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BRAMA News Story
New York, New York
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New York - Ukrainian American community members and leaders, clergy and
government representatives, gathered at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Saturday
to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the Great Famine-Genocide of 1932-33
in Ukraine.
This little-known cataclysmic event in Ukraine's history as a result of
which many millions died and millions more suffered untold horrors is often
either ignored or misrepresented in Western history books. Historians are
still examining the facts surrounding the causes and effects of this dark
period, but enough evidence has been unearthed to prove that the Great
Famine-Genocide was a humanly engineered famine designed primarily to quash
the "rebellious" Ukrainian people. It was a plan devised by the Soviet
regime to bring an entire nation to its knees. Although Josef Stalin is
widely credited for the devastation, complicity on the part of military and
other authorities is unambiguous, yet no one has ever been brought to
justice for the heinous crime committed against the Ukrainian people.
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The Chorus "Dumka" sang responses to the memorial service and concluded the observance with a rendition of "Praise the Lord's name"
© HK/BRAMA
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The Nazi Holocaust against Jews and other religious and national groups in
which 6 million perished as a result of genocide (including some 300,000
Ukrainians) is an event studied by scholars young an old as part of the
typical school curriculum. But few textbooks include an accurate account of
the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide of 1932-33. The exact number of victims is
unknown (the Russian authorities did not keep as accurate records as did the
Germans during World War II, or destroyed much of the evidence pointing to
the atrocities committed in Ukraine), with some earlier estimates ranging
anywhere from as low as 2 million to as high as 10 million or more. Today
the consensus appears to have settled on a figure of 7 million deaths
attributed to the man-made famine - one that dramatically exceeds the loss
of life incurred by the Nazi Holocaust. The Ukrainian Congress Committee of
America is in the process of developing a plan to tackle the so-called
"white space" in high school textbooks.
Saturday's commemoration was organized by the Ukrainian Congress Committee
of America, and led by it's president, Michael Sawkiw. Guest speakers
included co-celebrants of the ecumenical memorial service panakhyda His
Beatitude Lubomyr Husar (Patriarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church),
Archbishop Anthony of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, and H.E.
Bishop Basil Losten of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Speakers representing
official Ukraine were the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States
Kostyantyn Hryshchenko, and Ambassador Valeriy Kuchinsky (Permanent
representative of Ukraine to the United Nations). The "Dumka" choir sang
responses to the memorial service.
BRAMA News Story, New York
http://www.brama.com/news/press/021118faminegenocide_stpatricks.html
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