Address by president of UCCA (11/23/03)

THE 70th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FAMINE-GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE

Address by president of UCCA

Below is the text of the address delivered by Michael Sawkiw Jr., president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, after the Famine-Genocide memorial service held at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Your Excellencies, Reverend Clergy, Famine survivors, distinguished members of the Ukrainian government, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen:

The preamble of the United Nations Convention on Genocide describes the term genocide as an "odious scourge." The definition in Webster's dictionary is even more descriptive: "Genocide - the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group." Although the crime is ancient, the term is fairly new. It is shocking that in the 20th century, genocide has been so calculatingly and effectively used as a political-ideological weapon.

Today, we gather within the sacred walls of St. Patrick's Cathedral to commemorate the 70th solemn year since the political, man-made, artificial Famine-Genocide in Ukraine. As to the number of victims in this planned genocide, one can only estimate. Even sketchy Soviet statistics from that period (even now still hard to obtain) cannot hide the fact that at least 7 million, and perhaps as many as 10 million, men, women and children fell victim to the consolidation of Stalinism in Ukraine. The exact toll may never be known.

Unfortunately, few Western media outlets reported on the onslaught of death and starvation in Ukraine 70 years ago. Some, including The New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, even went so far as to claim that the Ukrainian Famine never existed.

But we are here to say otherwise. Knowledge of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide must be an integral segment of world history and the unfortunate act of genocide perpetrated among the Ukrainian nation must be recognized so that history never repeats itself again. Rightfully so, steps toward this direction have already been accomplished as witnessed by a "March of Remembrance" along New York City streets, through academic conferences, recognition by national legislatures worldwide of the 70th anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide in commemorative resolutions. No more than 15 years ago, the findings of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine in the U.S. Congress concluded that "Stalin perpetrated genocide upon the Ukrainian people."

Thus, on this "Ukrainian Famine-Genocide Remembrance Day," let us recall the victims of this horrific genocide and their incredible and ultimate sacrifice for freedom and liberty - one's own life. I know of no better way to describe the horrors and unfathomable realities of the Famine-Genocide than through the words of someone who has experienced its veracity. A quote from the book "Days of Tyranny, Night of Terror" [by historian Leonid Leshuk]:

"February 1933

"My Dear Brother and Sister-In-Law,

"We are now to the point where we soon won't be able to fetch a pail of water. We are to the point that we don't even look like people and aren't rational like people. We can't even put ourselves under the earth; if someone dies, he doesn't get a grave. Everything is totally dead in the village. Days go by when one doesn't see anybody. There is no trace of either man or cattle, and so we have decided to stay at home and prepare ourselves for death. But the most difficult thing to bear would be if the children remain left behind, that they would continue to suffer on aimlessly and hopelessly as we have been doing. Almost our entire circle of friends has starved to death; one hears from morning to night the crying of the children."

| Home Page |