Holodomor Heroes - HREC Education

When teaching topics as complex and weighty as the Holodomor, crimes against humanity, and genocide, it can be easy to cover facts and figures without fully understanding the ordinary humans affected by the extraordinary times of history. Holodomor Heroes is a series of basic fact sheets designed to address the 5W’s of journalism. The fact sheets focus on a brief bio of each hero of the Holodomor, what they did and why they are heroes. Each chose to act during the tragic events of the time and had the courage to tell and show the truth about what they had witnessed. They warned the world, spoke out against injustice, and helped bring awareness. Knowing their stories teaches us how we can choose to act in the face of adversity and extreme danger.

SERIES 1: Truth Tellers – The first journalists to write about the Holodomor

The power of journalism exposes the truth about both those in government who attempt to hide their activities or secrets and brings out information about ordinary people whose lives were disrupted by such world-changing events as the Holodomor. This first series will present the 3 journalists who first wrote about the Holodomor at the time it was happening. They wrote their stories despite the denial and disinformation of Stalin’s Soviet regime about the man-made famine.

Aug11

Rhea Clyman – The First Western Journalist to Expose the Holodomor

A talented, young, fearless, self-taught Canadian reporter with a disability. Rhea Clyman (1904–1981) was a ground-breaking female journalist who became a foreign news correspondent at a time when it was almost unheard of for women to do so. Born Rachel Gertrude Clyman in Poland in 1904 (which was then a part of the Russian Empire), she moved to Toronto 2 years later with her poor immigrant Jewish family. At the age of 6, she lost part of her leg in a streetcar accident.

Oct17

Gareth Jones – The first western journalist to describe the Holodomor as a planned

Gareth Richard Vaughan Jones (1905-1935) was a Welsh journalist. He spoke five languages. For a time, he was a private secretary and researcher to the former Welsh Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Lloyd George (from 1930-31 and 1932-3). Jones was intellectually inquisitive by nature. At the age of 27, he courageously undertook a forbidden and dangerous journey on foot through Soviet Ukraine, risking arrest, deportation and death while crossing alone from Russia into Ukraine in March o...