Jewish and Ukrainian Canadians Remember the Victims of the Holodomor in Soviet Ukraine

OTTAWA, Nov. 22, 2013 /CNW/ - In 1953, Raphael Lemkin, known as the father of the United Nations Convention on Genocide, described the 1932-1933 famine in Soviet Ukraine as a "classic example of Soviet genocide." He went on:  "…if the Soviet program succeeds completely, if the intelligentsia, the priest, and the peasant can be eliminated, Ukraine will be as dead as if every Ukrainian were killed, for it will have lost that part of it which has kept and developed its culture, its beliefs, its common ideas, which have guided it and given it a soul, which, in short, made it a nation...This is not simply a case of mass murder. It is a case of genocide, of the destruction, not of individuals only, but of a culture and a nation."

In 2006, Ukraine's Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, voted to affirm that the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine was an act of genocide. In May 2008 Canada's Parliament did likewise, establishing a national Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day, this year being marked on November 23rd, the 80th anniversary of this man-made catastrophe.

As Canadians of Ukrainian and Jewish heritage we call upon our fellow citizens of all faiths and backgrounds to join us in remembering the victims of Stalin and the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union, including the many millions murdered during the Holodomor - among the most terrible acts of genocide in European history.

Paul Grod, President, Ukrainian Canadian Congress
Shimon Fogel, Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

SOURCE: Ukrainian Canadian Congress

Taras Zalusky
Executive Director
[email protected]
[phone]

Steve Mcdonald
Associate Director, Communications
CIJA
Cell: [phone]