Holodomor Awareness Week

Holodomor commemorative display at our Windsor branch  

This week is National Holodomor Awareness Week. This is an annual event held in memory of the millions of people who perished in the Soviet-engineered famine that devastated Ukraine and other territories in the Soviet Union that contained large Ukrainian ethnic populations. Stalin ordered the devastation of the Ukrainian farming class in order to break the back of a potential anti-Soviet backlash brewing amongst a population unhappy with Soviet economic and national-assimilationist policies. Below is the text of the press release sent out on the occasion by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. For a link to a list of events being held across the country this month, please scroll down to the bottom of the press release.

National Holodomor Awareness Week

November 21 - 27, 2011

Canadians will unite in remembrance November 21-27 during the fourth annual National Holodomor Awareness Week.   Events across the country will commemorate one of the most heinous crimes in the history of mankind and honour its victims which number in the millions.  

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) continues its efforts to secure this genocide’s rightful place in the new publicly-funded Canadian Museum for Human Rights.  Recognized by the Parliament of Canada as genocide of the Ukrainian people, this year's Holodomor anniversary will be marked with a variety of commemorative programs and the participation of Holodomor survivors.

Understanding the horrible impact of famine on a country and its people, the Ukrainian Canadian community reached out to the Somali community in their time of need, raising over $110,000 for African Famine relief, presenting a cheque to UNICEF on October 28.

Throughout Canada, installations of black flags at prominent city locations will pay tribute to the millions of children, women and men who were victims of the Soviet regime's ruthless genocidal policy to eliminate the Ukrainian nation. 

A Commemorative Ceremony organized by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in cooperation with the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group will be held November 22 on Parliament Hill.

Saturday, November 26 marks International Holodomor Memorial Day and Holodomor Memorial Day in Canada. We urge Canadians will honour the memory of the victims with a moment of silence at 7:32 p.m. (19:32) and light candles of remembrance in their homes.  Memorial services will be celebrated in churches across the country on Sunday, November 27.

For a list of events across the country visit www.ucc.ca/holodomor/events.htm

For further information Darla Penner,  204-942-4627, dpenner@ucc.ca