PCCA invites you to participate in a virtual event aimed at providing a space to reflect on the war in Ukraine and its reverberations. On the 24th of February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine, an act that was foreseen for some time yet still unbelievable. Is history repeating itself?  We did not believe it could happen in the 21st century. 

This was the moment in which a relatively predictable reality that lasted since the 70’s was shattered by an act of aggression sending us back to a chapter in history, we thought we had moved away from.

On the 24th of February the world woke up from assumptions about a future that is predictable enough, from assumptions about civility, from assumptions about the power of agreements to control international disputes, or counting on our life as we know it. 

A painful wake up. The unthinkable became thinkable – an unprovoked land war in Europe causing tragic suffering, awakening the potential risk of nuclear accident or incident. 

This war has far-reaching effects on all of us. Those who are directly affected – Ukrainians whose lives were shattered from one moment to the another, whether by staying in place and being threatened, or by finding shelter in safer places, being displaced or even as refugees. It has an effect on those in neighboring countries who try to reach out and help, and on all those not directly affected but whose illusion of a safe world was shattered. The political, military, and economic fallouts are still in the making. The refugee crisis, with more international and internally displaced people than at any time since the end of WWII, is posing a massive challenge. We will all be at the receiving end of the shortage of grains and oil. For millions it will mean hunger and a cold winter. 

Second and third generations of WWII and of other wars are visited by the shadow of the past. 

History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes: a ruthless force is again changing the course of history. We are now all part of this change, participating in it and witnessing it as it unfolds. What can we do as citizens in our various places to see that history will not repeat itself.      

PCCA – Partners in Confronting Collective Atrocities, will host this event. 

PCCA’s work on the aftermath of the Holocaust taught us that besides the atrocities of physical destruction and the endless killings of the innocent, there is internal damage, which is equally, perhaps even more devastating and long-lasting. We believe that providing a space for reflection can mitigate the devastating damage.

The aim of this event is to provide a space, in the midst of the evolving war, to reflect on where this war meets everyone in light of their personal and collective past, present and future. The aim is to gain a better understanding of what we, wherever we are, are going through, by bringing together people from different countries who are differently related to the unfolding events.

We are offering our PCCA community the ‘War in Ukraine PCCA Event (WUPE)’, a virtual event that will make use of PCCA tools to better understand the times we live in, our experience of these times, and what we can take from our experiences into the future. PCCA’s focus on the impact of human suffering and atrocities on our lives and our societies is uniquely suited to help us reflect on our experience during the present war.