Holodomor Memorial Day was recognized Tuesday at the Saskatchewan Legislature.

Ukrainian Canadian Congress President Terry Zwarych says the commemoration is to remember millions of Ukrainians who died from a forced famine in 1932-33.

“It was a dark time in Ukrainian history,” Zwarych said. “The crops were good (but) the Stalin regime basically forced the Ukrainian people to starve.”

Zwarych says this genocide needs to be remembered.

“It is a part of history where we need to make sure that memory is kept going for generations,” Zwarych said. “Millions of people died because of it, look at how many generations we have lost through that, and that’s the important thing.

“When I say millions, it was men, women and children, we lost families, and families and families to this.”

Zwarych says there was some significance to conduct their ceremony near the Holodomor commemorative statue in Wascana Park.

“Whenever I’m walking through Wascana (Park), I do see people stop and look at it, this is a great place for the public to see the statue, to see the placard, and everything else that’s there just to keep the memory alive of all the millions that have perished.”

Saskatchewan became the first North American jurisdiction to recognize Holodomor in 2008.