aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Re: [announce] Expert Scholar and Historian Joins"HOLODOMOR" Documentary Feature Film Team

["Max Pyziur" <pyz@brama.com>]

Greetings Maya,

While I am for the study of the Holod and the pursuit of true justice
resolving its criminality, I'm very much against its use as a vehicle for
competitive martyrdom.

This year people have begun citing the number of victims as being ten
million, up from the often-cited seven million from a few years ago.
However, no serious historical study has been done to ascertain what the
actual number is. Just as there is no clear proof as to where the six
million comes from when discussing the Jewish holocaust, among other
national tragedies. Is it a random quote by President Yushchenko that has
given everyone license to embrace "10"?

One scholar in particular, Vasyl Markus, noted in the entry which he
authored in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine that the number could be as low as
two to three million. However, w/o any clear effort to find relevant
evidence in the form of documents, testimony, and remains, it's a guess.

The original determination of victims were derived from the comparison of
two different censuses and then hypothesizing expected birth and mortality
rates to come up with a shortfall to equate to the number of victims. If
assumptions were incorrect, people who were never born would be included.

Also, be careful with whom you align yourself. Every national tragedy
seems to have a ready cast of amateurs standing in the wings waiting to
make a career out of it.

This year I learned that I had a great-grandmother in Letichvski raion,
Khmel'nytsky' oblast who died in the Holod. I would like to have marched
to St. Patrick's to commemorate her tragedy, as well as those of others.
But I'm not going to participate for the reasons mentioned above.

Max Pyziur
pyz@brama.com

>
>   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         Contact:
> Marta Tomkiw
>   January 24, 2008
>        Tel: +1.213.840.4780
>
>
>   EXPERT SCHOLAR AND HISTORIAN JOINS "HOLODOMOR" DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
> TEAM
>
> Hollywood , CA. Esteemed Rutgers University Professor Taras Hunczak, PhD
> has joined the "HOLODOMOR; Ukraine 's Genocide of 1932-33" feature-length
> documentary film team as the film’s expert, historian and researcher.
>
> Professor Hunczak is a world-renowned scholar who has focused his research
> and years of study on Ukraine, Russia, Poland and national minorities of
> Ukraine. He received his PhD from the University of Vienna in 1960 and has
> authored and edited twenty-seven books and over sixty articles and
> chapters on the subject of Ukrainian, Russian and Jewish-Ukrainian
> relations.  His other activities include serving in November 1993 as
> consultant to the CSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and
> Preventive Diplomacy in Hague, The Netherlands. Professor Hunczak has also
> received numerous awards in the United States and in Ukraine for his
> academic accomplishments as well as for his contributions to building
> civic society in Ukraine.
>
> "HOLODOMOR; Ukraine 's Genocide of 1932-33" is in production by Tomkiw
> Entertainment and Moksha Films. The film’s production coincides with the
> 75th anniversary of the Holodomor, Ukraine 's genocide of 1932-1933.
> "HOLODOMOR; Ukraine's Genocide of 1932-33" is an edgy, auspicious,
> cinematic look at a very dark and horrific time in which millions of
> people died due to a man-made famine in Ukraine, perpetrated by Joseph
> Stalin.
>
>   In the early 1930’s, Ukraine was the breadbasket of the Soviet Union ,
> had bountiful crops of grain, yet its people were dying of starvation.
> In order to crush the will of the independent-minded Ukrainian peasants
> and secure collectivization of all Ukrainian lands, Joseph Stalin
> ordered an army of ruthless, well-fed Communist Party activists to
> confiscate all harvested grain and seize all the foodstuffs in the
> villages. As a result of this genocidal decree, by the end of 1933
> nearly 25 percent of the Ukrainian population - over 10 million people,
> including three million children - had perished.
>
> In the face of terror, Ukrainians had little possibility of escaping their
> horrific fate or even to create another type of life elsewhere. Travel was
> banned for Ukrainians, keeping them confined in a prison of starvation
> within their own villages.
>
>   Tomkiw and Leigh have made available a five minute trailer and are
> looking for financing for the documentary feature film. "I really feel
> that this subject needs awareness and must be brought into the
> mainstream cinematic arena. There is no more effective way to get into
> everyone's homes and hearts than through cinema." says Leigh.
>
> To view the film trailer and to support the making of the documentary,
> please visit www.HolodomorTheMovie.com. Be a part of helping the world to
> learn about Ukraine’s Holodomor.
>
> "History knows no other crime of such a nature and magnitude."
>
> Press contact:
>   Marta Tomkiw
>   +1.213.840.4780
>   Marta@HolodomorTheMovie.com
>
>   Holodomor The Movie LLC
>   8306 Wilshire Blvd. #947
>   Beverly Hills, CA   90211
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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