Everything about Massacre Of Poles In Volhynia totally explained
The
Massacre of Poles in Volhynia was an act of
ethnic cleansing against
Polish civilians conducted in
Volhynia during
World War II from 1943 and 1944.
In the years before, the tensions between the Polish and Ukrainians grew stronger, and after the
German invasion of the Soviet Union, the German administration encouraged inter-ethnic violence on the territories it administered. During that time, territories of Volhynia and
Galicia became a theater of such inter-ethnic violence between Poles and Ukrainians. As a result an estimated tens of thousands were killed by various militant groups. The bulk of the killings took place in summer and autumn of 1943. The majority of the victims were Polish, massacred by the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army and other armed Ukrainian groups. In the cycle of violence that continued, Ukrainian, Czech and Jewish civilians were also killed. The numerical estimates vary widely and have become a subject of scholarly as well as political debate.
Background
After
World War I, Poland regained its independence (see:
Partitions of Poland). The Polish government of
Józef Piłsudski had initially strongly supported the idea of an independent Ukraine (
Ukrainian People's Republic). Together as allies they fought against 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, Polish support for Ukrainian independence ended, and as a result of this accord signed by both the Bolsheviks and
Poles,
Volyn came under Polish control in the
Interwar period.
Ethnic make up of Vohlynia in 1915>
| Regional area |
Ukrainians |
Poles |
Jews |
| Kovel |
78.49% |
4.59% |
11.48% |
| Kremenetz |
82.72% |
3% |
12.13% |
| Lutsk |
56.96% |
9.7% |
14.13% |
| Ostroh |
76.68% |
6.61% |
10.08% |
| Rivne |
60.48% |
9.19% |
15.97% |
| Volodymyr-Volynsk |
72.09% |
8.37% |
10.42% |
| Dubno |
72.09% |
6.51% |
11.48% |
The Ukrainians were the largest ethnic minority in Poland. According to the
1931 census they made up 16% of the total population. Within Volyn however, ethnic
Ukrainians made up a majority of the population, with the Polish component taking a third place after the Jewish population. According to Polish statistics released in 1915:
Within 15 years however, according to the
1931 Polish census, the reported estimated ethnic Ukrainian population fell to 68.9%. This number is disputed by numerous Ukrainian historians . Heryk Josewski, the Polish Voyevoda of Volhynia at the time also stated that the ethnic Ukrainian population was closer to 80%.
In the
Interbellum period the Polish government attempted to increase the ethnic Polish population in Volyn by encouraging settlers from Central and Western Poland to move into territories which had a majority ethnic Ukrainian population. By 1938, between 100,000 and 300,000 Polish colonists were encouraged by the Polish government to settle in Volyn and Galicia (see
Osadnik). For more information about the area in the
interbellum, look at
Wołyń Voivodeship (1921–1939).
Ukrainian minority in the Second Polish Republic
» For more detailed information on this subject, see History of Ukrainian minority in Poland
The Polish government had promised local autonomy to its predominantly Ukrainian-populated territories, but
Warsaw reneged on its promises and instead implemented a policy that suppressed
Ukrainian language, culture and religion. Although the majority of the local population was Ukrainian, official government positions (including local police) were assigned to ethnic Poles. The number of Ukrainian-language schools in Volyn was reduced from 440 to 8. (In comparison the Czech population of Volyn had 13, the Jews 57, and Germans 66 schools.) As many as one hundred ninety Orthodox churches were destroyed and another one hundred fifty were forcibly transformed to the Roman Catholic Rite, Polish youths were organized into armed, local paramilitary
strzelcy and terrorized (pacified) the Ukrainian population under the pretext of maintaining law and order.
Events of 1939-1941
In 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 the eastern provinces were annexed by the
Soviet Union. Volyn became an
oblast of the
Ukrainian SSR.
Upon annexation the Soviets immediately started to eliminate the middle and upper "
bourgeoisie" classes, who were primarily Polish. Entire families were killed. About 200,000 Poles were sent to
Siberia and tens of thousands left the Soviet Union for Nazi-occupied Poland. These deportations deprived the Poles of their community leaders. Polish officers from Soviet occupied Poland were murdered by
NKVD in the
Katyn,
Kharkov Massacres and others.
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 major political upheavals and arrests.
To protect their interests, the Ukrainians began to form themselves into resistance groups that grew into a guerrilla army which in Volyn became known as the
Polissian Sich.
During 1939-1941 1.450 million inhabitants were deported by the Soviet regime, of whom 63.1% were Poles, and 7.4% were Jews. however recently Polish historians, based mostly on queries in Soviet archives, estimate the number of deaths at about 350,000 people deported in 1939-1945.
Massacres
Beginning
In 1942 local elements of the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army began attacking the Polish minority population, in an effort to "cleanse" Volyn. 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 the work of disorganized bandits. Professor Wladyslaw Filar from Polish National Remembrance Institute, a witness of the massacres, claims that it's 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 .
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. These actions were conducted by many units and seemed well-coordinated. Also, even though it's 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'd have been impossible.
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 couldn't 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"..
Altogether, in July of 1943 the Ukrainians attacked 167 towns and villages. .
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 theLublin'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 .
German and Soviet attitude
The
German army and police forces largely ignored the inter-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 the 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 don't shoot the Poles, but kill them with knives and axes, without consideration of age and gender" .
On August 25, 1943, German occupational authorities ordered all Poles to leave villages and settlements and move to larger 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". .
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.
Jewish victims
The Ukrainians didn't kill Poles only. Between May and December of 1942, some 140 000 Jews were massacred in Volhynia. Those, who found refuge among Poles, died together with their hosts. Martin Gilbert in the "Atlas of the Holocaust" states that in many villages Poles and Jews fought together against common enemy.
Massacres in Galicia
In mid-1943 the conflict spread to the neighboring province of Galicia, where the majority of the population was also Ukrainian, but where the Polish presence was stronger. In the night of February 5-6
1944, Ukrainian groups attacked the Polish village of Barycz, near
Buchach. 126 Poles were massacred, including children and women. Then, in the village of Korosciatyn, 78 Poles were murdered, the victims who were later counted by a local Roman Catholic priest, rev. Mieczyslaw Kaminski Father Kaminski stated that local Greek Catholic priests were urging the Ukrainian faithful to kill all members of mixed, Polish-Ukrainian families.
One of the most infamous massacres took place on February 28, 1944, in a Polish village of
Huta Pieniacka. In the
Huta Pieniacka massacre around 1,000 Poles were murdered, including a significant number of children. A number of Ukrainian historians deny the role of the Ukrainian SS in the killings, and attribute them entirely to German SS units.
Authors of a monograph "Zycie religijne w Polsce pod okupacja 1939-1945" state that Roman Catholic priests were among those killed with most cruelty. Father Ludwik Wrodarczyk from the village of Okop was crucified by the Ukrainians, father Stanislaw Dobrzanski from the village of Ostrowka beheaded (with him 967 local Poles were killed) and father Karol Baran from the village of Korytnica was cut in half by a saw.
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 important Ukrainians, including the 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
Approximately 366 Ukrainian and a few Polish inhabitants of
Pawłokoma were massacred by a former
Armia Krajowa unit, commanded by
Józef Biss "Wacław" aided by Polish self-defence groups from nearby villages. The victims were herded into a local church, interrogated (some were tortured) and then taken to a local cemetery where they were massacred. Only women with small children (below 10 years old) survived. Already during the execution the Ukrainian property was robbed by Poles from the neighbourhood villages.
The massacre believed to be an act of retaliation for earlier alleged murders by
Ukrainian Insurgent Army of 9 (or 11) Poles in Pawłokoma and unspecified number of Poles killed by UPA in neighbouring villages.
Casualties
Estimates of Poles killed in Volhynia and Ukraine >
| Historian |
Volhynia |
All Ukraine |
| Norman Davies |
60,000 |
|
| Jan T. Gross |
60-80,000 |
|
| Ewa and Władysław Siemaszko |
50-60,000 |
100,000 |
| 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 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. UPA didn't 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.
The Polish side however, also engaged in acts of brutality and vengeance. Although the exact number of Ukrainian victims isn't documented, according to Ukrainian estimates the number of victims from the actions of the Polish
Home Army forces resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 Ukrainians. There is still research being done to arrive at a more accurate estimation of the number of victims for each sides.
Reconciliation
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".
The Ukrainian government hasn't issued an apology.
On July 11, 2003, presidents
Aleksander Kwasniewski and
Leonid Kuchma attended a ceremony held in the Volhynian village of Pavlivka (previously known as
Poryck). They unveiled a monument to the reconciliation. President Kuchma however, didn't offer an apology. The Ukrainians unexpectedly changed the inscription on the monument, even though it had been previously agreed upon with Poles. Later, the Ukrainians issued an apology for what they stated was a mistranslation, and promised to correct the inscription. Former chairman of
Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn however, rejected calls for the Ukrainian state to apologize for the 1943 Volhynia massacres.
The Polish President stressed that it's unjust to blame the entire Ukrainian nation for these acts of terror, saying "
The Ukrainian nation can't 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".
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