The population of Liubymivka village (Huliaipilskyi district, Zaporizka region) suffered from Holodomor-genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine. At the cemetery, there is the place of mass burial of Holodomor victims.
At the cemetery, there are many mass graves of the Holodomor victims; also, it is known about the mass burial in the well.
According to the memories of the local inhabitant Anastasiia Fedorivna Ihnatovych (born in 1915), the bodies of the dead were thrown into the well. The other corpses of the people killed by famine were put onto the drays and taken to the cemetery. Sometimes still alive people were buried too.
The inhabitant of the village Mariia Yosypivna Repetun (born in 1917) told that nowadays, over the mass grave, the crosses had been installed. However, there are no names on it because many people died. Earlier, the mass burials were not different among the other graves in order for people not to know and not to remember the murder of their co-villagers. At the time when the relatives came to the village, it was difficult even to know in which pit exactly their relatives are buried. Mariia Yosypivna told that it had been forbidden to speak about the real cause of the death – the famine. Usually, the other causes of the death (influenza, poisoning etc.) were written. Mariia Yosypivna recalled that the members of the grain procurement commissions (they were called “nezamozhnyky”) and took away the food products and the property.
The inhabitant of the village Nina Vasylivna Popruha (born in 1924) spoke on the famine of 1932-1933. The activists confiscated the grain. People wanted to eat terribly. They were eating the grass.
The Holodomor eyewitness Kateryna Ivanivna Meha (born in 1926) added that the famine was caused by the poor harvest and the grain confiscations. People were forced to eat the surrogates. People were eating the spurge and the blossoms of acacia. They were cooking the “soup” from barley. They also grinded the ears of corn and ate them.