23 November 2011
On Saturday, November 19th, thousands of Ukrainian Americans gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City to commemorate the 78th anniversary of Ukraine’s Genocide.
Accompanied by the harmonious voices of the Dumka Choir of New York, under the direction of Vasyl Hrychynsky, a solemn procession of children hailing from local Ukrainian Saturday Schools and the New York Chapter of the Ukrainian American Youth Association began this year’s requiem service. Upon reaching the alter, the children, donned in native Ukrainian embroidered shirts, reverently placed stalks of wheat and flowers around the Holodomor remembrance candle which adorned a table before the altar.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the newly elected Patriarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, then led the requiem service which was con-celebrated by the hierarchies of the Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic Churches with the participation of the Dumka Choir of New York. Together, the over four thousand faithful gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, prayed for the repose of the souls of the millions of innocent victims of Ukraine’s Genocide of 1932-1933.
Following the requiem service, His Eminence Archbishop Antony of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., eloquently and solemnly recounted the reasons we gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral each year. He reminded everyone that the Holodomor was a genocide committed against the Ukrainian nation, which we must never forget, and we must continue telling the world about what happened so that such a tragedy never occurs again.
The next to speak was the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America’s President, Tamara Olexy. She opened her remarks by asking all those present to imagine themselves as children while she connected those emotional images with what children must have experienced during this horrific time of genocide - enduring constant hunger pangs, bearing witness to the armed units that confiscated every last morsel of food and watching their loved ones die of hunger. “It is hard to conceive these gruesome scenes, but thankfully we can return to the reality and comfort of our surroundings. Yet for the few Holodomor survivors among us here today - such horrific scenes were not figments of their imagination, but, in fact for them in 1932-1933 such scenes were a frightening reality.”
Following her remarks, Ms Olexy invited His Beatitude Sviatoslav to the podium. The Father and Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church asked the Lord to heal the souls of the millions senselessly lost in Ukraine in 1932-1933. His Beatitude then relayed a first hand account of the Holodomor, based on a conversation with an individual who had survived both the Holodomor and the Nazi concentration camps. The survivor recalled that the Holodomor had been far more brutal on its victims, because at least in Auschwitz prisoners were given food.
Following his moving remarks, His Beatitude descended the altar steps and blessed the few gathered Holodomor survivors who had graced the Cathedral with their presence and inspired a sense of hope to the thousands gathered.
Ms. Olexy then introduced New York’s senior Senator, the Honorable Charles Schumer and thanked him for his continued support and attendance over the years. Senator Schumer expressed his heartfelt sentiments stating, “Remembering those murdered millions matters. It matters as we seek justice for the unspeakable. It matters as we honor the suffering and the eternal souls of the innocent. And it matters as we strive year-after-year, event-after-event, resolution-after-resolution, and prayer-after-prayer to bring the full light of day to this historic tragedy. It matters because to secure our place as a civilized people, in Ukraine and here in America, and indeed in every corner of this globe, we must call out evil for what it is... For those of us who are stung to the deepest part of our souls by the memory of hunger, and hate, and intolerance, and dehumanization; we who know the unspeakable terror that occurs when those sinister forces are bundled and manipulated into public policy and unrolled on the innocent as genocide; we have a moral responsibility to never forget and a moral responsibility to make sure the world knows the truth.”
The next speaker, William Pope, Senior Advisor for Europe to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, delivered a statement by the White House Press Secretary on the occasion of Ukrainian Holodomor Remembrance Day. As is customary throughout the years, the Ukrainian National Ukrainian Service (UNIS), the UCCA’s public affairs bureau in Washington, DC, requests an annual presidential message on the Holodomor. This year’s statement reads in part, “As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence -- a testament to the spirit and determination of the people of Ukraine -- we also remember the suffering they endured seventy-eight years ago during the catastrophic famine that has come to be known as the Holodomor – the “death by hunger… This terrible tragedy, created by the intentional seizure of crops and farms across Ukraine by Joseph Stalin, was one of communism’s greatest atrocities. Today, Americans join with the people of Ukraine and Ukrainians around the world in remembering those who suffered and died senselessly as a result of this manmade famine…”
H.E. Oleksandr Motsyk, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States then spoke about the Holodomor as one the great crimes against humanity. He reiterated his pledge to work fastidiously to make certain that the Holodomor memorial in Washington, DC is erected in time for the 80th anniversary.
