Between 1941 and 1944, almost one and a half million Ukrainian Jews were assassinated when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The immense majority were killed by Einsatzgruppen firing squads (mobile execution units in the East), Waffen SS units, the German police and local collaborators. Only a small minority was assassinated after having been deported to extermination camps. Since 2004, Father Patrick Desbois and the Yahad-In Unum research team travel regularly through the regions of Ukraine, intent on identifying and assessing every site in the eastern and western Ukraine where Jews were exterminated by mobile Nazi units during the Second World War.

The exhibition at the Shoah Memorial, from the 20th of June 2007 to the 6th of January 2008, presents their ongoing research. En reconstituant les méthodes procédurales des assassins, il permet de mieux comprendre comment le génocide des Juifs d’Europe de l’Est a été réellement mis en pratique. It has finally become possible to preserve and respect the places of burial for the victims.