It turns out that the word ''Holocaust'' does not quite fit the definition of Ukrainian Genocide. Actually I did not know about it.
By the way , not long ago, I spent my weekend in Krakow.
The Afternoon I spent the time in the Jagiellonian Library.
I was interested in many topics including the Ukrainian Famine tragedy.
Dozens of articles I just copied to my computer.
And here's one of them. The opinion of the author, who believes that the term "Holocaust" belongs only to Jewish tragedy.
In this case, the name ''Holodomor'' is unique in its kind. ( as well as ''Maidan'' actually.)
And therefore , according to author, the word ''Holocaust'' is not well suited to describe the Ukrainian tragedy.
(In any case, let us not forget that we're talking about the terrible tragedy.
And only now the world beginning to learn about this terrible tragedy.
By the way , on the entire Jagiellonian Library, I found only two books about ''Holodomor'', in many libraries in general , there is not even a single work about ''Holodomor''.)
Here is this article that I scanned from one of the library books:
''Holocaust or Holodomor?''
''Ukrainians have sometimes spoken of the "Holodomor" as the Ukrainian holocaust. With all due respect to those who have chosen to do so, I must point out the pitfalls of such a usage of the term. Tke word "holocaust" is isually traced to Wycliffe's translation of the Bible as a burnt offering to the Lord, and indeed it is an English word from the ancient Greek words "kolos" (whole) and "caustos" (to burn). In reference to Hitler's destruction of the Jews, it came to be used as a not quite exact translation of the Hebrew word "Shoah" (complete and utter destruction), yet evocative of what Hitler tried to do to with a people traditionally considered themselves to be chosen by God, the Jews, to destroy tbem entirely as a people, including burning them in ovens specially désigned for that purpose. It is not a generic term for a certain kind of crime against any given group but a specific word for a specific event and as such has entered many languages. Almost until the end of the Soviet Union, Ukrainians in the West used such terms as the Great Famine or the man-made Famine in Ukraine. Only when the veil of silence began to gradually lift , did it become clear that the word "holodomor" become the label that stuck in people's memory in the place where it happened. Tke word itself is interesting, "holod" (hunger or famine) and "mor" (mass death as in a plague, like chumats'kyi mor, tke Black Death).
For this reason, to speak of the Ukrainian Holocaust makes about as much sense as speaking of the Jewish Holodomor. It is a unique term that has arisen from the depths of a victimized nation itself. As the unique tragedy faced by Ukrainians in the USSR becomes more a part of the consciousness of the larger world, the use of the word that Ukrainians in Ukraine have chosen will inevitably enter the other languages as well.
As is the case with any culture of which we are not a part, those who are not part of the Ukrainian nation that has lived through the Soviet period, a nation that has been skaped or distorted by precisely that experience, cannot tell them how to understand themselves any more than we can tell them how to overcome all the obstacles that their past has burdened them with. Ukrainians in Ukraine will make tkeir own Ukrainian history. ''
By the way , not long ago, I spent my weekend in Krakow.
The Afternoon I spent the time in the Jagiellonian Library.
I was interested in many topics including the Ukrainian Famine tragedy.
Dozens of articles I just copied to my computer.
And here's one of them. The opinion of the author, who believes that the term "Holocaust" belongs only to Jewish tragedy.
In this case, the name ''Holodomor'' is unique in its kind. ( as well as ''Maidan'' actually.)
And therefore , according to author, the word ''Holocaust'' is not well suited to describe the Ukrainian tragedy.
(In any case, let us not forget that we're talking about the terrible tragedy.
And only now the world beginning to learn about this terrible tragedy.
By the way , on the entire Jagiellonian Library, I found only two books about ''Holodomor'', in many libraries in general , there is not even a single work about ''Holodomor''.)
Here is this article that I scanned from one of the library books:
''Holocaust or Holodomor?''
''Ukrainians have sometimes spoken of the "Holodomor" as the Ukrainian holocaust. With all due respect to those who have chosen to do so, I must point out the pitfalls of such a usage of the term. Tke word "holocaust" is isually traced to Wycliffe's translation of the Bible as a burnt offering to the Lord, and indeed it is an English word from the ancient Greek words "kolos" (whole) and "caustos" (to burn). In reference to Hitler's destruction of the Jews, it came to be used as a not quite exact translation of the Hebrew word "Shoah" (complete and utter destruction), yet evocative of what Hitler tried to do to with a people traditionally considered themselves to be chosen by God, the Jews, to destroy tbem entirely as a people, including burning them in ovens specially désigned for that purpose. It is not a generic term for a certain kind of crime against any given group but a specific word for a specific event and as such has entered many languages. Almost until the end of the Soviet Union, Ukrainians in the West used such terms as the Great Famine or the man-made Famine in Ukraine. Only when the veil of silence began to gradually lift , did it become clear that the word "holodomor" become the label that stuck in people's memory in the place where it happened. Tke word itself is interesting, "holod" (hunger or famine) and "mor" (mass death as in a plague, like chumats'kyi mor, tke Black Death).
For this reason, to speak of the Ukrainian Holocaust makes about as much sense as speaking of the Jewish Holodomor. It is a unique term that has arisen from the depths of a victimized nation itself. As the unique tragedy faced by Ukrainians in the USSR becomes more a part of the consciousness of the larger world, the use of the word that Ukrainians in Ukraine have chosen will inevitably enter the other languages as well.
As is the case with any culture of which we are not a part, those who are not part of the Ukrainian nation that has lived through the Soviet period, a nation that has been skaped or distorted by precisely that experience, cannot tell them how to understand themselves any more than we can tell them how to overcome all the obstacles that their past has burdened them with. Ukrainians in Ukraine will make tkeir own Ukrainian history. ''
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