Ahead of the actual recognition day for Holodomor on Nov. 22, a local woman and member of the Veselka Ukrainian Cultural and Heritage Club hosted a showing of a film and question and answer session at the Mahon Auditorium at the John M. Cuelenaere Public Library on Saturday.
Mari Knudsen hosted a showing of the film Mr. Jones to help raise even more awareness about the Holodomor genocide.
“Today is about helping people remember and be aware of the Holodomor, which happened in 1932 and 1933 in the USSR in the colony of Ukraine,” Knudsen said.
She explained that there is no accurate number because the area was controlled, but it is believed close to six million people died in Holodomor. She said it also affected the Volga region, and Northern Kazakhstan lost one-third of their population.
“Ukrainians overall lost the most because they were targeted by the Russian regime, Joseph Stalin in particular, to eliminate Ukrainians because they were independent. They had their own distinct language, they had their own distinct culture and traditions, and Joseph Stalin and his regime took that as a threat to the Communist system,” she said.
She wanted to bring awareness, particularly because her own family was affected.
“But what we’re bringing awareness to is how bad it was and what people had to deal with from having no food and all the grain confiscated, and if you were a kulak, which was a small landowner or farmer, and you resisted, like my grandfather did, he was shot in front of his whole family, and our family was sent to Siberia on a collective farm,” she said.
His family lost all their possessions, all their animals, and all their grain; everything was taken from them, and they were to be exiled for 10 years.
“The other ones that did remain had to work on collective farms, and these are all small farms that were integrated into large farms, state farms. Everything was owned by the state. No more individual ownership of land, animals, or anything,” she said.
“And the Holodomor, which means starvation by death or starvation by murder, is a recognized genocide,” she added.
Knudsen explained that she chose to do a film presentation because she is a visual person.
“I find that it’s much easier to absorb information when you’re watching it, rather than reading it, because it would take, I don’t know, a long time to read the history,” Knudsen said.
“There’s a lot of books out there, but to see a movie, you can get the gist of what happened immediately, and that’s what I wanted. I wanted people to become aware.
She said that there is a lot more information available through books, websites, and YouTube, for example.
The 2019 film Mr. Jones is based on real events from the life of journalist Gareth Jones. Jones travelled to Ukraine, where he experiences and documents the horrors of a man-made famine affecting millions under the rule of the USSR.
“I thought it would be a commercial movie that would not be too dramatic and too traumatic because I’ve seen Bitter Harvest, and I cried throughout the entire movie. And I thought, I don’t want, like even now, when I think about it, I tear up because this happened to my family,” Knudsen said.
Her family came to Canada because of the Holodomor.
“And the reason I’m here is because they were sent to Siberia, and after World War II and their experience, they came to Canada because they knew to go back to Ukraine would be under the Russian thumb, and that was not an option,” Knudsen said.
She explained that she hoped the presentation helps to raise awareness and curiosity to find out more about the Holodomor. She explained Holodomor Remembrance Day is on Nov. 22 this year because it happens on the fourth Saturday of November.
On Saturday, Nov 22, Veselka is hosting a prayer service and fellowship event at St. George’s Ukrainian Catholic Church to recognize Holodomor Memorial Day. The Holodomor of 1932-33 has been recognized as an act of genocide by both the province of Saskatchewan and the Government of Canada.
The prayer service is at 6:30 p.m. at St. George’s, with a short program to follow at 7 p.m. in St. George’s Hall.
In an email after the event, Knudsen said that the Q & A was greatly received.
”Many conversations expressing thoughts about the film, its content, and its connection to the present-day invasion by Russia. A great deal of personal history was shared. Why the Holodomor was not known outside of Ukraine: Soviet secrecy, surveillance, monitoring of all correspondence, activities in Moscow, especially against journalists, and George Orwell’s analogy of Animal Farm,” Knudsen said by email.
The entire goal was so people would remember.
“It’s so we don’t forget what happened. And then we realize, okay, we’re in the situation today again. Our country’s been invaded by Russia, this time through war, not through famine,” Knudsen said.
“I just want people to remember that this can happen again. These kinds of horrors are not just happening to Ukraine; they could happen anywhere. If you have a tyrannical authoritarian regime somewhere that wants your land, your territory, and wants to wipe you out, they can do it. They have plans, and I just want people to be aware of that,” Knudsen said.
