A Ukrainian-Jewish Century: Exhibition Opens at Babyn Yar, Alongside Screening of Oscar-Nominated Film Letter to a Pig
The Living Memory Exhibition Center of the National Historical and Memorial Reserve “Babyn Yar” has opened the exhibition A Ukrainian-Jewish Century: Pictures and Stories from 1920 to 2025, alongside a screening and discussion of the Israeli-French animated short film Letter to a Pig, nominated for an Academy Award.
The events were held in connection with Yom HaShoah — Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day — and organised in partnership with Centropa, the Embassy of the State of Israel in Ukraine, the Nativ Israeli Cultural Center in Ukraine, and the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine.
“Babyn Yar is a place where history speaks very loudly. In September 1941, tens of thousands of Jews were murdered here. This place teaches us that genocide becomes possible when people are divided into ‘us’ and ‘them’.
“Today we are opening an exhibition that shows that Jews have always been part of the Ukrainian nation. We experienced the Holodomor and the Holocaust together, and today we are living through the current war together. This exhibition is about our shared lives, about Ukraine, and about the coexistence of cultures, histories and memories,” said Roza Tapanova, Director of the National Historical and Memorial Reserve “Babyn Yar”.
Michael Brodsky, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to Ukraine, emphasised the importance of Yom HaShoah as a day of remembrance for the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. He also stressed the importance of preserving this memory and passing it on to future generations.
A century of Ukrainian-Jewish life through family photographs and stories
Curated by Edward Serotta, the exhibition is based on the Centropa Collection, developed between 2001 and 2007 through a joint project of the Center for the Study of the History and Culture of East European Jewry at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Centropa Vienna.
Researchers interviewed 264 elderly Jews living in nine Ukrainian cities, digitised more than 3,000 family photographs and personal documents, and recorded 1,400 hours of personal stories spanning generations.
The collection is now preserved in the archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The exhibition was created specifically for the National Historical and Memorial Reserve “Babyn Yar” and its Living Memory Exhibition Center.
The exhibition invites visitors to explore a century of intertwined Ukrainian-Jewish life through photographs and personal narratives — from family portraits to scenes of everyday life at work, at school and on the beach. It also reflects on pivotal historical experiences, including the Holodomor, the Holocaust and wartime evacuation.
A dedicated section highlights Jewish writers with roots in Ukraine, from Nobel Prize-winning Israeli author SY Agnon, born in Buczacz, to contemporary writers such as Katja Petrowskaja.
The exhibition also includes photographs taken by Edward Serotta between 2022 and 2025 in Jewish communities in Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv, Rivne, Kyiv, Chernihiv and Chernivtsi, alongside photographs by Ukrainian photographers Maksym Levin and Taras Kovalchuk.
“The largest section of the exhibition is marked in blue. It presents stories that begin with the Holodomor, continue through the Holocaust and reach the present day. Whenever we interviewed people who shared their photographs with us, we asked them to tell us about the people pictured in them. These photographs tell stories not only about Babyn Yar, but also about tragedies that took place in many other parts of Ukraine,” said Edward Serotta, curator of the exhibition.
The exhibition is conceived as a permanent project at the Living Memory Exhibition Center and will be presented periodically alongside other exhibitions. The current presentation runs until 30 June 2026.
Letter to a Pig: cinema as a language of memory
The opening programme also featured a screening and discussion of Tal Kantor’s 17-minute animated short film Letter to a Pig, supported by the Embassy of the State of Israel in Ukraine, the Nativ Israeli Cultural Center in Ukraine and the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine.
The 2022 Israeli-French animated film received awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. In 2023, it was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Animated Short Film.
During the discussion, Stanislav Suknenko, film scholar, director and member of the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, and Oleksandr Husev, film critic, festival programmer and co-founder of the Ukrainian Film Critics Guild, spoke about cinema as a language of memory.
“Cinema is one of the most powerful tools for engaging with historical memory today. Tal Kantor’s Letter to a Pig shows how the traumatic experience of the Holocaust can be transformed across generations, and how memory can be transmitted not only through facts, but also through images, emotions and inner experience.
“This language of cinema makes it possible to speak about difficult subjects to a wider audience while preserving the depth and humanity of the conversation,” the speakers noted.
Visit the exhibition
A Ukrainian-Jewish Century: Pictures and Stories from 1920 to 2025 is on view at the Living Memory Exhibition Center of the National Historical and Memorial Reserve “Babyn Yar” from 14 April to 30 June 2026.
Venue:
Living Memory Exhibition Center
National Historical and Memorial Reserve “Babyn Yar”
46-A Yurii Illienko St., Kyiv
Opening hours:
Daily, 11:00–18:00
Admission: Free
Curator: Edward Serotta (Vienna)
Exhibition Design: Marie Gollner-Schmid (Vienna)
Translations: Olga Taratula (Sambir)
English Editing: Lauren Granite (Washington, D.C.)
Ukrainian Editing: Regina Dimitrsina, Anna Domnich (Vienna)
Coordination: Jonathan Schwers (Vienna), Olga Taratula (Sambir)
Exhibition Production: Infinitum (Kyiv)
The project is supported by:
Stiftung EVZ (Berlin)
The Alfred Landecker Foundation (Berlin)
Bader Philanthropies (Milwaukee)
The Kronhill-Pletka Foundation (New York)
The Robert and Walter Kohn Foundation (Seattle)