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12 WWW.UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ГРУДЕНЬ 2019 of UCCA . On October 16, the Philadelphia area Uk - rainian American s welcomed Ms. Duplak to the UECC as featured speaker on the subject of Lem - kivshchyna, and specifically on the 75th anni ver- sary of the mass eviction and deportation of the Ukrainians from their ancestral lands: Lem - kivshchyna, Nadsyannya, Kholmshchyna, Pid lya - shya and Northern Boykivshchyna. In a meti cu- lously researched presentation, Ms. Duplak de- scribed the stages of deportation, which began in the fall of October 1944 an d culminated in the in- famous Aktsiya Wisla. The horrifying details of this episode in history included descriptions of military convoys, lack of food and medical care, people forcibly evicted from their homes and loaded into trucks or train cars, destructi on of en- tire villages, executions, and other horrors that coincided with Soviet assaults and the destruction of Ukrainian people, their history and their cul- ture. In some areas, the Soviets constructed dams that wiped out entire villages; in others, once i n- dependent farmers wer e forced to submit to col- lectivization and “reeducation” to obliterate “na- tionalist tendencies.” Ms. Duplak’s presentation was followed and augmented by a documentary film produced by Studio Apostol. Titled Deported Forever the film includes an almost ten der vignette — a con ver- sation between a priest and two young Ukra inian women. The women tell the priest about their de- sire for spiritual comfort and guidance that has disappeared from their world; the priest promises to come to their village and provide wh at is lacking. The event also included a brief commentary about UPA and Taras Chuprynka by Osyp Roshka (for- mer editor of the newspaper Ameryka ), a display of books about Lemkivshchyna, and a light lunch- eon punctuated by numerous conve rsations about Ukraine , its history, its people and its current high profile in U.S. political news. That evening, I was back at Fox Chase, at the Manor College library that is part of the edu- cational complex of the Sisters of St. Basil the Great, this ti me to see an exhibit r elated to Ukrainian immigrants and to watch a film named Baba Babee Skazala (grandmother told grand - mother). Created and directed by a young man named Matej B. Silecky and produced by an outfit called Kitsune Tale Productions LLC, it is a rivet- ing film abo ut the displaced persons camps pop- ulated by the thousands of Ukrainians who found themselves stateless and homeless at the end of World War II, people who had survived bombs, persecution, poverty, hunger and a multitude of disasters and did not know what l ife had in store f o r them. This was an era of uncertainty and fear. Stalin’s Russia and America had been allies dur- ing the war, and Stalin was pressing the United Sta tes to send Ukrainians and others who came from lands now occupied and ruled by the USSR “home” to Mother Russia or its satellites. There was, in fact, something called Operation Keelhaul that was to be implemented specifically for this purpose — a plan for forcible “repatriation” of these people that the United States government had for all int ents and purposes agreed to facili- tate. Fortunately, many of the inmates of these camps were spared from this fate. (Note: I heard one explanation for this several yea rs ago — it in- volves a story about a Ukrainian orphan raised by the Basilian nuns in Philad elphia. The orphan grew up, joined the American army and was as- signed to General Eisenhower’s staff. He ex- plained to Eisenhower that forcing the Ukrainian DPs to go ba ck to the Soviet Union meant certain death for many of them, and Eisenhower, after hearin g from other officers that people were com- mitting suicide because that seemed a better op- tion than re patriation, sent a message to Presi- dent Truman stating that his s ol diers would not be participating in this operation.) The discussions following the fi lm scree n- ing were riveting, the content steered by several people who had lived in the camps and re mem- bered them. One subject that arose centered on the resilience o f the camp inmates, and this sparked an interesting discussion on camp cultural and educa- tional activities — choirs, lan guage classes, etc., that were part of daily life. The dis cussion evolved into an analytical debate on whether the organizations and ins titutions the DPs created once they had em- igrated to the United States and other free cou n- tries were shaped by the DP experience or simply the product of creative individuals who made things happen. For me, watching the film was an intensely personal ex pe rience — the camp featured most prominently was in Mittenwald, and that is where I was born . (Note: additional infor ma - tion about the film can be accessed at https://kitsunetale produc tions.com/projects.) A couple of new adventures occurred on Oc tober 27 and began at the UECC with a meeting of members of UNWLA Branch 88. I attended the meeti ng as a guest — mostly a logistical move re - lated to carpooling to an evening event in down- town Philadelphia. That event would bring me face - to - face with a frien d from the past: Viktor (now Victor) Morozov.
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