Germany recognizes Holodomor as a genocide

The Bundestag, Germany’s parliament on Wednesday, declared Ukraine’s Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide. According to DW, the resolution “comes as Ukraine warned Russia is using similar tactics in its war today.”

A press release by Bundestag says the then Soviet leadership oppressed the Ukrainian way of life, language and culture in its efforts to control local farmers. “From today’s perspective, this suggests the historical-political classification as genocide. The German Bundestag shares such a classification.”

All major parliamentary factions supported the resolution, including the three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition – the Social Democrats, Greens and the Free Democrats – as well as the main opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) and allied conservative Christian Social Union (CSU).

Sincerely grateful to the German lawmakers, the Ukrainian World Congress also thanks all Ukrainians of Germany, especially the Central Union of Ukrainians in Germany, which for 15 years has been holding the annual “Ukraine Remembers, The World Acknowledges” events to commemorate the 1932-1933 Holodomor victims.

In a tweet, UWC called the resolution adoption a “step towards justice, restoration of historical truth and strong German-Ukrainian solidarity.” And the UWC first vice-president and chairman of the UWC International Coordination Committee for the Holodomor, Stefan Romaniw, commented, “We can hope for a better future only if crimes against people are recognized.”

The 🇩🇪 @Bundestag has just passed a resolution declaring the 1932-1933 #Holodomor as genocide of #Ukrainian people. We thank Germany for this step of outmost importance! A step towards justice, restoration of historical truth and strong German-Ukrainian solidarity! pic.twitter.com/mzJfTUaaIS

— Ukrainian World Congress 🇺🇦 (@UWCongress) November 30, 2022

According to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the German lawmakers sent a “very important signal to many other countries of the world that Russian revanchism will not succeed in rewriting history.”

As Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba noted, Germany has recognized the Holodomor as genocide despite the fact that “we were told for many years: it will never happen. Simply because it will not happen.”

“The world could not stop this crime then, but it can at least stop the Russian lies about it now and call it what it was: genocide,” the minister added.