The Holodomor - from the Ukrainian word for hunger (holod) and extermination (mor) – is one of the world’s overlooked genocides. This period of terror famine decimated Ukraine in 1932-1933. Approximately 3.9 million people (mainly rural peasants) starved to death and another 600,000 indirect deaths due to lost pregnancies are also attributed to this period. The famine resulted from multiple causes. The Soviet regime of Stalin was hostile to Ukraine. This largely, agrarian, peasant and rural republic was forced to rapidly industrialise and farmers were forced into collectives. Poor harvests in 1931 and 1932 could have been managed, but a strict policy of grain procurement was enforced and most of the grain was sent to feed the industrial workers and the army in the wider Soviet Union. What little food that remained was taken from people who were already starving. As the famine and its consequences became apparent, the regime of Stalin could have reduced procurement demands, released grain from reserve stocks, and called on the international community for assistance. It did none of these things. Much has been written about the Holodomor since the mid-1980s and more so since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. There are mixed opinions, but a large consensus agrees that this was a targeted genocide. The Ukrainian community and the diaspora around the world hold commemorative events on 24th November. Footsteps member Simon is honoured and humbled to have been asked to speak at one of the events in the United Kingdom

Polish Centre Shrewsbury would like to invite you for meeting with history. We want to talk about relationship between two countries which exist since 15th century. We live in Shropshire, amazing and blooming county, which is also rich in Polish-British history like Shawbury base, Attacham, Montford Bridge, Polish hospital in Penley.
We invited our British friends to discuss and share their experience and knowledge about Polish history. It will be very interesting to find out about our history from British point of view.
Please meet our speakers for The Day (PART I): Michael Parrott, historian, co-founder of 307 Squadron Project; Peter Bellingham, local resident with personal experience and Simon Bell, retired mental health nurse, worked with survivors of the war in Europe, book author.
It won't be end of the day as we would like to invite you for PART II of our event. It will be movie projection “Forever a Pilot of the Spitfire (& 303 Squadron)” and meeting with Slawomir Ciok, movie director.

Please be aware that this booking is only for PART I. PART II (the screening) requires separate booking. Tickets priced £7 per person may be booked here: polishcentreshrewsbury@gmail.com

This is ONLY for PART I and it's free entry.

Premiere in Novi Sad-Serbia

After the great success of "Grandson", at the 65th film festival in Belgrade, the Serbian director and filmmaker Aleksandar Reljic in collaboration with RTV Novi Sad invited now Rainer Höß, grandson of the Auschwitz commander and protagonist in the film to the Premiere in the filmmaker's hometown Novi Sad. The interest was Hugh when the information about his arrival went public. Aleksandar Reljic said that it was and is a big concern for him personally to continue to actively support the message of Rainer Höß and the entire Footsteps team.
Seats in the Arena Cineplex are limited; therefore we recommend to arrive soon and to reserve seats if necessary.

The premiere of „Grandson" with subsequent press conference will take place on Thursday 10 May 2018 at 8 pm in the Cineplex Arena in Novi Sad-Serbia.