What is the Holodomor? Here is a definition from a blog called the 8th Circle.
"The name is derived from two Ukrainian words: mor (plague) and holod (hunger) and literally means 'plague of hunger' (Making Sense of Suffering by Johan Dietsch, 2006, pg. 205)."How many people died in this "plague of hunger"? Well, the figures supported by today's research claims that somewhere around 3.5 million people lost their lives due to the famine.
In November 2006, Ukraine's parliament passed a law that recognized the 1932–1933 famine as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. And yes, we know there are people who deny that it ever happened (or those who deny that it was "forced" on the people by Stalin and his regime). That's hard to square up against the accounts of those people who remember living through it.
Yes, this is the world in which our feature film Under Jakob's Ladder is set.
It's set in the early days of the Soviet Ukraine; and while not specifically about the famine, the movie's premise is based on the fear and paranoia established by the Stalist regime (tactics such as the forced famine in the early 1932-33). And yes, our protagonist, Jakob, would have lived through this famine.
We have an interview with his granddaughter, Marta (pictured to the left; still alive today and in her 80s), who recalls that winter and her experience of living through those days of hunger.Interview with the real "Marta"...You can go here to read the rest of the interview.
Q: Do you remember the famine?
A: You can't forget a thing like that.
Q: Why was there no food that winter?
A: We had a good harvest that year. "They" came and took it from us. Even down to the tiniest potatoes. We had the potatoes stored in a hole in the ground. But a lady came and she took even the littlest potato.
Q: Why did the Soviets do that to your people?
A: They wanted to see what we would do. Stalin said that if we had no food, then we were beaten. He didn't say those exact words, but that is what he meant.
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