Students learn horror of Ukrainian Holodomor
Bus repurposed into mobile classroom to teach about genocide
Essex District High School students Emily Barris and Faith Osborne came away from a presentation on the Holodomor Wednesday with insight into the 1932-33 Ukrainian genocide, and a suggestion that it be taught in schools.
They already had their wish. The Holodomor, which means death by hunger, will be taught as part of the Grade 10 history curriculum starting next year. The Ontario government, which is funding the Holodomor National Awareness Tour, made the announcement last year.
The touring exhibit — a refurbished bus outfitted with special seats and a digital presentation — stopped at the school Wednesday to help educate students on the famine that has been called a genocide by 35 countries, including Canada.
Seven to 10 million people died during a countrywide famine in the Soviet Union that was exacerbated in Ukraine by staggering grain quotas mandated by the central government that left little food for Ukrainians.
“I knew the basic information about what happened, but I didn't know the details or how bad it truly was,” said Barris, a Grade 12 student.
“It really showed me just like just how much people cover things up, even still now, and how you still can't really trust everything that you see and hear.”
Several well-known western journalists based in the Soviet Union at the time denied the government's policies and its brutal enforcement tactics were causing the starvation of the Ukrainian people.
The presentation by Roma Dzerowicz, project manager of the Holodomor National Awareness Tour, encouraged students to question information until they can be confident of its authenticity.
“I personally didn't know much about it going into it,” said Osborne. “It's really unfortunate because no one got the (media) coverage they really deserved at the time that they really needed it.
“It's such a horrible experience and I wish we learned more about it in school.”
Dzerowicz said the exhibit is intended to teach students what happened and why it happened, and to “focus on justice, tolerance, civility, human rights, values by using an unrelatedly unknown genocide that happened over 90 years ago.”
The Holodomor exhibit helps to show students “that they have a voice that they can raise and bring attention to ... atrocities, or local community situations that need to be acted on,” she said.
The mobile exhibit makes stops daily throughout Ontario.
“What we delve into is that students can have a voice by showing them that there are truth tellers,” said Dzerowicz. “In everything and today's society, and most importantly, with the internet, you don't know what the truth is half the time.”
As the famine progressed and millions were left starving, journalists such as Gareth Jones, and Malcolm Muggeridge risked their careers by exposing the Soviet Union's coverup of the starvation in Ukraine.
“I believe that this was an absolute horrible thing that happened and it still does not get enough recognition,” said Barris.