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| The fall of Poland at the beginning of ] brought Volhynia under ] rule. Then, ] put it under ] rule. The Ukrainians of ] began to form a local resistance army to fight the occupiers. However, |
The fall of Poland at the beginning of ] brought Volhynia under ] rule. Then, ] put it under ] rule. The Ukrainians of ] began to form a local resistance army to fight the occupiers. However, in February 1943 local elements of this Ukrainian army began to attack the civilians of the local Polish minority, killing many in an attempt to drive the Poles out of Volynia. Actions were made by many units coordinating their actions. When Polish delegation from ] (leaded by delegate from | ||
| ]) tried to negotiate with UPA leaders, it was murdered July 8th 1943. In July 11th started another round of massacres, with reports about UPA units marching from village to village, which lasted to July 16th. UPA continued massacres until all Poles were either deported, killed or expelled, though after 1944 the scale was much more limited. | |||
| German army and police largely ignored the questions; there are reports about Germans supplying weapons to both Ukrainians and Poles, but since such reports are usually based on hearsay, they are not really reliable. Also some special German units from collaborationist Ukrainian or Polish police were going around, and some of their crimes were attributed either to Polish ] or Ukrainian . | |||
| ⚫ | Some have raised the question whether these actions were ordered by the authorities of the army or were independent decision of local commanders; to date there is no evidence of such an order. | ||
| ⚫ | Some have raised the question whether these actions were ordered by the authorities of the army or were independent decision of local commanders; to date there is no evidence of such an order, and any documents found by Polish historians are considered to be falsificates by Ukrainian ones. | ||
| (Here someone might want to explain what the Germans were doing while this partisan army was running amok behind their lines.) | |||
| In the end, the Soviet and Nazi invasions, the UPA campaign and post-war Soviet expulsions all contributed to the virtual elimination of any Polish presence in the region. | In the end, the Soviet and Nazi invasions, the UPA campaign and post-war Soviet expulsions all contributed to the virtual elimination of any Polish presence in the region. | ||
Revision as of 13:21, 28 October 2004
During World War II, approximately 100.000 Poles were massacred in Volhynia by units of the Ukrainian Uprising Army (Ukrainska Povstanska Armiya).
Volhynia was a largely Ukrainian region under Polish rule during the interwar period. After World War I, the Polish government promised to grant local autonomy to these Ukrainian territories; however, Polish government forces suppressed the Ukrainian language locally and persecuted the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
| Historian | Volhynia alone | Whole Ukraine |
|---|---|---|
| Norman Davies | 60,000 | 500,000 |
| Jan P. 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 | 35,000-60,000 | |
| Antoni Szczęśniak, Wiesław Szota | 100,000 | |
| Bogumiła Berdychowska | 34,647-60,000 |
The fall of Poland at the beginning of World War II brought Volhynia under Soviet rule. Then, Operation Barbarossa put it under Nazi German rule. The Ukrainians of Volyn began to form a local resistance army to fight the occupiers. However, in February 1943 local elements of this Ukrainian army began to attack the civilians of the local Polish minority, killing many in an attempt to drive the Poles out of Volynia. Actions were made by many units coordinating their actions. When Polish delegation from AK (leaded by delegate from Polish government-in-exile) tried to negotiate with UPA leaders, it was murdered July 8th 1943. In July 11th started another round of massacres, with reports about UPA units marching from village to village, which lasted to July 16th. UPA continued massacres until all Poles were either deported, killed or expelled, though after 1944 the scale was much more limited.
German army and police largely ignored the questions; there are reports about Germans supplying weapons to both Ukrainians and Poles, but since such reports are usually based on hearsay, they are not really reliable. Also some special German units from collaborationist Ukrainian or Polish police were going around, and some of their crimes were attributed either to Polish AK or Ukrainian .
Some have raised the question whether these actions were ordered by the authorities of the army or were independent decision of local commanders; to date there is no evidence of such an order, and any documents found by Polish historians are considered to be falsificates by Ukrainian ones.
In the end, the Soviet and Nazi invasions, the UPA campaign and post-war Soviet expulsions all contributed to the virtual elimination of any Polish presence in the region.
Casualties
The exact number of civilian casualties remains unknown. Various historians estimate that number at between 35,000 and 60,000 of casualties in Volhynia alone, though the estimates of all victims of UPA terror in Ukraine are as high as 100,000 (or even 500,000).
Retaliation by the Polish forces of the Home Army resulted in the deaths of additional 15,000 to 30,000 Ukrainian civilians of the region, though the exact number of deaths is even less documented. The numbers cited probably include also the victims of German Schutzmannschaft and Soviet partisans, who also took part in the ethnic cleansing. There are efforts to bring about reconciliation between the Polish people and Ukrainians over these tragic events.
Bibliography
- Mikolaj Teres: Ethnic Cleaning of Poles in Volohynia and Eastern Galicia, Toronto, 1993
- Ryszard Torzecki: Polacy i Ukraincy. Sprawa ukrainska w czasie II wojsny swiatowej na terenie II Rzeczpospolitej, Warsaw, 1993
- Wiktor Poliszczuk: Gorzka prawda. Zbrodniczosc OUN-UPA (eng: Bitter Truth. Legal and Political Assessment of the OUN and UPA), Toronto-Warsaw-Kiev, 1995
- Wladyslaw & Ewa Siemaszko: Ludobojstwo na ludnosci Polskiej. Wolynia 1939 - 1945 (eng:The Genocide Carried Out by Ukrainian Nationalists on the Polish Population of the Volhyn Region 1939-1945., Warsaw, 2000
See also
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