London Remembers Holodomor

By Steve Andrusiak

On the streets outside of London City Hall in Southwestern Ontario, commuters were making their way home.  It was 5 pm., Friday, May 23.  Inside, by the City Council Chamber, at the top of a wide winding staircase, a security guard was showing people in.  They were quickly filling the main floor and balcony and he wondered aloud whether he should have called in more staff to help with the seating.

On a night when most Londoners were thinking only of the weekend ahead, two hundred area residents of Ukrainian descent joined by federal and provincial politicians, a Ukrainian consul and by the Mayor of London, Ontario were looking back in time.  All were there to honour the memory of the victims of the Holodomor Famine Genocide in Ukraine seventy five years ago.

 “We have gathered here to remember and to confirm” said Victor Pedenko, the General Secretary of the Ukrainian World Congress and the evening’s moderator.  Mr. Pedenko asked everyone to rise with Father Slawomyr Lomaszkiewicz of the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Church.  “Give rest to the souls … in a place of light and a place of refreshment …” they prayed. 

The President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – London Branch, Daria Hryckiw explained that “the Holodomor had been … a deliberate attempt to break the will of the Ukrainian people.  This year, Ukrainians throughout the world are commemorating the sudden eradication of millions in this forced famine.”  

In April, the International Remembrance Flame torch with the words- “Ukraine Remembers - The World Recognizes” was lit in Australia.  Since then, it has been on a journey that will take it through thirty three countries- a journey that will end in Kyiv in November where it will burn before the monument to the victims in Ukraine’s capital city.  On this May night, the Flame was in London where it was seen by many and among them were ten area residents who witnessed and survived the Holodomor. 

At the time of the Holodomor in Ukraine 1932-33, Katryna Rypka was twelve, Natalka Dula – nine, Victoria Kaliusna – eight, Oleksandra Tyschenko – seven, Tetyana Harasym – seven, Basil Wasko – eleven, Ivan Danylchenko – six, Mykola Koshman – six,  Stefan Tyschenko  - eleven, and  Mike Fediw - six.  “We thank the Lord that they are with us to … pass (the story) to future generations” Pedenko said.   Halyna Wolodchenko had been the eleventh and the oldest member of the survivors’ group.  However, she would not share in this acknowledgement as her friends buried her only the day before.

London’s Mayor Ann Marie DeCicco-Best said “it was important to understand the atrocity” and to honour those who embody “the spirit that never died.”  The Mayor then asked everyone to recognize the survivors and their passion for life.  Applause filled the room.  “Amid the sadness there was much to celebrate.  The resilience of a remarkable nation made evident by these citizens of London” she said.

London West Member of Parliament Sue Barnes said   “it is hard to imagine that this happened.   “All Canadian youth have … to learn the lessons that this flame recognizes.”  

London West Member of Provincial Parliament Chris Bentley called the Holodomor “an unspeakable loss … and when we are presented with challenges, we will rise up as one” he said.

Yakiv Pyrih, the Consul of Ukraine in Toronto, said that during the years 1932 – 1933 “seventeen Ukrainians died every minute.  One thousand died every hour.  Twenty five thousand died every day.   Eleven thousand villages were left deserted.  This is the sad math.  How could we calculate the sorrow, the agony, the horror?” he asked.

Mike Fediw, one of the survivors wrote a poem which his granddaughter Julia Fediw and Adrian Yemchuk recited.  It includes a call to the next generation and reads as follows:

“Round the world, near and far, all my children please hear

Hold my hand as we pray for the Holodomor”.

As the poem was read,  Ukrainian Consul Y. Pyrih slipped out of the Chamber and returned holding the Holodomor Remembrance Flame, passing the torch to the poem’s author - Mr. Fediw who in turn, presented it to Mayor Ann Marie DeCicco-Best.

 “We wish to reach out from this commemoration to the many other peoples who have suffered…. Even today, tyrants are using food as a weapon against this humanity.  We understand.  We ask that our children keep the Holodomor candle flame lit in their hearts.  We ask that together we seek the truth and to tell it”, said Secretary General Pedenko.  As the ceremony drew to a close, children extended long thin candles towards the Remembrance Flame and made that flame their own.