Holodomor Remembrance Day, 23 November 2013

Today Ukraine remembers those who died in the famine of 1932 and 1933.

This is the eightieth anniversary, and it is close to the last one at which people who were children then can speak for themselves. A person who was five in 1933 is eighty-five now, and there are not many.

The recording projects that have been gathering their testimony understand the arithmetic perfectly. Every interview conducted this year is one that cannot be conducted in ten.

After that, the event passes entirely into documents and into what families remember being told, which is a different kind of memory and a thinner one.

Tonight the form is the same as every year: a candle in the window. My respect to everyone marking today, and particularly to those recording what is still there to record.