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Kateryna Yushchenko’s speech at the ceremony to commemorate 1932-1933 Famine victims

Dear friends!

Dear Ukrainian community!

It is hard to find proper words at this moment of spiritual elevation inspired by this beautiful music. From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank musicians for their wonderful and magic performance. At this moment I would like to commemorate the bright personality of the coryphaeus of choral liturgical music – Professor Ivan Truhlyi whose memory we honor today.

I am confident that with these sounds of divine music our memory brought up bright images of those who are not with us anymore. We kept remembering our recent and old losses. We remembered those lost by Ukraine. Under the vault of the Temple of God the heart of every person was repeating the words of prayer for the pure souls of martyred. It is our holy duty to remember them.

Today we are going to lay flowers to the monument of Holodomor victims. No matter how many years pass, we will always mourn our tormented brothers and sisters. Only now when archives start opening, when documents are released, when live and dead witness, we are beginning to realize the immense scale of tragedy and understand its impact. It is terrifying to comprehend what it means for the nation to lose 10 million people. Our hearts fill with sorrow, but we have no right to turn off.  This pain is holy, and all of us have to go through it.

The truth about our tragedy was hidden from humankind for decades. The will and patriotism of Ukrainians living abroad did not let another crime happen – the crime of silence. New Ukraine knows how much efforts had to be put by the Ukrainian community of the United States in order for the world to find out about Holodomor. The Congress of the United States was the first one to call Holodomor its real name – genocide. This happened because of and thanks to enormous efforts, patience and persistency of my native Ukrainian community of Chicago.

I am proud of the fact that today the state of Ukraine puts all the efforts in making sure that the world acknowledges The Great Famine of 1932-1933 as the crime against humans and humanity. You heard President Victor Andriyovych Yushchenko speaking at the Jubilee Session of the United Nations: “The world community has to reveal the truth about this crime. This is the only way for us to make sure that indifference will never again encourage criminals”.

Currently Ukraine implements a state nation-wide program of commemorating the victims of Holodomor.

It includes establishing The Ukrainian Institute of the National Memory, passing a law on political and legal assessment of Holodomor in the history of Ukrainian people, organizing open access to respective archived documents. The government takes care of tombs of perished, put monuments and memorable signs at those locations. The new government takes care not only of those who died, but also of those who survived the Famine. These Decrees have already been signed by President.

On November 26 Ukrainians will commemorate the Memory Day of Victims of Holodomor and Political Repressions. That day the whole nation will mourn for the perished. The memorial knells and requiems, millions of candles and the minute of silence as long as eternity will notify the world of the 72th anniversary of the tragedy of the great European nation. I know that at that day the great Ukrainian family will mourn as one.

The Foundation “Ukraine 3000” where I chair the Supervisory Council makes its contribution to preservation of the memory of the Holodomor tragedy. Little by little we collect all the information on “the harvest of sorrow” and try to communicate it to public. We have to remember about the tragedy of the past so that today we are not indifferent to those who are in need.

New Ukraine inherited hard legacy of human tragedies and problems from its past. We have to find the way to help the least protected  - children first of all. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those who responded to the call for help. You can be proud of what you did for Ukraine because you supported its future.

I know that Ukrainians are strong by their unity. No matter where we live, we always remember our roots, we are ready to work together for Ukraine, to help each other. It was this precious tradition that helped us to go through hard times. I am confident that it will always live in the great Ukrainian community.

I would like to thank you again for the divine music and for the opportunity to address to you.

Thank you, Thank God and Glory to Ukraine!