Holodomor Survivor: Maria Firman (nee Martyniuk)

From http://www.holodomorsurvivors.ca

Describes harassment of her father by the authorities. Describes her mother being beaten by a brigadier for taking grain stalks from a field. Describes her mother's and sister's death from starvation.

Date of birth: 21 September 1923
Place of birth: Khyzhychi village, Vinnytsia oblast
Witnessed Famine in: Khyzhychi village, Vinnytsia oblast
Arrived in Canada: 1950
Current residence: Toronto, Ontario
Date and place of interview: 17 July 2008, Toronto

English Translation:
The government said that you had to hand everything over, and they started to harass my father. My father said, I have children, I have a family. [But they said] youll all go to the collective farm, and youll all be better off. And they told my father to take the bells down from the church. Father said, I didnt put them up and I wont take them down. So they beat him and took him to a holding cell. We didnt see him for more than two weeks, and when he came home, he died right away. When wheat or rye was harvested, they used machines, and left stalks in the field. So my mother, on her way home, collected stalks in order to cook something. A brigadier took away the stalks and beat my mother. My mother came home, lay down on the bed, and never got up again. I dont know how long she lay there, but thats how she died. I remember that my brother, after gathering whatever he could in the field, cooked some soup. We all sat around a big bowl nobody had plates - eating that soup. My brother asked my mother if she was going to eat, but she didnt respond. We were hungry, so we started to eat. My fathers brother came into the house and asked, Is mother sleeping? We were silent, we didnt know, so he called out to her, Kateryna, Kateryna, but no one answered. So he went up to her but mother was already dead. We didnt know when or how. [Prior to this] My sister died in bed by my side but I didnt even know she was dead. My mother wanted to give her something to eat, and called her, Ksenya, Ksenya. I said, Shes sleeping. Mother went to her and she was already cold. Imagine what state I was in, I didnt understand anything. Hunger kills. Who hasnt been hungry may not understand, but hunger kills your memory.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• holodomor
• ukraine
• famine
• genocide
• ussr

[taleton]

subtitles someone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!

[ukrcdncom]

@taleton There's a translation in the description for know..

[woodrailking]

Can you add subtitles?