On April 26, the Khmelnytskyi College of Finance and Economics hosted a meeting of students with people who survived the terrible disaster of the 20th century – the Holocaust. These were clients of the Khmelnytskyi Charitable Foundation “Hesed Besht” Leonid Pidlisny and Arkady Vainer. There are few left who saw with their own eyes the fascists and the suffering they brought to the occupied territory in 1941-1944, so this meeting, which became possible thanks to the FEC Directorate, was extremely important for the younger generation.
The opening speech from the students clearly outlined the time frame and topic of the meeting. Now, in the spacious assembly hall, it is difficult to imagine what horrors took place more than seventy years ago in all parts of our region and the rest of the occupied territory. But living witnesses, already in solid years and with graying temples, in their own words conveyed those memories that still haunt some. We provide audio recordings of the stories of both former prisoners.
Leonid Pidlisny successfully operated with figures and facts, behind each of which stood hundreds and thousands of innocent souls. He shared testimonies about what happened in concentration camps, where children were held, who conducted experiments on young enslaved Jews. Having built a bridge to the present day, he also told how today we have to fight for the preservation of memory, the protection of execution sites from unauthorized searches by "black" archaeologists, and the work that members of the organization of former ghetto prisoners are currently doing.
Arkady Weiner's story depicted the difficult fate of a Jewish boy in a hostile environment. The fact that he was tried to be shot four times confused the audience. The students were able to imagine how a former almost their peer fought for life in a world where death lurked at every turn.
Finally, all the participants of the gathering watched the documentary “Podilska Golgofa” by Petro Slobodyanyuk, which tells about the places of mass extermination of prisoners of war and Jews in the Khmelnytskyi region.
Another aspect of this meeting was the personal acquaintance of the employees of the "Thia" Center with representatives of the FEC and the planning of a student excursion to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Podillia in the near future. Such cooperation is necessary for everyone, because thanks to it, such a phenomenon as the Holocaust has much less chance of recurring in the future.
