WASHINGTON – As the sun was setting on October 4 in the nation’s capital, a large group of Ukrainians and friends of Ukraine gathered in front of the Holodomor Memorial here for the Candle of Remembr-ance observance marking the 85th anniversary of Stalin’s genocidal starvation of millions of Ukrainians in 1932-1933.
Organized by the Ukrainian Embassy and the U.S. Committee for Ukrainian Holodomor Genocide Awareness as part of the two-month long commemoration of that tragedy, the evening observance began with prayers led by the pastors of the area’s three Ukrainian churches, the official lighting of candles in front of the memorial, the placing of symbolic dry wheat bouquets at the foot of the memorial and the singing of the traditional funeral song “Vichnaya Pamiat.”
Addressing the gathering, Ambassador Valeriy Chaly also expressed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s appreciation for the U.S. Senate’s passage by unanimous consent on the previous day of Senate Resolution 435 commemorating the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor and recognizing that it was a genocide.
The U.S. position on the Holodomor issue was further discussed by George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, who earlier had served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
During the ceremony, Michael Sawkiw, chairman of the U.S. Holodomor Committee and director of the Ukrainian National Information Service, was honored by Ambassador Chaly for his dedication and work in Ukrainian affairs in Washington.
Also participating in the ceremony was Larysa Kurylas, who designed that “Field of Wheat” Holodomor monument, which was dedicated in Washington in 2015 at a ceremony attended by Ukraine’s First Lady Maryna Poroshenko.
Yaro Bihun
Standing in front of the Holodomor Memorial in Washington during the Candle of Remembrance ceremony with a Ukrainian flag on her shoulders and tears in her eyes, Ilona Doerfler slowly reads the names of some of the children who died along with millions of other Ukrainians during Stalin’s Holodomor genocide in Ukraine. As she was reading those names, a few raindrops started falling from the sky.
The most moving segment of the ceremony came when a Ukrainian American activist, Ilona Doerfler, with a Ukrainian flag on her shoulders and tears in her eyes, slowly read the names of a selected small group of 85 children from the millions of Ukrainians killed during the Holodomor.
The evening ceremony concluded with the Washington area Ukrainian choir Spiv Zhyttya singing “Svicha” and a moment of silence.
The Washington ceremony was part of an 85-day remembrance journey that began September 1 in Kyiv at the National Museum Holodomor Victims Memorial and is planned to conclude there – after crossing five continents – on November 24.
The Ukrainian Embassy noted that in the days preceding the Washington ceremony, similar commemorative ceremonies were conducted on October 2-3 in Hartford Conn.; Albany, Kerhonkson, Syracuse and Yonkers N.Y.; Miami; and Seattle. Holodomor events in Philadelphia; Passaic, Whippany and South Bound Brook N.J.; and Boston were held on October 4 and later.