An encounter that inspires—especially today!

The end of the war, May 8, and May 9 are particularly important days of remembrance for many people from post-Soviet countries, but they are also painful and difficult days.

This is especially true for people who suffered under both Nazi and Stalinist violence. Some survived the Stalinist mass executions or the starvation of entire regions in Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union in the 1930s, only to then survive the violence, oppression, and exploitation under German Nazi occupation, or to fall victim to late-Stalinist persecution after the end of the war as well as the bleak decades of oppression before perestroika. For millions of people, this experience blends pride in the anti-fascist resistance and relief at being liberated from Nazi violence with another kind of suffering.

This bitter ambivalence hits even harder for those who continue to suffer under Russian repression to this day, especially the people in Ukraine who are enduring Russia’s war of aggression with daily attacks on residential neighborhoods, schools, and kindergartens, or those in Crimea and the occupied territories in the eastern regions of Ukraine who must endure brutal arbitrariness and oppression. There are still numerous eyewitnesses living in Ukraine who, as children, survived World War II and the Shoah, along with forced labor and war crimes, and who are now, in their senior years, experiencing another war. After all, most of the survivors of Nazi forced labor come from here, and following the fall of the Iron Curtain, most of the new members of Jewish communities in Germany came from Ukraine.

As a result, there are numerous connections between Jewish communities, memorial sites, and initiatives for Nazi survivors in Germany and Ukrainian survivor associations, museums, and archives. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion, a support network quickly formed within these circles to assist those persecuted by Nazi Germany and their families. After all, in this war, the elderly are among the most vulnerable groups, alongside children and the sick. They must endure air raid sirens and heating outages during the bitterest cold, whether living on the tenth floor of a prefab highrise or alone in a small cottage in the countryside. With minimal pensions, they rely on their gardens or are unwilling to leave their farms and animals behind. In areas close to the front lines, they are often among the last residents to hold out despite everything.

This makes it all the more important to support these people personally and to listen to their stories. In Ukraine, this work is carried out primarily by countless volunteers, often at the risk of their lives and under targeted drone attacks near the front lines. From Germany, ASF supports Nazi survivors, as well as internally displaced persons and families whose homes have been destroyed by bombing in Ukraine, through the Aid Network for Survivors of Nazi Persecution in Ukraine and the BerlinOdessaExpress humanitarian initiative.

In addition, Ukrainian volunteers continue to serve with #ASF in programs in Poland and Germany. Among them is Andrii from Odesa, who is contributing to the summer camp team at the ASF office and at the Sachsenhausen Memorial, made possible in part by a grant from the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future” (EVZ).

On the days commemorating the liberation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and in memory of the victims of the death marches, he accompanied 101-year-old survivor Mykola Urban from Kharkiv. Together, they laid flowers at the memorial site for the death marches in the Belower Forest southeast of Berlin and attended the commemorative ceremony at the memorial. This shared journey across generations is both moving and inspiring: it calls for humanity, sincere remembrance, and courageous commitment to a different world. We thank you for this important moment!

Volunteers are working with #ASF in Sachsenhausen and at many other memorial sites in Germany and 10 other countries to promote remembrance and solidarity. Find all the information here: www.asf-ev.de/freiwilligendienst