THE 70th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FAMINE-GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE

"Statement of Unity" released by Ukrainian, Jewish groups

Below is the text of "A Statement of Unity" released by the Ukrainian Federation of America and the American Jewish Committee, Philadelphia Chapter.

The Ukrainian Federation of America and the American Jewish Committee, Philadelphia Chapter, offer this joint statement on the 70th anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide of 1932-1933 which claimed the lives of millions.

The history of Communism and the Soviet Union, particularly in its Stalinist period, is a history of tragedy and suffering for many peoples. This genocidal Famine from 1932-1933 was not an unforeseen accident of nature. It was an evil perpetrated with cold and calculated efficiency by the Soviet state against a territory it controlled and kept sealed from the outside world.

Recently, new information on the Famine has been uncovered in U.S. and European archives, and documents both the tragedy itself and the mechanism of its perpetration.

The Ukrainian Federation and the American Jewish Committee are compelled to constructively use this 70th anniversary as an opportunity to publicly decry and condemn this notorious example of man's inhumanity to man, and call upon our communities and educators to teach, remember and thereby honor the memories of those who perished according to the plan of the savage regime of Joseph Stalin.

Our peoples are united by the horrors of this genocide, which gives new meaning to the concept of "food as a weapon," in a century riddled with the extermination of our fellow human beings. This is not only a Ukrainian tragedy. We are united in our efforts to ensure that it does not happen again.

Zenia A. Chernyk
UFA Chairperson

Robert A. Seltzer
AJC Executive Director

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, November 23, 2003, No. 47, Vol. LXXI

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