Academician Yavornytsky – the Gardian of the Cossack’s History

Today’s session of the Gabfest Club session ("Window on America", Dnipropetrovsk / Ukraine) was dedicated to the outstanding Dnipropetrovsk citizen – Professor Dmytro Yavornytsky. The actuality of the topic was obvious – the main city street was re-named recently after this famous historian.
The group was offered a slide show prepared by the session’s moderator T.Gavryliuk. The presentation contained illustrative photos of Dmytro Yavornytsky that helped to keep the conversation going. The group needed to refresh their knowledge about the scientist and learn some new fun facts about his connection with the English language and culture.
The majority of the club members practice English in Ukraine for future travels abroad. It was logical to talk about Yavornytsky’s trips outside Ukraine. Besides several career trips (to Poland, to Russia, to Tatarstan) Professor made several trips to exotic destinations: to Central Asia and Egypt (via Greece and Turkey). The funny facts were that in modern times several Club members followed Yavornytsky’s steps: WOA’s American volunteer Mr.Jason visited the same places in Central Asia (Tashkent and Samarkand), the session’s moderator visited Egypt (Cairo, Aswan).
 

The conversation covered the memory and scientific achievements of professor Yavornytsky. The Club members had to guess the nicknames given to Yavornytsky and his home and render them into English for our American friend. That was quite a tricky task.
The highlight of the session was the use of various artifacts to create the appropriate atmosphere. A.Prakhov’s landscape “Scythian Babas” created the association with the local history museum named after Yavornytsky. The DOUNB Library’s XIX century edition of Zaporozhian Cossacks’ portraits enchanted the club members who are fond of history. The water color prints by a famous painter were framed into black and white vignettes. Each vignette was a still life depicting artifacts from D. Yavornytsky’s collection of Zaporozhian Cossacks’ antiquities: weapons, head gear, horse gear, household utensils.
The session enabled the participants to keep a conversation about D.Yavornytsky in English and enriched their knowledge with fun facts about their home town and oblast.
Number of participants – 27 persons.
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Holocaust

January, 27 is the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. 

The WOA centre Dnipropetrovsk has invited an American historian Dr. Paul A. Levine from the Swedish Uppsala University to present the book “Tell Ye Your Children”. The book written with a co-author Stephane Bruchfeld tells about the Holocaust in Europe 1933-1945.The copy of the book was signed by the author and donated to the WOA Centre.

The Ukrainian audience asked Dr. Levine many questions about his research methods and other books about Holocaust. It turned out that Dr. Levine is the author of another book: “Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Myth, History and Holocaust “.

Paul Levine presents here for the first time the true history of Raoul Wallenberg, one of the most-famous heroes of the Holocaust. It is the first scholarly study of Wallenberg and Swedish diplomacy in Budapest during the Holocaust which both utilizes and contextualizes those Swedish diplomatic documents which best describe his historic mission. Analyzing Wallenberg's own correspondence and reports, it provides a new insight into his motives and background. The study explores and deconstructs the many myths which have enveloped his morally important and heroic story. Together, the two strands of the study explain what Wallenberg did to assist and save many thousands of Jews in Budapest.

We hope to get this book as a gift from Dr. Levin very soon.

Dr. Levine has Ukrainian roots and finds this trip very sentimental. The WOA visitors recommended Dr. P.A. Levin numerous places in Dnipropetrovsk where he can enrich his knowledge about Holocaust in Ukraine.

The number of visitors – 28 persons.

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