The Origins of Genocide in Buczacz, Ukraine
This research project will trace the origins of genocide in the complexities of interethnic relations over a long time span in the East Galician town of Buczacz, situated some 80 miles southeast of L'viv. Omer Bartov will investigate the dynamic that creates, or prevents, the transformation of a community based on interaction and cooperation into a community of genocide. Composed of a mixed Jewish-Polish-Ukrainian population for centuries, Buczacz saw the eradication of its Jewish inhabitants by Nazi murder squads assisted by local collaborators in World War II. The main outlines of the Holocaust in East Galicia have recently been reconstructed. But we know very little about how genocide actually unfolded on the ground, as weil as about the nature of the social fabric upon which these policies were enacted and to which it reacted. This can be better understood only by delving deeper into the past and providing the perspective of all groups involved in the event.
Omer Bartov is Professor of European History at Brown University.
U.a. Murder in Our Midst (Oxford/New York 1996); Mirrors of Destruction. War, Genocide and Modern Identity (Oxford/New York 2000); with Phyllis Mack: In God
Omer Bartov (Brown University, IFK_Gast des Direktors im SoSe 2004)
This lecture will trace a particular trajectory of Omer Bartov's writing about loss and its recovery, encompassing his 2018 monograph Anatomy of Genocide as a story of conflict and destruction; his forthcoming book, Tales from the Borderlands, as a retelling of the world of the borderlands before its destruction; his soon-to-be-published novel, The Butterfly and the Axe, as an attempt to fill in the gaps in the historical records of Bartov's family's murder, and observe its impact on three generations of Jews and Ukrainians; and, time permitting, some remarks on the book he is currently researching, Remaking the Past, which will trace the story of the first generation of Jews and Palestinians born in Israel after the establishment of the state in 1948.
Omer Bartov is a member of the advisory board of the »Globalized Memorial Museums« ERC project.