«Women's Service tо Ukraine» in Organization of Volynian Private Institutions in the Period of the Second World War

Abstract

During World War  the Ukrainian population had intensified around the developmentof a nationalstateontheoccupiedterritoryofWesternUkraine.Forthispurpose, thelocalUkrainianauthoritieshad agreedtocooperatewiththeNazioccupiers. The cultural and educational societies had resumed their work in Lviv, and their activities had been extended to Volyn.One of these associations was the «Women's Service to Ukraine», which had inherited the organizational foundations, goals and objectives of the previous «Union of Ukrainians», which hadoperated in the interwar period.In the military environment the association hadchanged the name, which has updated the new program of action. The womenʼs movement hadcovered various sections of civil labor, overcoming the challenges of the war age.

The purpose of the study is to integrate the activities of the «Women's Service to Ukraine»according to the introduction of national preschool education and the peculiarities of training of pedagogical staffon the background of the «new order»of the occupation regime.The educational activity of the women's institution with the Volyn population regarding the establishment of kindergartens has been analyzed.

For a short period of time, the «Women's Service to Ukraine»had organized several dozen of preschool institutions with the national education system and hadprovided them with the staff. However, the kindergartens had been seasonal in nature, when the parents had been busy with the agricultural work. Prohibitionof the German authorities of the association’s activity had stopped the national women's movement.

Keywords: «Women's service to Ukraine», Volyn, preschool establishments, Nazi occupation, cultural and educational work, national consciousness