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Dnipropetrovsk Commemorates Holodomor Victims with 5,000 Meeting

Over 5,000 Dnipropetrovsk residents took part in the meeting dedicated to the memory of Holodomor victims at the Pisarzhevsky Park. Dnipropetrovsk dwellers, including children, high school students, representatives of the authorities, public and political organizations laid wheat ears and pots with grain to the memorial cross. The ceremony was followed by a memorial service for the victims of the 1932-1933 famine.

In his speech acting head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration Viktor Bondar said that the Manmade Famine of 1932-1933 (Holodomor) was the most tragic page in the history of the Ukrainian people, which the Ukrainians have no right to forget. “Millions of Ukrainians were starved to death then,” Mr. Bondar recalled, “and our duty is finding and preserving archive documents, collecting witness accounts from people who survived the famine so that the Ukrainian people could live to these days.”

On the same day, a requiem meeting was held in all Dnipropetrovsk oblast cities and districts, gathering together a considerable number of people. At 4:00 p.m., as part of the all-Ukrainian Light a Candle action, people lit candles in the shape of a cross at Holodomor victims memorials. Lit candles can also be seen in the windows of private houses and apartments.

On the eve of the Day of the Memory, oblast authorities have distributed over 300,000 copies of informational leaflets, with local TV channels and printed media preparing a series of programs and materials dedicated to Holodomor. Around 3,000 lectures, classes, memorial soirees have been held. On the eve of the 75th anniversary, a number of monuments and memorial signs were unveiled in Dnipropetrovsk oblast towns and villages, including a huge Stele of Memory to those dying in 1932-1933 in the town of Pereshchepino.

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