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Junior League Section On Your Own at the YOUTH FORUM, Sunday, Dec. 9th Mildred Milanovich From time immemorial, each new genera tion has endeavored to carve its own niche of fame just a little higher, a little wider than tue one laboriously carved out by the preceding generation. Therein lies the reason for youth's seeming dissatisfaction with the w*ays and the thinkings of their parents. A parent may offer ^ to conquer the world and present it to his child on a golden platter, that child will always be dissatisfied, if it is a normal child, wanting to conquer the world himself, by fighting his own battles.^Whether these 'battles will make him an Eisenhower outsmarting a wily adversary,, or a Don Quixote, tilting windmills, one truth is clear, he is on nis own, the success or mistake is his very owrn, he did his own thinking. It is a wise parent who accepts"the above truth and guides his behavior toward his child by it. The parental niche may be high, wide and handsomely carved, but offering it to the child is useless; he wants one of his very own. And so it has always remained for any generation to merely "give a lift up” to the next generation, to carve a higher, better and handsomer mark of their own. Wise too, is the youth who sees this offer of a ‘‘lift up” and takes advantage of it to reach a higher goal. A "lift up” has been offered, by the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America to American Ukrainian youth in the nature of a YOUTH FORUM to be held on Sunday, December 9th, from 1 to 4:30 p. m., at 849 N. Franklin St., Philadelphia, Pa., during the League’s national 3-day. convention. In their own time, the memibers of the Soyuz Ukrainok have made their own memorable mark of progress, as evidenced by the reports tendered by executives and board members at their annual meeting on Sunday September 23rd, at their headquarters in Phila delphia. Sincere admiration must be shown for these mothers who foresaw in their youth, the need for this women’s organization and btiilt it, despite fearful and heartbreaking obstacles, into a League numbering thousands, with its own handsome treasury. Admiration too must -be shown for their acceptance of the fact that youth in a new age has entirely different obstacles and problems to surmount and new heights to achieve. Hence their move to hold a YOUTH FORUM to be conducted entirely by young people. Here an oppor tunity will be given for youth "on their own” to present their prob lems, give voice to their hopes and aims, and to map out plans for surmounting the obstacles blocking off these hopes and aims. Every person of Ukrainian descent has at one time or another, during school or college days, or in the time after, felt the desire to say: "Why don’t we Ukrainians do this or that”, or "Why don’t our parents realize this or that.” How many times have you heard your friends, or even yourself say: "Why can’t Ukrainians sponsor music, (or dance, or choral) festivals.” "Why can’t we provide a fund or establish a center for this, or that.” Here is your opportunity to speak your mind, aftd to either offer a solution, or to request one. Remember, here you would be on your own, but if help is asked from the Women’s League, they are always there. .„.With the "lift up’, the S. U. A. also offer the challenge: Will present day youth with its advantages, accomplish relatively as much as their parents have accomplished in their humble but sincere fashion? It is nip to the youth to answer. To avoid time-'wasting on theorizing, or on the re-hashing of subjects already threshed out at other youth conventions, why not submit your problem or question to this box now. If the subject is of interest to all youth, and should be undertaken by the Women’s League, an earnest endeavor will be made to secure competent ad-, vice for a practical solution or a workable plan. However, no sub ject on political or religious matters will, be discussed, as other youth forums have been established for this. The Ukrainian National Women’s League YOUTH FORUM is your opportunity to see a pet dream have a chance to come true. Please address all questions in care of this box: 151 Hopkins Ave., Jersey City 6, N. J. Memorandum The Executive Board of the Uk rainian National Women,s League of America, Inc., has sent to President Truman the following memorandum: September 22, 1945 We, the undersigned/ in the name of the .Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, Inc., an organiza tion representing thousands of Ameri can Women of Ukrainian origin, take the liberty to submit to your kind consideration the following: Memorandum on Displaced Ukrainians in Middle Europe According to the official data of our military authorities and of charitable organizations, the European countries newly liberated by the Allies now har bor several millions of d'siplaced per sons from Eastern Europe, the major ity of them being in the American zone of occupation. The larger portion of these people, as you doubtless know, are being repatriated to their former homelands. About 1,250,000 displaced refugees, however, are reluctant, in fact they are vehemently opposed to their return to the Soviet Union, as they fear that on their return to Russian occupied territories they will again be subject ed to relentless religious, social and national-political persecution, banish ment to Siberia or to the Solovki Is land, imprisonment, torture and even death. That these fears are not ground less is borne out by information con tained in the news and private com munications received from behind the closely guarded Soviet zone of occu pation, from Lithuania, Latvia, Po land, Galicia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia — news describing mass executions, deportations and imprison ment of intelligentsia, clergymen, well- to-do-persons, kulaks (farmers) and many others. The largest group among these un happy, homeless, displaced people are the Ukrainians, who for technical rea sons, are err^eously classified as “Poles” or “Russians,” their classifi cation being dependent .upon what power ruled the land that they lived in the past. This classification does not take into account the ethnic, linguistic, religious and racial individuality of these people and consequently is a source of grave misunderstanding and needless cruel suffering of these un fortunates. Our Allied Military Government authorities in the American Zone of occupation are obviously not cogniz ant of the fact tfhat Poles and Rus sians are bitter enemies of Ukrainians. As a consequence they very often suc cumb to the misinformation handed out by the Soviet military commissars and wrongly interpret the unwilling ness of Ukrainian refugees to return under Soviet rule, as a kind of sym pathy to Germans. Accordingly they treat them as enemies. We have reli able information of such cases where American officers unknowingly played into the hands of the Soviet Police by forcibly delivering these unfortunate Ukrainians into the toils of the Rus sian’s “Gestapo.” This occurred when Ukrainian women, slave laborers in Germany, although unwitting to re turn to Soviet Union, have been for cibly delivered by American military detachments to Russian military guards in spite of these women’s des perate pleadings not to be delivered into the hands of their well-remem bered persecutors. Many of our prominent people in America have already received hun dreds of letters from these refugees. We can say that every third family of Ukrainian .Americans has relatives among these displced people in Mid dle Europe. It is a calamity which reaches the proportions of general dis aster. Being a women’s organization, esp— cially interested in the welfare of our suffering kinsmen abroad, we have to emphasize that the majority of these refugees consist of women and chil dren, whose lives have been subjected to two brands of totalitarian rule. We have been reliably informed of the nu merous instances where Ukrainian girls, rounded up in their high-schools in the native Ukraine by the conquer ing Germans, and forbidden even to reurn home for clothes, let alone bid farewell to their families, had been herded into railroad box cars and shipped to Germany as slave laborers. Their fate was never learned by their families for years. Nevertheless, many of these girls would prefer to remain where they are, rather than be return ed to their Soviet-ruled homeland, where they would be abused and per secuted, or be banished to Siberia or to Solovki. This faite awaits them and! their kinsmen for their tenacious age- old belief in, and their continuous fight for, the democratic ideals, par ticularly the establishment of a truly independent and democratic Ukraine — an ideal, abhorent to the foreign and totalitarian rulers of Ukraine. In view of these deplorable condi tions we submit this grave matter to your kind consideration in the name of Christian humanity and high Amer ican ideals, as well as for the honor of our, American flag under whose protection these displaced Ukrainians now live. And we humbly beseech you to do anything in your power to ame liorate these conditions, to restore the human rights and dignities to these displaced persons. Particularly we request you: a) to instruct our military authori ties in occupied zone Germany, Aus tria and Czechoslovakia, that people of Ukrainian origin should be treated as a separate group, should be segregated in separate camps and not be mistak en for Poles or Russians; b) to grant these stranded Ukrain ians the right of asylum and not to repatriate them against their will. c) to grant these Ukrainians the right to organize their charity com- mittes under the surveillance of the (Continued on page 6)
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