Soviet type regimes, set at the time of the Great Famine of 1932-33. And, the fact that the manipulation of all of the psychological, physiological and political elements that intend the use of food as a weapon and a lever on human behavior is traceable, is noticeable in one Soviet-style regime after the other.

Now, when one begins to speak in this way, persons in the media and in much of academia, begin to have somewhat robbery knees and their morning doughnuts get a little queasy in their stomach, because it smacks of something that has become a ‘no-no* and that is, taking a strong anti-Soviet stance.

Well, if that is what the record of history would have you do, then, perhaps, so, but it is not anti-Soviet or pro-Soviet, it’s simply trying to get the truth out.

I think that we are going to find in the remaining life of the Commission that to the degree that we can carefully and non-polemically relate the significance of this kind of technique to what the regimes have done to the blacks of Africa, or to elements within Cuba, or in Central America, or in Cambodia, or elsewhere, that you are going to get people cocking their heads a bit and saying, “Of course, yes,” and then look back and loan you their attention for the details at that most elementary and tragic and enor¬mous catastrophe and human disaster that we know as the Famine in the Ukraine.

Ms. VOLKER: I have a comment on that Speaking with average individuals, and I was fortunate to be in several groups, and start talking about—and they underscore the same thing. “Well, it’s so long ago, why talk about it now?” And, that is the case— at least from five individuals that I had an opportunity to talk to.

Ambassador DOUGLAS: Well, we don’t only want to inform, we want to mobilize
our fellow citizens. We do not want to let the sense of outrage die at what this crime
against all humanity really implies. Enough.
Dr. MACE: I’m in complete agreement.
Ms. MAZURKEVICH: What do we do about it?
Dr. MACE: Well, first of all, I think that it is important for members of the Com¬mission to speak out. The role of staff is primarily to be a resource for the members of the Commission.

If this is something that you feel to be appropriate, then I certainly would be not only willing but eager to provide you with any expertise that I can.

And, I think that it’s very easy for us to draw in our final report very strong parallels with the treatment of the peoples of Eritrea and Tigre by a client state in Ethiopia, the way in which a pre-famine situation has been created in Afghanistan and the famine of 1932-33 itself which is actually the paradigmatic instance of the use of food as a weapon, and using food as a weapon is still very much with us.

If I may return for a moment to one of Mrs. Volker’s comments. I think it’s ex¬tremely important to counter the argument that this happened so long ago that we need not concentrate on it As I think we’ve learned from the treatment of the Holocaust, this is something that has to be part of the historical knowledge of every member of the community, simply because this type of collective victimization can hap¬pen again.

What happened to the Ukrainians, while very different from what happened to the Jews in Europe, is but another example of the type of victimization that can be per¬petrated by a regime that is able to impose a ’supra-human’ ideology, an ideology that has a higher notion of ‘good’ than human life which points that it is a greater ‘good’ to