On 18 December 2021, the Holodomor Museum Fund held its first charity evening What Perished Is To Rise Again at the Lviv National Opera. The event brought together more than 500 benefactors of the Holodomor Museum’s main exhibition, which is currently under construction in Kyiv.
⏩ Photo report on the charity evening What Perished Is To Rise Again
⏩ Full record of the broadcast
Guests of the charity evening:
- His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Head of the UGCC, Member of the Supervisory Board of the Holodomor Museum Fund
- Filia Zhebrovska, Member of the Supervisory Board of the Holodomor Museum Fund, Chairperson of the Supervisory Board at Farmak JSC
- Taras Kytsmei, co-founder and Member of the Board of Directors at SoftServe
- Maksym Kozytskyi, Chairman of the Lviv Oblast State Administration
- Andrii Sadovyi, Lviv mayor
- Mykhailo Demtsiu, Liubomyr Medvid, Andrii Bokotei, Ukrainian artists
- Ihor Kovalchuk, Chief Medical Officer at the Lviv Oncology Center, whose staff made a charitable contribution in the amount of the employees’ one-day salary
- Active service officers of the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Ground Forces Academy
- ATO combatants
- Lviv local government officials, public and cultural figures and caring Lvivans
His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Head of the UGCC, member of the Supervisory Board of the Holodomor Museum Fund, spoke on importance of the nationwide unification to create the Holodomor Museum exhibition:
“When such a piece is performed, of such loftiness, you really believe that the Resurrection exists. You and us are not just spectators who passively watch, but benefactors who do good and thus profess their Christian faith in the Resurrection, in death never having the last word in our lives. And the crime of Holodomor Genocide will be forever branded as crime against mankind and humanity.
On behalf of the Supervisory Board of the Holodomor Museum Fund, I thank you all for joining the nationwide cause of commemorating millions of our brothers and sisters killed by the world’s cheapest weapon of mass destruction which the Soviet regime used as famine against our people”.
The UGCC campaign, led by His Beatitude Sviatoslav, displays Ukrainians’ unity. On the eve of the Holodomor Victims Remembrance Day, the UGCC campaign’s charitable contributions made UAH 1,326,000. And the UGCC campaign united Archdioceses not only in Ukraine but also overseas. In particular, UGCC’s Philadelphia Archdiocese and the Apostolic Exarchate in Italy joined the fundraiser.
Parishioners in big cities and small villages in the west and east, north and south are also making their substantial contributions to creation of the Holodomor Museum exhibition.
Filia Zhebrovska, Member of the Supervisory Board of the Holodomor Museum Fund, Chairperson of the Supervisory Board at Farmak JSC.
“Every life is eternal, whatever its guise may be. I know that my aunt died shortly after birth, it was in Podillia, because my grandmother had no milk to feed her.
We need to revive that memory so that young generations can come to the Museum and understand the distress of surviving that injustice. We must bring the Holodomor Museum into being and rebuild the memory. There should be not a hundred thousand of us, there should be millions of us. We shall create a miracle, we shall preserve the memory.”
Before the concert part of the charity evening, the guests had the opportunity to get acquainted with 17 volumes of the National Book of Remembrance, as well as the Grains of Truth project, which operates the same-name crowdfunding platform Zerna Pravdy. In November, on the eve of the Holodomor Victims Remembrance Day, the Holodomor Museum Fund presented updates to this platform, which now runs online search of Holodomor victims by name or population centre.
Maksym Kozytskyi, Chairman of the Lviv Oblast State Administration:
“This event does not leave indifferent anyone who is anxious about Ukraine, and what our ancestors went through. Holodomor changed our State and our people forever. This crime must be a warning to all mankind.
The world’s museums which pay homage to great tragedies attract thousands and millions of visitors. I would like that the Ukrainian people have their own museum so that it leave a mark in the heart, in our souls. Memory is a tremendous force which will give the impetus, as Khvyliovyi said, “away from Moscow”.
I thank the Opera team for joining. We are for a great cause together.”
As of 18 December, benefactors made donations in the amount of UAH 9,800,000. Almost the same amount, a little more than UAH 10 million, is to be contributed in the next period. These are the funds necessary at this stage to work on the introductory artistic concept for the design project of the main exhibition of the Holodomor Museum Phase II.
Ivan Vasiunyk, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Holodomor Museum Fund, addressed the evening guests to summarise:
“My wish today was to take the list and announce the name of every person, family, every entrepreneur, artist, scientist, student, young person who is here today, who bought a ticket and came to this charity evening.
The most important thing is that today we are hundreds. And it’s not just Lvivans: we have benefactor families from Kyiv, Ternopil, Frankivsk, Stryi, Morshyn, Horodok and Sambir. This is a great inspiring collaboration.
Our cause is not easy and is not finished yet. This is the first Holodomor Museum in the world and the first museum of such scale in Ukraine. It is being built thanks to the State responsibly fulfilling its mission: the Ukrainian President has identified this project as a priority and on the Holodomor Victims Remembrance Day, 27 November 2021, announced that the construction would be completed next year.
And a very responsible job — to help finance the making of the exhibition — is left to us, benefactors and the society. It will tell about this tragedy, its causes, impact and extent. There is a great idea in the place where the Museum is being built and in its architecture: we are a nation which survived Holodomor and restored and defended our independence. Our nation is unbreakable and indestructible.”
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The Holodomor Museum Fund is a charitable organisation operating since 2018 to raise non-public funds to create the main exhibition of the Holodomor Museum Phase II. It is currently being built in the Glory Park in Kyiv.
The Holodomor Museum is being implemented on the basis of public-private partnership: construction of the Museum building is fully funded by the State and its content — the main exhibition — is created by all caring Ukrainians through charity contributions.
The Lviv region was the first to embrace the Holodomor Museum Fund’s idea of holding charity evenings to unite Museum benefactors from all over the country and abroad.
⏩ Report on the Fund’s performance in 2018-2021
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