From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Historian	Volhyn	All Ukraine
Norman Davies	60,000	500,000
Jan T. Gross	60-80,000
Ewa and Władysław Siemaszko	50-60,000	100,000
Wiktor Poliszczuk	50-60,000	120,000
Ryszard Torzecki	40,000	100,000
Michał Fijałka	40,000
Józef Turowski	60,000	300,000
Grzegorz Motyka	35-60,000
Antoni Szczęśniak, Wiesław Szota		100,000
Bogumiła Berdychowska	34,647-60,000
Mykhaylo Koval	40,000 +
Orest Subtelny	60-80,000

The Massacre of Poles in Volhynia was an ethnic cleansing conducted in Volhynia (Polish: Wołyń) during World War II. During the course of the war, as many as 80,000 Poles are thought to have been massacred by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska Povstanska Armiya, or UPA) and other armed groupings. This happened in 1943 and 1944 in Volhynia (now in Ukraine), with most of the killings during the summer and autumn of 1943.

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Oppression of Ukrainian minority in the Second Polish Republic 1.2 Events of 1939-1941 2 Massacres 2.1 Beginning 2.2 July 11, 1943 2.3 German and Soviet attitude 3 Massacres in Galicia 4 Casualties 5 Reconciliation 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

After World War I, Poland regained independence (see: Partitions of Poland). The Polish government of Józef Piłsudski had supported strongly the idea of an independent Ukraine (Ukrainian People's Republic). Both sides together fought the Bolshevik Red Army. At the end of the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921, however, this alliance was shattered. With the signing of the Peace of Riga accords, Polish support for Ukrainian independence ended. As a result of the Peace of Riga, during the Interbellum, Volhynia came under Polish administration.

At the time, Ukrainians composed the majority of Volhynian population and their number ranged from 68.9% (according to the 1931 Polish census, which is disputed by numerous Ukrainian historians)^[1]) to 80% ^[2]. For more information about the area in the interbellum, look at Wołyń Voivodeship (1921–1939).

The Polish government promised local autonomy to its predominantly Ukrainian-populated territories. With, however, the demise of Józef Piłsudski's Międzymorze Federation and the increase of Polish nationalism encouraged by Roman Dmowski's political adherents, Polish government policy was changed drastically, and the government proceeded to suppress the Ukrainian language, culture and religion.

In 1926 a conference was formed by the Polish minister of religion, Antoni Sujkowski, and education to discuss solutions to the growing Ukrainian problem. It resulted in the Polish policy termed the "Volhynia program" which called for the state sponsored assimilation of Volhynia. At this time the "Sokalski" administrative border was also established to stop the dissemination of Ukrainian literature, newpapers, mail and the movement of people from the more educated former Austrian province of Galicia to Volhynia.^[3]

During this period between 100,000 and 300,000 Polish colonists were encouraged by the Polish government to resettle in Volhynia. Although the majority of the local population was Ukrainian, virtually all government official positions (including local police) were assigned to Poles.

The Poles suppressed the Ukrainian educational system, reducing the number of Ukrainian-language schools from 440 to 8. Higher education became unattainable for Ukrainians in Poland. In the middle schools in Volhynia only 344 (14%) Ukrainians were enrolled in comparison to 2599 Poles (1938). Of the 80 Ukrainians who qualified to continue through to Tertiary studies, only 3 were accepted in 1938–1939.^[4] As a result, many Ukrainians were forced to seek education in institutions outside of the country such as the Ukrainian Free University in Czechoslovakia, the Drahomanov Pedagogical College as well as at other education establishments there.

Significant pressure was placed on Ukrainian religious life. The Ukrainians in Volhynia were primarily Eastern Orthodox, all constituent to the Russian Orthodox Church during the times of the Russian Empire. After the Polish-Soviet War, with the wide persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union, contacts between the parishes and the Moscow Patriarchate were restricted. The Ecumenical Patriarchate assumed management of most of the congregations including those in Poland, and the Polish Orthodox Church was formed. Despite this, as many as one hundred ninety Orthodox churches were destroyed and another one hundred fifty were forcibly transformed to the Roman Catholic Rite which differed considerably from the Ukrainian Catholic Church in neighbouring Galicia, which adhered to the Byzantine rite which did not differ from that used by Orthodox Christians.

Ukrainian and Polish antagonism however continued to increase with the introduction of a policy of Pacification. Ukrainian libraries and reading rooms were burned by Polish mobs of misguided patriotic youth who often went unpunished by the Polish police forces^[5]. Polish youths were organized into armed, local paramilitary strzelcy and terrorized (pacified) the Ukrainian population under the pretext of maintaining law and order. Henryk Józewski, the Volhynian Voivode of the 1930s who had earlier expressed favour for Ukrainian autonomy, was dismissed from his position in 1938. During the 1930s these actions continued in a pattern of escalation, with actions becoming gradually more intense. Bloodshed however was rare.

During September 1939, following the outbreak of World War II and pursuant to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was occupied in the west by Nazi Germany and in the east by the Soviet Union. Volhyn was occupied by the Soviets.

The Soviets immediately started to eliminate the middle and upper "bourgeoisie" classes, who were mostly Polish. Entire families were killed or displaced to Siberia. The deportations deprived the Poles in Volyn of their leaders. All Polish officers from Volyn were murdered in the Katyn and Kharkiv massacres. This left Polish population in Volyn without negotiators or leaders to placate the Ukrainian nationalists in the future.^[6]

Two years later, in June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. During Operation Barbarossa Volyn was occupied by the Nazis. Each successive change of authorities resulted in political changes and arrests.

To protect their interests, the Ukrainians began to form into resistance groups that grew into a guerilla army.

In 1942 local elements of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army began attacking the Polish minority population, in an effort to "cleanse" Volhynia.^[7] The first known attack took place on November 13, 1942 in the village of Oborki (Lutsk county), the Ukrainian units killed 50 Poles. However, most Poles in Volhynia regarded this event as a single incident and work of disorganized bandits and hardly anybody realized there was more to come. Professor Wladyslaw Filar from Polish National Remembrance Institute, who himself witnessed the massacres, claims that it is impossible to establish whether these events were ever planned. There is no documentation proving that UPA-OUN made a decision to exterminate Poles in Volhynia ^[8].

On February 9, 1943 Polish settlement Parosle (Sarny county) was attacked, and 173 Poles were murdered. In March 1943 some 5,000 Ukrainian policemen took their weapons and defected to the Volhynian forests. Timothy Snyder writes that this fact marked the beginning of large-scale UPA operations.^[6] In the night of 22-23 April, Ukrainian groups attacked the model settlement of Janowa Dolina, killing 600 people and burning the whole village. Those few who survived were mostly people that found refuge with friendly Ukrainian families, like the Karwan family,^[9] These actions were conducted by many units and seemed well-coordinated. Also, even though it is an exaggeration to say that the massacres enjoyed general support of the Ukrainians, it has been established that without wide support from local Ukrainians they would have been impossible.^[6]

Two delegates of the Polish government in Exile, Zygmunt Rumel and Krzysztof Markiewicz, together with a group of representatives from the Polish Home Army, attempted to negotiate with UPA leaders, but soon they were found murdered (on July 10, 1943, village of Kustycze). Within three days, on July 11, a round of massacres began, with many reports of UPA units marching from village to village, killing Polish civilians.

On the fateful day of July 11, 1943, alleged UPA units surrounded and attacked Polish villages and settlements located in three counties - Kowel, Horochow and Wlodzimierz Wolynski. The events began at 3 in the morning, Poles had no chance to escape. The Ukrainians were using all kinds of weapons - axes, saws, knives, hammers. After massacres, all Polish villages were burned to the ground. According to those few who survived, the whole action had been carefully prepared, a few days before the massacres there had been several meetings in Ukrainian villages, during which UPA members were telling natives that slaughter of all Poles was necessary. In July, in the Polish village of Gurow, out of 480 inhabitants, 70 survived, in the settlement of Orzeszyn UPA killed 270 out of 340 Poles, in the village of Sadowa out of 600 Poles only 20 survived, in Zagaje out of 350 Poles only few survived. In September in the village Wola Ostrowiecka 529 persons died, including 220 kids under 14 and in Ostrowki - 438, including 246 children. In September 1992 exhumation took place in these villages.^[8]

Norman Davies in "No Simple Victory" gives a short, but shocking description of the massacres. He writes: "The Jews of the region had already been killed by the Nazis. So in 1943-44 the wrath of the UPA fell on the helpless Poles (...) Villages were torched. Roman Catholic priests were axed or crucified. Churches were burned with all their parishioners. Isolated farms were attacked by gangs carrying pitchforks and kitchen knives. Throats were cut. Pregnant women were bayoneted. Children were cut in two. Men were ambushed in the field and led away. The perpetrators could not determine the province's future. But at least they could determine that it would be a future without Poles. They killed any number between 200,000 and half a million. Ironically, the USSR finished the UPA's work for them.The surviving Poles were 'repatriated', as they were from adjacent Byelorussia and Lithuania. They were largely replaced by Russians. In 1991 West Ukraine became part of the independent Republic of Ukraine".

Timothy Snyder describes the murders: "Ukrainian partisans burned homes, shot or forced back inside those who tried to flee, and used sickles and pitchforks to kill those they captured outside. In some cases, beheaded, crucified, dismembered, or disemboweled bodies were displayed, in order to encourage remaining Poles to flee" ^[6]. Ukrainian historian from Lviv, Yuryi Kirichuk wrote that the massacres were a grim remainder of times of Jarema Wisniowiecki and Maksym Krivonis. According to him, scenes taking place in Volhynian villages in 1943 were similar to massacres in Niemirow (1648) and Human (1768). It was, in his opinion, a "peasants' war" ^[10].

Altogether, in July of 1943 the Ukrainians attacked 167 towns and villages. ^[11]. This wave of massacres lasted 5 days, until July 16. It is also asserted that the UPA continued the ethnic cleansing, particularly in rural areas, until most Poles had been deported, killed or expelled. After 1944, the scale of such actions was limited. Mass murders of Poles also took place in Eastern Galicia, mainly in the area around Ternopil.

Adam Kruczek, historian from Lublin's office of the Institute of National Remembrance states that in 1943 massacres were organized westwards, starting in March in Kostopol and Sarny counties, in April they moved to the area of Krzemieniec, Rivne, Dubno and Lutsk. In July massacres took place in such counties as Kowel, Horochow and Wlodzimierz Wolynski, and in August - in Luboml. Also, Kruczek writes that Polish investigators consider among others the version according to which the Ukrainians at first planned to chase Poles away, however, the events got out of hand in the course of time ^[12].

German army and police forces largely ignored the ethnic conflicts, because the Germans were concentrated on fighting the Red Army. However, there are reports of Germans supplying weapons to both Ukrainians and Poles. Special German units formed from collaborationist Ukrainian or Polish police were also involved, and some of their crimes have been attributed to either the Polish Home Army or the Ukrainian UPA.

Both Germans and Soviet partisan units, present in the area, were well aware of the massacres. On May 25, 1943, commander of Soviet underground forces of the Rivne area, wrote in a dispatch to the headquarters: "In recent days main activities of Ukrainian nationalists are aimed at Poles. The nationalists are conducting actions of mass terror and it has to be emphasized that they do not shoot the Poles, but kill them with knives and axes, without consideration of age and sex" ^[8].

On August 25, 1943, German occupational authorities ordered all Poles to leave villages and settlements and move to bigger towns. Yuryi Kirichuk wrote that the Germans were egging both sides on each other. Erich Koch once said: "We have to do everything possible so that a Pole, while meeting a Ukrainian, would be willing to kill him and conversely, a Ukrainian would be willing to kill a Pole". Also, Kirichuk quotes a German commissioner from Sarny who, when Poles complained about massacres, answered: "You want Sikorski, the Ukrainians want Bandera. Fight each other". ^[10].

The Soviet and Nazi invasions of pre-war eastern Poland, the UPA massacres of Poles, and postwar Soviet expulsions all contributed to the virtual elimination of a Polish presence in the region, as those who survived left Volhynia en masse, mostly to the neighboring province of Lublin.

In mid-1943 the conflict spread to the neighboring province of Galicia, where Polish presence was stronger, but the majority of the population was Ukrainian. According to Kirichuk, the first attacks on the Poles took place there in August, 1943 and they were probably the work of UPA units from Volyn. In return, Poles killed some significant Ukrainian persons, including Ukrainian doctor Lastowiecky from Lviv and a popular football player from Przemysl, Wowczyszyn. By the end of summer, mass acts of terror aimed at Poles were taking place in Eastern Galicia with the purpose of forcing Poles to settle on the western bank of the San river, under the slogan "Poles behind the San". The number of victims is unknown. Kirichuk estimates that 10-12,000 Poles were murdered in Galicia ^[10]

The exact numbers of civilian victims of the Massacre remains unknown. Historians estimate the number as being between 35,000 and 60,000 in Volhyn alone, while estimates of all Polish victims of the ethnic cleansing in Ukraine run as high as 100,000 or even 500,000. Apart from Poles, Czech settlers were also exterminated^{[citation needed]}. UPA did not spare members of mixed families, including Ukrainians (Piotrowski writes that OUN-UPA nationalists would also murder Ukrainians, those who either helped Poles or cooperated with Soviet units). The ethnic cleansing was focused on unarmed countrymen as UIA partisans were not present in cities.

In return, the Polish side also engaged in acts of brutality and vengeance.^[13] Although the exact number of Ukrainian victims is not documented, some claim that retaliative actions of the Home Army forces resulted in the deaths of as many as 20,000 Ukrainian civilians in Volhynia alone^[14], with a possible total of 60,000 Ukrainian civilians in the region. The exact number is not documented. It is possible, that these numbers include Ukrainians from mixed families. There are still works on the estimation of real number of victims of each sides.

The numbers cited may also include victims of German Schutzmannschaft and Soviet partisans.

Efforts are ongoing to bring about reconciliation between Poles and Ukrainians over these tragic events. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance which is conducting an extensive investigation has collected over 10,000 pages of documents and protocols. The Polish side has made the first step towards reconciliation. In 2002 president Aleksander Kwasniewski expressed regret over the resettlement program, known as Operation Vistula, stating that “Operation Vistula was the revenge for the slaughter of Poles by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army” in 1943-1944” ^[15]

The Ukrainian government has not issued an apology.^{[14] [16]} On July 11, 2003, presidents Aleksander Kwasniewski and Leonid Kuchma attended a ceremony held in the Volhynian village of Pavlivka (previously known as Poryck) ^[15] They unveiled a monument to the reconciliation, but president Kuchma did not offer an apology. The Ukrainians unexpectedly changed the inscription on the monument, even though it had been previously agreed upon with Poles.^[17] Later, the Ukrainians issued an apology for what was a mistranlation, and promised to fix the inscription.^[18] Also, former chairman of Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn rejected calls for the Ukrainian state to apologize for the 1943 Volhynia massacres.

The Polish President stressed that it is unjust to blame the entire Ukrainian nation for these acts of terror, saying "The Ukrainian nation cannot be blamed for the massacre perpetrated on the Polish population. There are no nations that are guilty...It is always specific people who bear the responsibility for crimes" ^[19]

• Władysław Siemaszko, Ewa Siemaszko (2000). "Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na ludności polskiej Wołynia 1939-1945. ISBN 83-87689-34-3. 
• Subtelny, Orest (1988). "Ukraine: A History". Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-5808-6. 
• Filip Ożarowski Wolyn Aflame, Publishing House WICI, 1977, ISBN 0-9655488-1-3.
• (English) Wiktor Poliszczuk "Bitter truth": The criminality of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the testimony of a Ukrainian, ISBN 0-9699444-9-7
• Tadeusz Piotrowski: Genocide and Rescue in Wolyn: Recollections of the Ukrainian Nationalist Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against the Poles During World War II, McFarland & Company, 2000, ISBN 0-7864-0773-5.
• Tadeusz Piotrowski: Vengeance of the Swallows: Memoir of a Polish Family's Ordeal Under Soviet Aggression, Ukrainian Ethnic Cleansing and Nazi Enslavement, and Their Emigration to America, McFarland & Company, 1995, ISBN 0-7864-0001-3.
• Mikolaj Teres: Ethnic Cleansing of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, Alliance of the Polish Eastern Provinces, 1993, ISBN 0-9698020-0-5.
• (Polish) Andrzej L. Sowa (1998). "Stosunki polsko-ukraińskie 1939-1947". OCLC 48053561. 
• Norman Davies, "No Simple Victory: World War Two in Europe", page 352, Viking Penguin 2007. ISBN 978-0-670-01832-1

• 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galizien (1st Ukrainian)
• 27th Polish Home Army Infantry Division
• Action Vistula
• Anti-Polonism
• Nachtigall
• Operation Tempest
• Pawłokoma massacre
• Janowa Dolina
• Poryck Massacre
• Koliyivschyna
• Przebraze Self-Defence

• Genocide in Volhynia (english version)
• Volhynia and Eastern Galicia 1943–1944. Documents of State Committee on Archives of Ukraine
• Tragedy of Volhynia 1943–1944. Documents of State Committee on Archives of Ukraine
• To resolve the Ukrainian Question Once and for all: the ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians in Poland 1943-1947, written by Yale historian Timothy Snyder
• Kost Bondarenko,"The Volyn Tragedy: Echoes Through Decades" in Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), Feb. 15-21, 2003, Available online.
• L.Melnik, B.Yurochko, "Rozkhytane derevo myfiv" in The Lviv Newspaper, May 25, 2007, Online in Ukrainian
• Documents on Ukrainian Polish Reconciliation
• Ut unum sint: Ukraine and Poland
• [11] (Ukrainian)