Weekend watching: Holodomor videos and memorial celebrations

Tomorrow is Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day in Canada. I’ve collected quite a few videos including survival testimonials to help you give proper respect for the 7-10 million victims of this genocide:

 

Documentaries

  • Harvest of Despair – The original 1980’s documentary that aired on Canadian, American and British TV as well many schools around the world, which first brought light to this injustice – before the worlds of cell phones and the internet.
  • Holodomor. Ukraine, XX Century – The National television company of Ukraine produced a comprehensive documentary back in 2009 in both English and Ukrainian.
  • Planète – Holodomor episode – This is probably the first ever TV documentary on the Holodomor, produced by Radio Quebec back in 1983.  It features James Mace, the prominent Harvard researcher who published works on how the Holodomor was in fact genocide. It also mentions the Walter Duranty of the New York Times who denied the famine out right to the West, as well as the complicity of the British government not to help because of it’s relationship with the Soviet Union at the time.
  • The Soviet Story – A popular modern documentary about the Soviet crimes against humanity and its own people. It has many great interviews with Holodomor survivors, an overview of the entire Soviet system as well as forecasts for Europe’s future.
  • NPR’s Worldview – Holodomor episode – Audio only, it features great interviews with a survivor, clergy, academia, media and more!

 

Survivor Testimonials

For those who can endure it, here are interviews with many different survivors:

 

Memorial celebrations

There is still time to join one of the many celebrations, the UCC has them posted on their website.

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