UCCA announces plans to build Famine memorial in D.C. (11/24/02)

UCCA announces plans to build Famine memorial in D.C.

Fourth annual requiem service held at St. Patrick's Cathedral

by Andrew Nynka

NEW YORK - The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, with the support of diaspora and U.S. government representatives, announced plans to build a memorial in Washington to the victims of the 1932-1933 Great Famine. UCCA President Michael Sawkiw Jr. made the announcement at a press conference here on November 16 after approximately 3,500 Ukrainians, as well as Cardinal and Major Archbishop Lubomyr Husar, primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, and other Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox Church hierarchs gathered for the fourth annual ecumenical requiem service offered for the victims of the Great Famine at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Mr. Sawkiw made the announcement at the UCCA headquarters on Second Avenue before a gathering of nearly 50 people. He said: "It gives me great pleasure to stand before you today and announce the fulfillment of a joint initiative with Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America to introduce House Resolution 5289, which allocates a plot of land in Washington, D.C., whereby the Ukrainian community will erect a monument to the victims of Ukrainian Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933."

Mr. Sawkiw said that a plan to build the monument was in the earliest stage of development and that more details about the proposed monument would emerge following passage of the congressional bill.

UCCA representatives said, however, that details on who would design the memorial, as well as what it would look like, would likely be decided by a competition of artists, architects or other interested individuals. The details of such a competition also are not yet known.

Askold Lozynskyj, president of the Ukrainian World Congress, the leading umbrella organization of the Ukrainian diaspora, said he and his organization fully support the initiative to build a monument to victims of the Famine and said it would serve two very important functions. First, the monument would educate people who were unaware of the Great Famine, said Mr. Lozynskyj, adding that the Western world was largely to blame for a lack of information on the Famine-Genocide and a monument in Washington would be a step towards ensuring that more people learn about the forced starvation of Ukrainians by Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin.

Second, Mr. Lozynskyj said, it is important not only for people to know the Great Famine occurred, but to understand why it happened. He stressed that the memorial would characterize the Great Famine of 1932-1933 as a Soviet government policy aimed at the "deliberate and systematic" destruction of the Ukrainian people and not, as some have stated, the result of natural causes, the UWC president said.

Mr. Lozynskyj added that, to date, only the United States has recognized the Great Famine through a 1988 commission established by the U.S. Congress which called the Great Famine a genocide against Ukrainians. UCCA officials said that, despite that recognition, the memorial in Washington would be only the second memorial to the Great Famine on public land in the United States.

Mr. Sawkiw added, "the UCCA has been working diligently on the issue of constructing a monument to the victims of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide and I am extremely pleased to announce that our efforts have come to fruition."

The UCCA president said that the unveiling of the new monument, planned for 2008, would commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Great Famine. The cost of building the memorial, Mr. Sawkiw said, would rest on the Ukrainian American diaspora.

In a letter read to the group assembled in St. Patrick's Cathedral from the surrounding New York metropolitan area, including New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvia, President George W. Bush sent his greetings and said he joins "the people of Ukraine and Ukrainian Americans in remembering the victims of this horrific chapter in history."

The president also said: "Today, the United States continues to assist a free and independent Ukraine in constructing its democratic structures, instituting a free-market economy and full respect for human rights. Such efforts will help ensure that no such atrocity as the Famine of 1932-1933, will ever befall the Ukrainian nation again."

In his remarks at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Cardinal Husar, the keynote speaker for the commemoration, underlined the purpose of gathering to commemorate the Famine. "We are assembled in this church to pray and reflect in prayerful spirit about this terrible past and its consequences today." The cardinal added that, moving forward, "we should dedicate ourselves to greatness, to beauty, to love."

Gov. George Pataki of New York, Reps. Levin (D-Mich.) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), as well as the Consul General of Ukraine in Chicago Borys Bazylevsky, sent messages that were read during the press conference. Their statements commemorated the 69th anniversary of the Great-Famine and supported the UCCA initiative to build a Washington memorial. Rep. Levin, the main sponsor of H.R. 5289, said, "It is important that we remember their [the victims of the famine] lives and their deaths, and work to ensure that food is never again used as a weapon."

Rep. Kaptur also expressed her strong support for a Famine memorial in Washington. "This year, however, we not only look back and grieve the victims, but glance into the future," Rep. Kaptur said.

"We need to ensure that the memory of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide lives on and warns future generations against allowing oppressive regimes to rule over any nation," Rep. Kaptur said.

"I am honored to add my support to the construction of a monument in Washington, D.C., to the victims of the Ukraine Famine-Genocide. It reminds us of the history, helps us educate the generations to come and serves as a daily reminder of the despicable deeds of oppressive regimes," Rep. Kaptur added.

Also taking part in the commemoration were Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of New York, Archbishop Antony of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., Bishop Basil Losten of the Stamford Eparchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Valeriy Kuchinsky and Consul General of Ukraine in New York Serhiy Pohoreltzev.

Responses to the requiem service were sung by the Dumka Chorus of New York.

Statements made during the press conference by Ambassadors Gryshchenko and Kuchinsky, Consul Pohoreltzev, and Cardinal Husar all supported the UCCA's initiative to build a Famine memorial.

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