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HON. SANDER M. LEVIN of Michigan
in the House of Representatives
Mr. Speaker,
I rise today to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine of
1932 to 1933.
The Famine was engineered as part of Stalin's genocidal policy toward the
Ukrainian people, and resulted in the deaths of at least seven million
innocent men, women and children. Though these deaths were covered up and
denied for decades by the government of the former Soviet Union, the truth
surrounding these tragic events have been documented by witnesses and
survivors, as well as investigative works like Robert Conquest's Harvest of
Sorrow and the report of the Congressional Commission on the Ukraine Famine.
I recently received a letter from Dr. Walter Lyzohub from Redford Township,
Michigan. He wrote to tell me that he was a survivor of the Famine, but that
the Famine took the lives of his sister, Wira, as well as his brother, Iwan.
His sister and brother were age ten and nine, respectively. Dr. Lyzohub also
enclosed a family photograph taken in 1929, just three years before the
onset of the Famine.
For Dr. Lyzohub and other survivors of the Famine, these tragic events are
not just a footnote in history. They are as real as the faces in this
photograph of two children who died so needlessly. We honor the memory of
Wira and Iwan Lyzohub, and all the victims of the Ukrainian Famine of 1932
and 1933. It is important that we remember their lives and their deaths, and
work to ensure that food is never again used as a weapon.
Mr. Speaker, as we commemorate the anniversary of this man-made tragedy, we
join with Ukrainian-Americans and Ukrainians around the world in always
remembering the victims of the Famine.
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