On July 11 and 12, 1943, the UPA carried out a coordinated attack on Polish inhabitants of 150 towns in Volhynia. In total, approximately 100,000 people died in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943-45. Poles murdered by units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the local Ukrainian population. These events went down in history as the Volhynian Crime.
The perpetrators of the Volhynian crime are the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists – Stepan Bandera’s faction, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army subordinated to it, and the Ukrainian population participating in the murders of their Polish neighbors. The OUN-UPA called its actions “anti-Polish action.” This term concealed the intention to murder and expel Poles.
Corpses and injured women from Bełżec and Tomaszów Lubelski taken from the crime scene.
The first mass murder of the Polish population in Volhynia was committed on February 9, 1943, by a unit of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which murdered 173 Poles in the village of Parośla I in the Sarnia district.
The wave of crimes intensified due to the fact that Ukrainian policemen left the service for Germany in March and April 1943 and joined the UPA. Many of these policemen had previously participated in the extermination of Jews. On the night of April 22-23, 1943, the UPA burned the settlement of Janowa Dolina and murdered approximately 600 Poles.
Remains of victims from Ostrówek and Wola Ostrowiecka – 1943
The crime intensified in particular in July 1943. About 10-11 thousand Poles were murdered then. On July 11 and 12, the UPA carried out a coordinated attack on Poles in 150 towns in the Włodzimierz, Horochów, Kovel and Lutsk counties. The fact that people gathered in churches on Sunday, July 11, was used. There were murders in temples, among others. in Poryck (today Pawliwka) and Kisielin. About 50 Catholic churches in Volhynia were burned and destroyed.
Crimes against Poles were committed in 1,865 places in Volhynia. The largest massacres were committed in Wola Ostrowiecka, where 628 Poles were murdered, in the Gaj colony – 600, in Ostrówki – 521, and in Kołodno – 516.
Crimes against Poles were often committed with incredible cruelty: they were burned alive, thrown into wells, axes and forks were used, victims were elaborately tortured before death, and women were raped.
The Karpiak family, which was murdered by the UPA on December 14, 1943. Maria Karpiak – 42, mother; Józef – 23 years old, son; Genowefa – 20, daughter; Władysław – 18 years old, son; Zofia – 8 years old, daughter; Sigismund – Latin 6, son. – shared by Władysław Kosowski. 1943-12 Latacz, Zaleszczyki district, province Ternopil, Ukraine
Mass murders of the Polish population in Eastern Galicia began in the fall of 1943
The UPA attacked Polish self-defense bases in Volhynia where the population was sheltering, including: Przebraże, where approximately 10,000 people were saved. Poles. Only some of the self-defense bases survived. Self-defense bases were helped by Soviet partisans, as well as Hungarian soldiers by selling ammunition. There were cases of obtaining weapons from the Germans. Poles sought salvation by fleeing to cities and towns controlled by the German army. Many of them were deported to forced labor in Germany.
The term Volhynian crime refers not only to mass murders committed in the areas of Volhynia, i.e. the former Volhynian Voivodeship, but also in the former voivodeships of Lviv, Tarnopol and Stanisławów (Eastern Galicia), as well as the Lublin and Polesie voivodeships.
The UPA, led by Roman Szuchewycz “Taras Czuprynka”, started “anti-Polish action” in Eastern Galicia in April 1944. It was supposed to be not as drastic as the one carried out in Volhynia. The intention was to force Poles to leave their homes under the threat of death. If they refused, only men were to be killed. In practice, this was often not observed and crimes were committed against all residents. Mass murders were committed, among others, in Podkamień (100 – 150 killed), Bryniec Zagórne (100 – 145) and Berezowica Mała (130 – 135 killed). In addition to the UPA, Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers for the SS division “Galizien” (Huta Pieniacka, 600 – 900 killed) took part in the crimes.
Polish-Ukrainian families, Ukrainians refusing to take part in the criminal action and saving Poles also died at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists. The “Kresowa Księga Sprawiedliwych” (published by the Institute of National Remembrance) prepared by Romuald Niedzielka states that Ukrainians saved 2,527 Poles. 384 Ukrainians paid for this help with their lives.
According to the estimates of Polish historians, Ukrainian nationalists murdered about 100,000 Poles. 40-60 thousand died in Volhynia, 20-40 thousand in Eastern Galicia, at least 4,000 in today’s Poland. The UPA terror caused hundreds of thousands of Poles to leave their homes and flee to central Poland. The Volhynian massacre resulted in Polish retaliation, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 10-12 thousand people. Ukrainians, including 3-5 thousand in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.
In the opinion of an expert in Polish-Ukrainian issues, historian prof. Grzegorz Motyka “although the anti-Polish action was ethnic cleansing, it also meets the definition of genocide.” The goal was to destroy the entire Polish ethnic group in Volhynia, and partially in other areas.