Monique Beech The Standard - 23 May 2008 http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1038915&auth=Monique+Beech Lidia Prokomenko remembers eating acorns and chewing grass to survive, and watching her neighbours die, during the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33. Now 83 and living in St. Catharines, Prokomenko was just eight years old when she witnessed dead bodies strewn on the streets of her childhood hometown of Harkiw. “It was worse than anything,” said Prokomenko. “It was worse than the (Second World) war.” Ukrainians call the event Holodomor, a genocide: a deliberate attempt to eliminate Ukrainians by starvation by Soviet Union communist leader Joseph Stalin. It’s widely believed Stalin ruthlessly instigated a famine in the Ukraine by imposing extremely high grain quotas and confiscating supplies down to the last seed. On Thursday evening, about 100 local Ukrainian-Canadians gathered at St. Catharines city hall to mark the 75th anniversary of the famine by lighting candles and calling on Ottawa to formally recognize the event as a genocide. For many years there’s been a debate among politicians over whether to call the tragic event — which took an estimated 10 million lives — a genocide. In 2003, the Senate of Canada voted to recognize the famine as a genocide and encourage historians, educators and parliamentarians to include the true facts of the famine in future educational material. The House of Commons has yet to follow suit. For years, the Soviet Union has attempted to hide or deny the historical truth of the genocide, said Olenka Choly, 20, of St. Catharines, who spoke at the rally. “We urge the government to recognize the Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian people,” Choly said. There are 35 Holodomor survivors in Niagara. For years, many Ukrainians were too afraid to speak about the forced starvation out of fear for relatives who remained under the power of the Soviet Union, said Alexandra Sawchuk, who is a member of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, St. Catharines branch. There are 35 Holodomor survivors in Niagara. That changed in 1991, when the Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union, she said. “It’s so painful, what happened to them,” Sawchuk said. “They must speak to it.” The Ukraine was widely considered the bread basket of the world until the famine, said Walt Lastewka, former St. Catharines MP. “Everything was taken away. It’s a genocide that we never wish to see repeated on this planet.” St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley, St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan and Welland MP John Maloney also attended. To draw raise awareness of the famine, an International Holodomor Remembrance Flame was created to mark the 75th anniversary and encourage the global community to recognize the tragedy. The flame, which will travel to 33 countries before landing in the Ukraine in November, made a stop in St. Catharines Thursday. Survivor Stefan Horlatsch, 87, of Toronto brought the eternal flame to the Garden City and is escorting it across Canada.