March 24, 2014: 2014 Senior Institute Fellow Dr. Douglas Greenberg, Rutgers University Distinguished Professor of History, discusses a place that was in six different countries in the 20th century: the region of Wolyn, which is now in Ukraine. He is currently conducting research to reconstruct the experience of the survivors of the Holocaust who came from Wolyn, where 250,000 Jews were murdered before the death camps were completely operational.

Lev Pevzner discusses his participation in the 1943 Battle of the Dnieper when he, a Jewish soldier, served in the Soviet armed forces. As the Red Army approached the Dnieper, the Germans used the river to slow down the Soviets’ advance. Pevzner reflects on his involvement in the military offensive including assembling rafts to transfer supplies and personnel across the river. As a result of the battle, the Red Army liberated the eastern bank of the Dnieper, and subsequently, the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.