VAAD – Association of Jewish organizations and communities of Ukraine

VAAD of Ukraine represents 265 Jewish organizations, among them religious communities, educational and cultural organizations, as well as associations of ghetto and concentration camp survivors. In order to protect Jewish mass graves VAAD has been pressuring Ukrainian public authorities to comply with their legal obligations. Problems persist especially on municipal and regional levels. The Union of Councils for the Jews in the Former Soviet Union (UCSJ) has developed a program to localize and survey killing sites, including non-invasive fieldwork started in 2012 together with Ukrainian and British scientists. 187 sites were filed for acceptance as Ukrainian national cultural heritage site as of 2015. Meylakh Sheykhet, UCSJ’s director in Ukraine, officially represented VAAD at IHRA’s first Killing Sites Conference in Krakow.

See Meylakh Sheykhet's contribution to the IHRA "Killing Sites" volume.