We Remember What You Did

My husband is always the one to throw out a bag of stale chips or dinner leftovers I put in the fridge on Monday and let stay there for a week.

Do you know why?

I simply can’t do that.

🌾I carry one of the deepest wounds that all Ukrainians share: a collective, transgenerational trauma caused by the intentional starvation of the Ukrainian people in 1932-1933, known as Holodomor.

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒The impact of the Holodomor extended beyond the immediate survivors. Children born to those who lived through the famine often grew up in environments marked by loss and hardship, and many families experienced a break in generational continuity.

🐦‍⬛As a child, I was taught never to waste food, to finish my meals, and to show respect for bread as the staple food. Throwing bread in the trash was considered unacceptable. My grandmother would collect the slices and crumbs and feed them to the birds.

🍞There is a Ukrainian proverb that says, “Bread is the head of everything,” which illustrates my point.

🌻The Holodomor also had the dual purpose of suppressing Ukrainian national identity. The famine wasn’t just a means of breaking the will of the Ukrainian people—it was part of a broader Soviet (aka russian) strategy to eliminate Ukrainian cultural and political autonomy.

🛑This repression stunted the development of the Ukrainian language, culture, and political institutions, leaving many Ukrainians to grow up in an atmosphere of fear, silence, and cultural erasure.

But we remember.

🕯️Every fourth Saturday of November at 4 pm, Ukrainians light a candle to commemorate the victims and generations of the unborn.

#holodomor, #russiaisaterroriststate, #ukraine, #weremember