not given “inviolable” peace from reporters Benjamin Geissler sensed that some were prepared to go to great lengths to get those “old smears.” He wrote a letter to the mayor to assert copyright over images of the murals and to implore the mayor to prevent anyone not authorized by the expert team Geissler met the mayor at the town hall to deliver the letter in person The Drohobych city council welcomes the filming of your documentary “Finding Pictures.” We are particularly happy about the first results: the discovery of the murals of the world-​famous writer and painter Bruno Schulz from our city many experts have searched for this unique work of art We hope to have a good cooperation with you We are thinking on the one hand of the successful progress of your shooting but on the other hand also of building a memorial for Bruno Schulz in the former Villa Landau Since there are no funds for such a measure in the city budget we ask you to work internationally to raise such funds the mayor gave assurances that Schulz’s murals would be protected in situ and suggested having the room containing the murals sealed for reasons of security Benjamin Geissler replied that since the Kaluzhni family still used the room as a pantry the Geisslers returned to Hamburg via Kraków (where they reported their discovery to leading Schulz scholar Jerzy Jarzebski) Benjamin Geissler began to look for funding to relocate the inhabitants of Villa Landau and to repurpose the building as the Reunion and Reconciliation Center and Bruno Schulz Memorial Museum a senior official at the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media Affairs (Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien) in Bonn Buth replied that while the German government recognized a moral obligation to help it could act only if it received official requests from Ukraine and Poland a real estate entrepreneur in Munich and honorary president of B’nai B’rith Europe who offered to help underwrite the proposed Schulz museum Domberger was born in Drohobycz in 1926 and lived there until age thirteen Geissler asked Boris Voznytsky to meet the prospective donor in Drohobych in early June Geissler contacted the German industrialist Berthold Beitz a former adviser to Konrad Adenauer and then head of the Krupp Foundation a major German philanthropy based at Villa Hügel in Essen “Beitz was initially very interested,” Geissler told me Geissler knew of Beitz’s personal interest in the matter he had been assigned to supervise the Carpathian Oil Company in Borysław Beitz had saved 250 Jewish men and women from a transport train to the Belzec extermination camp by declaring them essential “petroleum technicians.” He also gave local Jews advance warnings of Nazi roundups objected that establishing a Schulz museum in “the executioner’s house” would be in bad taste a representative of the European Council of Jewish Communities and the Commission for Looted Art in Europe “the planned museum would have provided an ideal opportunity to strengthen awareness in the Ukraine and beyond of what befell the Jewish people and would have helped build relations between Jews and the local communities.” “Schulz is for us an iconic cult figure,” said Andriy Pavlyshyn a Ukrainian translator of Schulz and the editor of a cultural journal in Lviv: That is why everything that is happening in Drohobych is very important for us emotionally ​From the first step Benjamin Geissler took here and in such a way as to bring the greatest benefit to the Ukrainian people and our international image ​The plan was that after the restoration of the murals ​the homeland of the great Mitteleuropa culture But this museum should be not a dead collection of images or artifacts but a place of living communication where the people of Drohobych could learn more about the wider world and people from abroad could learn more about Drohobych the author of the introduction to the standard Polish National Library edition of Schulz’s works and the co-​editor of the four-​hundred page Schulz dictionary had lectured at the Hebrew University on Polish literature (including Schulz) The paintings were to play a very important role in this as the only works by Schulz whose fate was not thrown beyond Drohobych As our Ukrainian hosts made me the chairman of the Scientific Council of the Schulz Museum I initially designed this museum not so much as a repository of the writer’s memorabilia but as a study center for which the area of ​​activity would be the entire Drohobych its “Schulz sites,” and in the very core of it the paintings ​All this on condition that the fairy tales would not be torn off the wall and taken to another country Which is precisely what was about to happen Bruno Schulz once wrote: “The knot the soul got itself tied up in is not a false one that comes undone when you pull the ends and out of these manipulations comes art.” The competing claims that arose so long after Schulz’s death are like the ends of separate strings that trace their origins back into Schulz’s life Excerpted from Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History by Benjamin Balint Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature Masthead About Sign Up For Our Newsletters How to Pitch Lit Hub Privacy Policy Support Lit Hub - Become A Member Lit Hub has always brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall you'll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving Home page » Topics » Ambassadors » Drohobych as seen by Khrystyna Soloviy In our Ambassadors project, we continue our journey around Ukraine in the company of famous Ukrainians, each of whom will be showing us their hometown from their own unique perspective. In the previous episode together with Ukraїner founder Bogdan Logvynenko she вул introduces us to her native Drohobych the city where she spent her childhood and found out about the Lemko people The longest break was probably half a year but now — last time I went back — I already feel like my home is in Kyiv to explain why I have no musical education The fact that I was born into a family of choral conductors who met at music school and always chose to entertain me with trips to the philharmonic or the opera It looks like all this had the desired effect didn’t you feel that you had the right to choose your own path — My parents never insisted that I choose a certain path I always had more freedom of choice than I might have needed I sometimes think that they should have been stricter with me for example… My mum is very democratic — she still is — but while I was studying at high school I was allowed to dye my hair as much as I wanted and I understood it wasn’t really acceptable — So your brother’s upbringing was less democratic — Don’t your parents reproach you for choosing your career instead of starting your own family I never said I’d turned my back on the Halychyna concept of a family — How did you find out about your Lemko roots — I didn’t take in the Lemko culture and songs with my mother’s milk I started asking what that unusual language was It was around the end of the 9th or 10th grade I abandoned my friends and the following year and a half I spent all my time on the internet searching for information about Lemkivshchyna Somehow there were very few well-known bands performing at Lemko festivals So you could say I came to Lviv already prepared and when I went to the show at the Kurbas Theatre it was like the jigsaw fell into place — I understood my true vocation and what I wanted to do —The whole thing with The Voice happened a few years after all that It was a period when I was a bit frustrated wondering if I’d be able to do something with philology and literature At that time it seemed like there weren’t any because I used to be very cynical about all talent shows I didn’t believe it could have any kind of result I try to have no expectations of the people in my life and I see everything positive as a pleasant surprise if they’ve never heard of Drohobych before If you stay here to live for a while or come here on business But now I want to come here for this feeling of calm brine is extracted and evaporated to obtain the finished product a technician otherwise known as the ‘salt queen’ Salt has become her lifelong occupation: “Now more people know about us Even people from Drohobych used to say: “So what the salt here is the same as in Artemivsk!” They couldn’t tell the difference But they’re totally different types of salt Artemivsk salt has a lot of this insoluble black residue and the mining technology is similar to that used for coal And here we need to boil off the brine to make salt The acoustic version of Khrystyna’s song “Fortepiano” was recorded as a duet with Lubomyr Melnyk who visited Ukraine as part of his world tour high-speed arpeggio-playing — has won him fame all over the world but still hasn’t gained him any disciples but Andrii said “Of course he’d be interested” rehabilitation centres for abused and suffering animals were few and far between in Ukraine Bearing witness to the conscious bond between humankind and nature many international charitable organisations are now helping to fund wildlife rescue projects director of the Domazhyr rehabilitation centre is confident that they will be able to provide shelter for even more brown bears: we estimated that it would take 20 years to completely stop this practice (of keeping bears in captivity — ed.) for new bears to be born in the wild and for the population to be restored We’re just hoping to create a ‘critical mass’ of people with the right ideas who treat nature properly — that’s the aim of this project And the main thing is that this place gives people something positive and inspires certain thoughts they’re beginning to understand that a living creature is not entertainment that a living creature also has the right to life Involved in the preparation of the material 13 volunteers Project support: Fundacja Euromaidan-Warszawa Use of materials is only permitted upon providing the source: Ukrainer.net Дизайн — Артем Зубкевич Розробка — Deluxcode Site developed by     Copyright © Yedioth Internet Russia massively attacked Ukraine with missiles and Shaheds and explosions were also heard in the western regions According to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi Russians carried out several strikes on Ukraine using various means of air attack - attack UAVs A total of 64 air attack weapons were used: the Air Force and Defense Forces of Ukraine destroyed 44 air targets: and about 20 Kh-101/Kh-555/Kh-55 missiles were shot down over the capital and in the area which came at Kyiv in several waves from different directions But there are also consequences due to the fall of debris in two districts an 18-story building caught fire on several floors Cars and service stations also caught fire in the area This caused an emergency power outage in the area there are currently 9 people injured in the capital as a result of the Russian attack Six people have already been hospitalized from a high-rise building in Holosiivskyi district Emergency services are working at the scene Two more victims were hospitalized in Dniprovskyi district The heating main on the left bank of the capital was also damaged Experts are investigating the extent of the damage DTEK reported that they would power the buildings with backup power sources within three to four hours they plan to restore normal operation of the power grids The number of victims in Kyiv has increased to 13 a total of 13 people have been injured in the capital as a result of the Russian attack were hospitalized in Holosiivskyi district Three people were injured in Dniprovskyi district The number of people injured in the Russian rocket attack on the capital has increased to 21 The Kyiv City Military Administration confirmed the deaths of three people According to the Prosecutor General's Office the dead include a 73-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man The Russian shelling of Kharkiv with S-300 missiles began at 6:00 a.m. with hits recorded in the Slobidskyi district There is damage to non-residential infrastructure Russians attacked Mykolaiv with Shaheds and rockets There are two locations of damage - a private residential sector and an infrastructure facility A man died of severe injuries and several other people were injured As for the territory of the infrastructure facility a building was hit and a fire broke out in a technical structure There is damage to gas and water supply networks in the city The industrial facility in Drohobych was damaged Partial destruction of the building was recorded there A fire is burning in an area of about 300 square meters there is no information about injuries or deaths the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces shot down one missile in the Stryi district Russian troops massively attacked Ukraine on January 23 most of them flying on a ballistic trajectory Ukrainian Air Defense Forces managed to hit 21 enemy targets RBC-Ukraine reported in detail about the previous Russian massive missile attack a city of 1.5 million - has been the centre of fierce fighting and massive bombardment since the Russian invasion has begun That is why forty-year-old Lyuba fled to Drohobych with her four-year-old son Bogdan Luyba had to leave her husband behind as he is enlisted in the army who are too old to move and do not want to leave their hometown Lyuba has not seen her parents or her husband for several weeks she believes that they will all be reunited soon DONATE TO CARITAS FOR UKRAINE like hundreds of thousands of other war refugees That is why she decided to remain in the west of the country with her son from where they moved south to the city of Drohobych Here Lyuba has a friend and got help from the local Caritas organisation What more can a person with a small child in this situation ask for I will go there with my soon to see if they can offer some job for me,” says Lyuba who used to sell windows for a living in Kharkiv she does not want to just sit and do nothing Her husband worked in Kharkiv as manager of a cake shop he left for the army shortly after the invasion began although she also realises that their house could have been destroyed Lyuba says the situation in the big cities is improving She says there are fewer shootings around Kyiv and Kharkiv and her prayers are now directed mainly to besieged Mariupol "The Russians are no longer so brazen in negotiations and they listen to arguments from our side I believe and hope that no later than next month the war will end," Lyuba concludes The war in Ukraine has forced 10 million people to leave their homes who desperately need at least basic care - water Help us to ensure people like Lyuba get the basic care © 2025 Caritas Czech Republic VIZUS.CZ s.r.o. The war in Ukraine has been going on for nearly two months It has driven 12 million people out of their homes of whom almost 5 million have left the country Caritas Czech Republic Ukraine Aid Coordinator about the situation in the country and how we help Ukrainians fleeing the war Evžen recently returned directly from Ukraine The war in Ukraine has already forced nearly 12 million people out of their homes As far as the fighting itself is concerned the Russian army is shifting its focus to regaining control of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions within their original administrative borders Interest in the centre and west of Ukraine is declining although bombing continues in these areas as well From our point of view as a humanitarian aid organisation this means that the vast majority of people are not yet able to return to their homes donate to caritas for ukraine The east and south of the country remain dangerous and largely occupied The area around Kiev is no longer occupied This means that they may stay largely inhabitable for a long time months or even years if the mines are extensively placed across the area people are returning home only sporadically so the need to take care of the displaced persists Whether we are talking about those who have left for neighbouring countries or or those who have moved to the west of Ukraine How is the country managing the influx of internally displaced people especially those from the eastern parts of the country Evacuations from areas within reach of the Russian army or Russian separatists are continuing the type of people coming to the west has changed Those who left their homes at the beginning of the war were mostly better-off people with contacts in the West the people coming to the west of Ukraine tend to be poorer have often fled at the last minute through humanitarian corridors only when the war had (almost) come to them They are thus in a much worse state psychologically So far, the basic immediate needs such as a roof over their heads, having something to eat, a place to wash are being met a significant number of refugees have found shelter in collective facilities such as gyms Given that refugees will not be able to return for months this type of accommodation is probably clearly inadequate it is accommodation that is totally inadequate in the long term for anyone All the indications are that people will have to stay away from where they come from for a prolonged period of time If they are to survive this period in relative peace then this situation needs to be addressed quickly Some of the displaced are living privately but the absorption capacity of ordinary accommodation is limited or the adaptation of spaces that were originally intended for other purposes And this is one of the things Caritas Czech Republic is focusing on we submitted a project focusing on increasing the capacity of suitable accommodation and one of the things we are counting on is the construction of very simple accommodation units that will allow separate accommodation for individual families and households they will be assembled from available materials and will not only be easy to assemble but also easy to dismantle and but otherwise I see a number of differences The host communities in Ukraine have a greater absorption capacity and can take care of a relatively larger number of displaced people there are enough places in schools and kindergartens and it is relatively easy to ensure that refugee children continue their education but Ukraine's starting position is certainly better than where many refugees have ended up in refugee tents and similar extremely makeshift shelters Is Caritas planning more long-term assistance in Ukraine So far, we have submitted four projects; three for funding assistance in Ukraine, one project is in Moldova, where we are already providing intensive assistance to refugees In addition to the aforementioned increased capacity of decent and appropriate accommodation we will also focus on the health sector and access to health services and psychosocial support Can you elaborate on how exactly Caritas Czech Republic is helping refugees in Moldova Assistance to refugees in western Ukraine or abroad is slowly shifting to more long-term and sustainable solutions this type of assistance is not possible in the south or east of Ukraine Is there any way to help people in these regions as well Absolutely. In addition to the things I mentioned, we also provide material humanitarian aid And we have delivered it also to Zaporizhzhia We have delivered several trucks of humanitarian aid to Caritas Mariupol which has temporarily relocated to Zaporizhzhia whatever we deliver to the west of Ukraine it is further redistributed to the east of Ukraine Caritas Czech Republic does not have its own office in Ukraine How challenging will it be to ensure the activities we have been talking about run well in the country We have been cooperating with Caritas Ukraine for a long time and we will continue this cooperation but at the same time we will do some of the activities independently in the Transcarpathian region during my recent trip I have already managed to establish relationships with local organisations and institutions that we will be able to rely on locally we have a lot of experience from other countries with the type of assistance we are going to provide the Alley of Memory of Fallen Heroes was opened This is a memorial that was placed in the park named after Stepan Bandera About this reported in the press service of Drogobytsk City Council The alley is a metal structure with illuminated elements in the form of doves and embroidered ornaments It was built according to the project of the drogobychanka of the wife of the deceased Ruslan Syksoi Opening of the Memorial Alley to Fallen Heroes in Drohobych There are portraits of Heroes and QR codes leading to the Pantheon of Memory - an electronic resource with information about fallen Heroes It should remind all of us every day about the feat of our Heroes About what price our freedom is given to us About what price the soldiers there pay for our peaceful mornings and peaceful nights I thank everyone who in one way or another contributed to the establishment of this Alley and I thank the community leadership for believing and trusting me with this special project," said Khrystyna Solomchak who together with his sons made metal structures at his own forge He reminded how important it is to support Heroes to remember every day that the war is going on and to preserve the memory of those who died The light inside the "Cross of Heroes": dedicated to those who have gone to light The Pantheon of Heroes is being reconstructed in Ternopil. What it will look like: renderings +380 (44) 465 53 41 +380 (67) 638 76 00 hello@pragmatika.media https://pragmatika.media This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.