Massacres of Poles in Volhynia

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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. In the course of it, up to 80,000 Poles are thought to have been massacred by the nationalist Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska Povstanska Armiya, or UPA). This took place in 1943 and 1944, with the bulk of victims reported for summer and autumn 1944.

1 Background
2 Massacres
3 Casualties
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Background

Volhynia was the main ethnically Ukrainian region that during the Interbellum was under Polish administration. After World War I, when Poland regained independence, the Polish government had strongly supported the idea of an independent Ukraine (Ukrainian People's Republic). At the end of the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921, under the Peace of Riga accords, overt Polish support for Ukraine's independence was ruled out. Poland initially promised local autonomy to her predominantly Ukrainian-populated territories. With, however, the demise of Józef Piłsudski's Międzymorze Federation and the rise of Polish nationalism fanned by Roman Dmowski's political adherents, Polish policy did an about-face and proceeded to suppress the Ukrainian language and culture. Between 100,000 and 300,000 Polish colonists were settled in these Ukrainian lands, and although the majority of the population were Ukrainian, virtually all of the officials (including local police) were Poles. One hundred ninety Orthodox churches were destroyed and 150 were forcibly transformed into Roman Catholic (not Ukrainian Catholic) churches, and Ukrainian libraries and reading rooms were burned down by Polish mobs who went unpunished by the Polish police forces. Local Polish youths organized into armed paramilitary strzelcy and further terrorized the Ukrainian population, under the pretext of maintaining law and order. In committing these acts the Poles did not, however, actually kill large numbers of civilians. 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 in the east by the Soviet Union. Volhyn fell within the Soviet zone of occupation. Within two years, in June 1941, with Adolf Hitler's Operation Barbarossa invasion of the Soviet Union, Volhyn was occupied by Nazi Germany. Each successive change of authorities brought political upheavals and arrests. Local Ukrainians, to protect themselves, began forming resistance groups that grew into a full-fledged guerilla army.

[edit] Massacres

Corpses of Poles murdered in Lipniki during the UPA raid of March 26, 1943

It is claimed that in February 1944 local elements of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army began attacking the Polish minority population, killing many in an effort to drive the Poles out of Volhyn. These actions were conducted by many units and seemed well-coordinated. Two delegates of the Polish government in Exile, J. Z. Rumel and K. 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 8, 1943). 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. The 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.

German army and police forces largely ignored the ethnic conflicts, though there are reports of Germans supplying weapons to both Ukrainians and Poles. These reports are not based on reliable evidence, however. 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.

It has been questioned^{[citation needed]} whether these actions were ordered by UPA authorities or resulted from independent decisions by local commanders. No evidence of such UPA orders has been found. Documents discovered by Polish historians have been shown to be fabrications^{[citation needed]}.

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.

[edit] Casualties

Exact numbers of civilian victims remain unknown. Various historians estimate the number at between 35,000 and 60,000 in Volhyn alone, while estimates of all Polish victims of ethnic cleansing in Ukraine run as high as 100,000 or even 500,000.

It should be noted that the Polish side also engaged in acts of brutality and vengeance.^[1] Although the exact number of Ukrainian victims is not documented, some claim that retaliation actions of the Home Army forces resulted in the deaths of as many as 20,000 Ukrainian civilians in Volhynia alone^[2], with a possible total of 60,000 Ukrainian civilians in the region; the exact number is not documented.

The numbers cited possibly 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 of them, has so far collected over 10,000 pages of documents and protocols.

[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.