Ukrainian Canadian Congress launches National Holodomor Awareness Week

We were guilty, we just didn't know of what, of what sins.
Simply because we were called Ukrainians.

Halyna Huba
Holodomor survivor, Poltava oblast

OTTAWA, 18 Nov. 2014 /CNW/ - The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) has launched National Holodomor Awareness Week from 17-23 November 2014.

Eighty one years ago, in an attempt to silence the Ukrainian nation and quell its aspirations for independence, Stalin's totalitarian regime sentenced millions of our people to death by starvation. "Ukraine is now of the utmost importance ... If we do not deal with the situation in Ukraine, we can lose Ukraine forever ...", wrote Joseph Stalin in 1932 to the Secretary of the Communist Party, Lazar Kaganovich.

Despite the decades-long efforts by communist authorities, and attempts by other contemporary forces to disinform and erase from human memory the horrific experiences of the Holodomor, the world today knows the facts about this crime. Archival documents, scholarly research and testimonies by survivors have contributed to recognition of the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian nation and to remembrance of  the countless victims by governments and international institutions.

In Canada, we have led the international community with the recognition by the Canadian Federal Government of the Holodomor as an act of genocide in 2008 with similar recognition by the Provincial Governments of Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

The consequences of the Holodomor on the Ukrainian nation still reverberate eighty one years later as the Ukrainian people face a military threat from the Russian Federation to their aspirations for independence, a threat which attempts to deny their right to live in dignity in an independent, sovereign, democratic European state.

We must continue to raise awareness of the Holodomor and ensure that future generations continue to learn, remember and understand the tragic pages of our history.

On Saturday, 22 November 2014, International Holodomor Memorial Day and National Holodomor Memorial Day, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress calls upon all Canadians to:

• remember the victims of the Holodomor with a moment of silence at 19:32 local time;
• light candles of remembrance in homes;
• participate in local commemorative events and memorial services.

May our memory of the victims of the Holodomor – 1932-33 Famine Genocide remain eternal.

Ukraine remembers – the World acknowledges!

SOURCE: Ukrainian Canadian Congress Ottawa Branch

Media Contact: Irene Mycak, Chair, UCC National Holodomor Awareness Committee, 416-919-6566, [email protected]