Massacres of Poles in Volhynia

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The Massacre of Poles in Volhynia was an act of ethnic cleansing against Polish civilians conducted in Volhynia (Polish: Wołyń) 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.

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Ukrainian minority in the Second Polish Republic 1.2 Events of 1939-1941 2 Massacres 2.1 Beginning 2.2 July 1943 2.3 German and Soviet attitude 2.4 Jewish victims 3 Massacres in Galicia 4 Casualties 5 Reconciliation 6 Notes 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] 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^[1]

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^[2]:

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 ^[3]. Heryk Josewski, the Polish Voyevoda of Volhynia at the time also stated that the ethnic Ukrainian population was closer to 80%.^[4]

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^[5] (see Osadnik). For more information about the area in the interbellum, look at Wołyń Voivodeship (1921–1939).

[edit] 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.^[6] Although the majority of the local population was Ukrainian, official government positions (including local police) were assigned to ethnic Poles.^[7][8] 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^[9].) As many as one hundred ninety Orthodox churches were destroyed and another one hundred fifty were forcibly transformed to the Roman Catholic Rite,^[5] Ukrainian libraries and reading rooms were also 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.^[5] The Ukrainians retaliated in kind, under OUN guidance. Bloodshed, however, was relatively rare.

Growing Ukrainian and Polish antagonism escalated in the 1930s, when the terrorist campaign of OUN (including assassinations of prominent Polish politicians and moderates, such as Tadeusz Hołówko) led to escalated pacification of Ukrainian settlements by Polish forces and a corresponding escalation of tensions.^[10][11]

[edit] 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.^[12]

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.^[13] Previously it was believed that about 1.0 million Polish citizens died at the hands of the Soviets,^[14] 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.^[15]

[edit] Massacres

[edit] Beginning

In 1942 local elements of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army began attacking the Polish minority population, in an effort to "cleanse" Volyn.^[16] 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 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 ^[17].

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.^[12] 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,^[18] 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.^[12]

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 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.

[edit] July 1943

On July 11, 1943, 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. After the massacres, the Polish villages were burned to the ground. According to those few who survived, the 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 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 children under 14 and in Ostrowki - 438, including 246 children. In September 1992 exhumation took place in these villages.^[17]

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".^[12] 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 Nemyriv (1648) and Uman (1768). It was, in his opinion, a "peasants' war" ^[19].

Altogether, in July of 1943 the Ukrainians attacked 167 towns and villages. ^[20]. 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 ^[21].

[edit] 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 do not shoot the Poles, but kill them with knives and axes, without consideration of age and gender" ^[17].

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". ^[19].

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.

[edit] Jewish victims

The Ukrainians did not 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.

[edit] 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 ^[22] 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.^[3]

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 ^[19]

Approximately 366 Ukrainian and a few Polish inhabitants of Pawłokoma were massacred by a former Armia Krajowa unit, ^[23] 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 ^[24] in Pawłokoma and unspecified number of Poles killed by UPA in neighbouring villages.

[edit] Casualties

Estimates of Poles killed in Volhynia and Ukraine^{[citation needed]}

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 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.

The Polish side however, also engaged in acts of brutality and vengeance.^[25] Although the exact number of Ukrainian victims is not documented, according to Ukrainian estimates^[who?] the number of victims from the actions of the Polish Home Army forces resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 Ukrainians.^[26] There is still research being done to arrive at a more accurate estimation of the number of victims for each sides.

[edit] 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".^[27]

The Ukrainian government has not issued an apology.^{[26] [28]} On July 11, 2003, presidents Aleksander Kwasniewski and Leonid Kuchma attended a ceremony held in the Volhynian village of Pavlivka (previously known as Poryck).^[29] They unveiled a monument to the reconciliation. President Kuchma however, did not offer an apology. The Ukrainians unexpectedly changed the inscription on the monument, even though it had been previously agreed upon with Poles.^[30] Later, the Ukrainians issued an apology for what they stated was a mistranslation, and promised to correct the inscription.^[31] 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 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".^[32]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• 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
• (English) Martin Gilbert, Atlas of the Holocaust, London 1982
• (Polish) Zycie religijne w Polsce pod okupacja, 1939-45, Katowice 1992
• (Polish) Wincenty Urban, Droga krzyzowa Archidiecezji Lwowskiej w latach II wojny swiatowej. 1939-1945, Wroclaw 1983
• (Ukrainian) Volodymyr Serhiychuk, Poliaky na Volyni u roky druhoyi svitovoyi viyny. Kyiv, 2003. 576 pages. ISBN 966-70-60-48-7
• (Ukrainian) Volodymyr Serhiychuk, Deportatsiya Poliakiv z Ukrainy. Kyiv, 1999. 192 pages. ISBN 966-7060-15-2

[edit] See also

• 27th Polish Home Army Infantry Division
• Anti-Polonism
• Janowa Dolina
• Poryck Massacre
• Przebraze Self-Defence
• Zamosc Uprising

[edit] External links

• (Ukrainian) / (Polish) Volhynia and Eastern Galicia 1943–1944. Documents of State Committee on Archives of Ukraine
• (Ukrainian) 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
• (Ukrainian) Volyn Discussion (a list of articles)
• (Polish) UPA and genocide of Polish community in Volhynia and Galicia (in Polish); from Polish website affiliated with the Polish underground military that fought against Ukrainians
• (Polish) Genocide in Volhynia