Our Background

The »Connecting Memory« project was established on the basis of the experience gained and the challenges addressed during the preceding project »Protecting Memory«, which, for the first time ever, brought together a team of Ukrainian and international partners and local communities to pursue the common goal of finding sustainable solutions to protect mass grave sites, establishing and maintaining dignified places of commemoration, and carrying out accompanying historical and educational work in communities where Jewish and Roma groups virtually ceased to exist as a result of the genocidal policy of Nazi Germany and its supporters.

The international »Protecting Memory« project was launched in 2010 by the American Jewish Committee in Berlin. By 2015, five memorial sites in honour of the murdered Jews had been set up in western Ukraine. With effect from 1 April 2016, the project was extended by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. From 2016 to 2019, 15 additional memorial sites honouring murdered Jews and Roma were brought into existence, as well as an open-air exhibition in Berdychiv.  

We operate within the framework of the Federal Republic of Germany’s commitment to honour the memory of all victims of National Socialism appropriately. The activities of the Protecting Memory (2010–2019) and Connecting Memory (2019–2023) projects were made possible with the financial support of the German Federal Foreign Office.