The Holodomor Remembrance Flame wrapped up its toured through the prairies this week. The Regina Leader Post posted an article on it with an interview with Stefan Horlatsch, a Holodomor survivor who has been representing the flame in Canada:

Horlatsch was 12 in 1932 and has vivid memories of the famine. When the famine-genocide began, Horlatsch and his family were living in Zaporizhia in the eastern region of Ukraine near the Black Sea. His family’s land, livestock and grain were seized by Soviet authorities. His father was sent to Siberia like most of the men during this time.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress estimates that one-third of Holodomor victims were children. In that short period of time, one-quarter of the Ukrainian population died. The genocide policy introduced by then-Soviet leader Joseph Stalin included confiscation of all food both inside and outside the homes. Ukrainian people were forced to stay within their communities, therefore making it impossible to search for food.