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The Massacre of Poles in Volhynia (Template:Lang-pl, literally: Volhynian slaughter) was a massive ethnic cleansing operation in the prewar Polish Wołyń Voivodeship and its environs, between late 1942 and early 1945, at the time of the German occupation of the former eastern Polish Second Republic during World War II (now part of western Ukraine). The action, orchestrated and conducted mainly by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army together with various other Ukrainian groups as well as local Ukrainian peasants, resulted in tens of thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thousands, Polish nationals, children and women alike being murdered, and many more fleeing the area. The peak of the massacres took place in July and August 1943 when a senior UPA commander, Dmytro Klyachkivsky, ordered the extermination of the entire Polish population between 16 and 60 years of age. The number of casualties is being actively researched and continues to be the subject of scholarly as well as political deliberation. The slaughter was directly linked with the policies of the Banderist faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, whose goal, specified at the Third Conference of the OUN-B, was to remove all non-Ukrainians from the future Ukrainian state.. Historians Ewa and Władysław Siemaszko identified by name well over 20,000 victims in only half of one administrative district, with the true losses most likely exceeding 60,000 civilian Poles in the Volhynian Voivodeship alone. Niall Ferguson estimated that number to be as high as 80,000.

The tensions between ethnic Poles and Ukrainians had their origins in the period when both nations strove for independence following the First World War. Both nations claimed the territories of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. The political conflicts escalated in the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period, particularly in the 1930s as a result of a cycle of terrorist actions by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists formed in Poland and the ensuing state repressions. At the onset of World War II, and soon after the Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine in 1939-1941, then part of eastern Poland (see: Polish September Campaign), new doors of opportunity for Ukrainian nationalists began to open. Killings in German-occupied Volhynia and Galicia started soon after the German attack on the Soviet Union, with Nazis encouraging inter-ethnic violence in the territories they controlled. The mass murder of Poles did not end even when the Red Army pushed the Wehrmacht out from the current territory of Western Ukraine. The massacres lasted well into 1945.

Background history to Polish-Ukrainian relations

Unlike Ukraine, Poland managed to regain her independence following World War I. After defeating the West Ukrainian National Republic and annexing its territory, the Polish government of Józef Piłsudski allied with the Ukrainian People's Republic against the Bolshevik Red Army and supported the idea of an independent Ukraine in exchange for the Ukrainian People's Republic recognition of Polish rule over the former territory of the West Ukrainian National Republic. As the result of the Polish-Soviet war of 1920 and the 1921 Peace of Riga opposed by the exiled Ukrainian government in Vienna, most of Ukraine fell to Bolshevist Russia, with Volynia and Eastern Galicia to new Second Polish Republic.

In the 1930s the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists formed in Vienna, Austria, conducted a terrorist campaign on Polish soil i.e. in Kielce and Radom, which included assassinations of prominent Polish politicians, and Polish and Ukrainian moderates such as Tadeusz Hołówko. Conversely, preventive policies implemented by the Second Polish Republic contributed to further deterioration of relations between the two ethnic groups. In Wołyń Voivodeship some of the new policies resulted in suppressing Ukrainian language, culture and religion, and the antagonism escalated. In 1938 about 100 abandoned Orthodox churches were destroyed or converted to Roman Catholic churches and a number of Ukrainian language schools closed. Although around 68% of the voivodeship's population spoke Ukrainian as their first language (see table), nevertheless practically all government and administrative positions, including the police, were assigned to ethnic Poles. By 1938, thousands of Polish colonists and war veterans were encouraged to settle in Volyn and Galicia. This number is estimated at 17,700 in Volhynia (not including Galicia) by Polish historians, while one Ukrainian source estimated the number of Polish inhabitants in both Galicia and Volhynia at 300,000. Their presence ignited further anti-Polish sentiment among the locals. Approximately 1.5 million Poles were deported to Siberia after the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland in 1939, (the decision to start deporting ethinc Poles to Siberia was taken by Moscow on February 10, 1940)

Factors contributing to the massacres

Policies conducted by the Soviet Union (1939-1941)

In September 1939, at the outbreak of World War II and in accordance with the secret protocol the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was invaded from the west by Nazi Germany and from the east by the Soviet Union. Volynia was split by the Soviets into two oblasts, Rovno and Volyn of the Ukrainian SSR. Upon the annexation, the Soviet Secret Police started to eliminate the predominantly Polish middle and upper classes including social activists and military leaders. Several hundred thousand Poles died at the hands of the Soviets, including intelectuals and Polish officers murdered by NKVD in the Katyn massacre among other places. Between 1939-1941, 1.450 million inhabitants were deported to Siberia by the Soviet authorities, of whom 63.1% were Poles, and 7.4% were Jews. Others escaped from the Soviet-occupied zone to the areas controlled by Germans. The deportations and murders deprived the Poles of their community leaders.

During the Soviet occupation, Polish members of the local administration were replaced with Ukrainians and Jews, and the Soviet NKVD subverted the Ukrainian independence movement. All local Ukrainian political parties were abolished. Between 20,000 to 30,000 Ukrainian activists fled to German-occupied territory; most of those who did not escape were arrested. For example, Dr. Dmytro Levitsky, the head of the moderate, left-leaning democratic party Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, and chief of the Ukrainian delegation in the pre-war Polish parliament, as well as many of his colleagues, were arrested, deported to Moscow, and never heard from again. The elimination by the Soviets of the individuals, organizations and parties that represented moderate or liberal political tendencies within Ukrainian society left the extremist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which operated in the underground, as the only political party with a significant organizational presence among western Ukrainians. Allegedly, there were cases where Polish police collaborating with the NKVD handed over documentation regarding the activities of Ukrainian nationalists.

Policies conducted by Nazi Germany (1941-1943)

The areas of eastern Poland occupied by Soviet Union were attacked by German, Slovak and Hungarian forces on June 22, 1941. Soviet forces in Volhynia were better armed and prepared than in more northerly areas and were able to resist, but only for a couple of days. On June 30 the Soviets withdrew eastwards and Volhynia was overrun by the Nazis, with support from the Ukrainian nationalists, carrying out acts of sabotage. The Ukrainian pro-Nazi militia also staged pogroms and assisted the Nazis in executions of Poles and Jews. Some wartime actions by the Poles presumably contributed to the deepening tensions between the Polish and Ukrainian communities and politicians. In 1941, two brothers of Ukrainian leader Stepan Bandera were murdered while imprisoned in Auschwitz by Polish kapos (prisoners who worked for the concentration camp administrators) on the account of Josef Kral, a Polish citizen – an allegation denied during the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials by Polish witnesses. In the Chelm region, 394 Ukrainian community leaders were said to have been killed by the Poles on the grounds of Nazi collaboration.

Perhaps the largest practical effect of German rule on the Volhynia massacres was in the case of Ukrainian nationalist participation within the German police forces. During the first year of German occupation, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists pursued a policy of infiltrating the German police units with it members. In this role they obtained training in the use of weapons, and would also assist the German SS in murdering approximately 200,000 Volhynian Jews. While the Ukrainian police's share in the actual killings of Jews was small (they primarily played a supporting role), the Ukrainian police learned from the Germans the techniques necessary to kill large numbers of people: detailed advanced planning and careful site selection; assurances to the local population prior to the massacres in order for them to let down their guard; sudden encirclement; and then mass killing. This training obtained in 1942 explains the UPA's efficiency in the killing of Poles in 1943.

The massacres

The prelude

Throughout 1942 both Poles and Ukrainians considered Volhynia to be a relatively peaceful area with no significant rise in ethnic tensions between the two peoples. As evidenced both by Polish and Ukrainian underground reports, the only major concern was strong Soviet partisan groups operating in the area. The groups, recruited mostly from the Soviet POWs initially specialized in raiding local settlements, which disturbed both the OUN and the AK, who expected it to result in the increase of German terror. Indeed these concerns soon materialised, as Germans started the "pacifications" of entire villages in Volhynia in retaliation for real or alleged support for the Soviet partisans. Polish historiography wrongly attributed most of these actions to Ukrainian nationalists, while in reality they were conducted by Ukrainian occupational police units under direct supervision of Germans. One of the best known examples was the pacification of Obórki village in Lutsk county on 13-14 November 1942. While most of the action was carried out by the Ukrainian occupational police, the murder of the 53 Polish villagers was perpetrated personally by the Germans, who supervised the operation.

For many months in 1942, the OUN-B was not able to control the situation in Volhynia, where aside of the Soviet partisans, many independent Ukrainian self-defence groups started to form in response to the growth of German terror. The first OUN-B military groups were created in Volhynia only in autumn 1942 with the goal of subduing the other independent groups. In spring 1943 the OUN-B partisans started to call themselves the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), using the former name of the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army, another Ukrainian group operating in the area in 1942. In March 1943 approximately 5,000 Ukrainian policemen defected with their weapons and joined UPA. Well-trained and well-armed, this group contributed to UPA's achieving dominance over other Ukrainian groups active in Volhynia. Soon, the newly created OUN-B forces managed to either destroy or absorb other Ukrainian groups in Volhynia, including four OUN-M units and the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army. It also soon undertook steps to liquidate foreign elements, with posters and leaflets urging the Ukrainians to murder Poles . Its dominance secured, the UPA soon began the large-scale UPA operations against the Polish population.. Nevertheless, there is no documentation proving that UPA-OUN made a general decision to exterminate Poles in Volyn .

Volyn

The assault on Polish settlements began in late 1942, with a similar scheme - the Ukrainian nationalists attacked at night, butchering all Poles, regardless of sex and age. On February 9, 1943, a group pretending to be Soviet partisans murdered 173 Poles in Parośle settlement in Sarny county. According to Polish historiography the perpetrators were a unit of UPA, commanded by Hryhory Perehyniak. In the night of 22-23 April, Ukrainian groups, commanded by Ivan Lytwynchuk (aka Dubowy), attacked the settlement of Janowa Dolina, killing 600 people and burning down the entire village. Those few who survived were mostly people that found refuge with friendly Ukrainian families, . In one of the massacres, at the village of Lipniki, almost the entire family of Miroslaw Hermaszewski (Poland's only astronaut) was murdered. Also, the nationalists murdered grandparents of famous composer Krzesimir Debski, whose parents met each other during Ukrainian attack on Kisielin (see Kisielin massacre). Debski's parents survived, because they hid with a friendly Ukrainian family.

In mid-1943, after a wave of killings of Polish civilians, the Poles tried to initiate negotiations with the UPA. 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 instead, they were captured, tortured and murdered on July 10, 1943, in the village of Kustycze.

The following day, July 11, 1943 is regarded as one of the bloodiest days of the massacres, with many reports of UPA units marching from village to village, killing Polish civilians. On that day, UPA units surrounded and attacked Polish villages and settlements located in three counties - Kowel, Horochow and Włodzimierz Wołyński. The events began at 3 in the morning with the Poles having 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. Within few days an unspecified number of Polish villages were completely destroyed and their population murdered. In the Polish village of Gurow, out of 480 inhabitants, only 70 survived. In the settlement of Orzeszyn UPA killed 306 out of 340 Poles, in the village of Sadowa out of 600 Polish inhabitants only 20 survived, in Zagaje out of 350 Poles only a few survived. In August 1943, the Polish village of Gaj (near Kovel) was burned and some 600 persons massacred. 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 confirming the number of dead.

The atrocities were perpetrated with utmost cruelty. The victims, regardless of their age or gender were routinely tortured to death. Norman Davies in No Simple Victory gives a short, but shocking description of the massacres. He writes: "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." Timothy Snyder describes the murders in the following way: "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 disembowelled bodies were displayed, in order to encourage remaining Poles to flee". Similar account has been presented by Niall Ferguson, who wrote: Whole villages were wiped out, men beaten to death, women raped and mutilated, babies bayoneted. Ukrainian historian Yuryi Kirichuk from Lviv described the conflict as similar to the medieval rebellions.

Altogether, in July 1943 the Ukrainians attacked 167 towns and villages. This wave of massacres lasted 5 days, until July 16. The UPA continued the ethnic cleansing, particularly in rural areas, until most Poles had been deported, killed or expelled. These actions were conducted by many units, were well-coordinated and thoroughly planned. Also, even though it may be an exaggeration to say that the massacres enjoyed general support of the Ukrainians, it has been suggested that without wide support from local Ukrainians they would have been impossible. Those Ukrainian peasants who took part in the massacres, created their own units, called Samoboronni Kushtchovi Viddily (Kushtchov Self-Defence Units). People who did not speak Polish, but were considered Poles by the perpetrators were also murdered.

Władysław Filar from Polish Institute of National Remembrance, a witness of the massacres, cites numerous statements of the Ukrainian officers, who reported their actions to the leaders of UPA-OUN. For example, in late September 1943, commandant of the Lysoho group wrote to the OUN headquarters: "On September 29, 1943, I carried out the action in the villages of Wola Ostrowiecka (see Massacre of Wola Ostrowiecka), and Ostrówki (see Massacre of Ostrowki). I have liquidated all Poles, starting from the youngest ones. Afterwards, all buildings were burned and all goods were confiscated". On that day in Wola Ostrowiecka 529 Poles were murdered (including 220 children under 14), and in Ostrówki, the Ukrainians killed 438 persons (including 246 children) .

In August 1943 UPA placed notices in every Polish village stating in 48 hours leave beyond the Buh or the Sian river - otherwise Death. Ukrainian nationalists limited their actions to villages and settlements, and did not attack towns or cities. According to a journalist Adam Kruczek, a historian from the Lublin's branch of the Institute of National Remembrance stated that in 1943 the massacres were organized westwards, starting in March in Kostopol and Sarny counties, in April they moved to the area of Kremianets, Rivne, Dubno and Lutsk. In July massacres took place in such counties as Kowel, Horochow and Włodzimierz Wołyński, and in August - in Luboml. The slaughter did not stop after the Red Army entered into the areas, with massacres taking place in 1945 in such places as Czerwonogrod (Ukrainian: Irkiv), where 60 Poles were murdered on February 2, 1945,, the day before their departure to the Recovered Territories.

Polish historian Piotr Łossowski, the scheme used in most of the attacks was the same. At first, local Poles were assured that nothing would happen to them. Then, at dawn, a village was surrounded by armed members of the UPA, behind whom were peasants with axes, hammers, knives and saws. Murdered were all Poles encountered, sometimes they were herded into one spot, to make it easier. After a massacre, all goods were looted, including clothes, grain and furniture. The final part of an attack was setting fire to the village. . In many cases, victims were tortured and their bodies mutilated, with all vestiges of Polish existence eradicated. Even abandoned Polish settlements were still burned to the ground.

Eastern Galicia

In late 1943, after most Poles of Volhynia had either been murdered or had fled the area, the conflict spread to the neighbouring province of Galicia, where the majority of the population was still Ukrainian, but where the Polish presence was stronger. In this area, the Ukrainian nationalists used the same pattern as in Volhynia, with murdering of all Polish residents of villages, pillaging and burning them to the ground, . In the night of February 5-6, 1944, Ukrainian groups attacked a Polish village of Barycz, near Buchach. 126 Poles were massacred, including children and women. A few days later, a local group of OUN, under Petro Chamchuk attacked Polish settlement of Puźniki (February 12-13), killing around 100 persons and burning houses. Those who survived, moved mostly to Prudnik Then, in the village of Korosciatyn, 78 Poles were murdered, the victims were later counted by a local Roman Catholic priest, rev. Mieczysław Kamiński Father Kamiński claimed that in Koropiec, where no Poles were actually murdered, a local Greek Catholic priest, in reference to mixed Polish-Ukrainian families, proclaimed from the pulpit: Mother, you're suckling an enemy - strangle it. Among scores of Polish villages, whose inhabitants were murdered and all buildings burned, there are such places as Berezowica near Zbaraz, Ihrowica near Ternopil, Plotych near Ternopil, Podkamien near Brody, Hanachiv and Hanachivka near Przemyslany

One of the most infamous massacres took place on February 28, 1944, in a Polish village of Huta Pieniacka, which had served as shelter for the Jews, as well as suport base the for the Polish partisans. In the Huta Pieniacka massacre between 500 and 1,200 Poles were murdered, including a significant number of children, during that village's destruction after 2 members of the division were shot by armed forces within the village. Some historians deny the role of the Ukrainian Galizien Division in the killings, and attribute them entirely to German units, while others disagree.. In the village of Semianivka near Lviv, the troops of the Galizien Division are alleged to have killed 30 persons. It happened on July 22, 1944, after the battle of Brody, where majority of the Division was destroyed by the Red Army. Interestingly, a military journal of the Ukrainian Galizien Division condemned killings of Poles. In a March 2, 1944 article directed to the Ukrainian youth, written by military leaders, Soviet partisans were blamed for the murders of Poles and Ukrainians, and the authors stated that "if God forbid among those who committed such inhuman acts, a Ukrainian hand was found, it will be forever excluded from the Ukrainian national community."

The village of Pidkamen near Brody was a shelter for Poles, who escaped there, to hide in the monastery of the Dominicans. Some 2000 persons, majority of them women and children, were living there when the monastery was attacked in mid-March 1944, by the UPA units, which according to AK accounts were cooperating with Ukrainian SS. Over 250 Poles were killed. In the nearby village of Palikrovy, 300 Poles were killed, 20 in Maliniska and 16 in Chernytsia. Armed Ukrainian groups destroyed the monastery, stealing all valuables. What remained is the painting of Mary of Pidkamen, which now is kept in Saint Wojciech church in Wrocław.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 alone Approximately 366 Ukrainian and a few Polish inhabitants of Pawłokoma were massacred by a former Armia Krajowa unit aided by Polish self-defence groups from nearby villages. The massacre is 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.

German and Soviet involvement

While Germans actively encouraged the conflict, for most of the time they attempted to remain not directly involved. However, there are reports of Germans supplying weapons to both Ukrainians and Poles. Special German units formed from collaborationist Ukrainian or Polish police were deployed in pacification actions in Volhynia, and some of their crimes had been attributed to either the Polish Home Army or the Ukrainian UPA.

According to Yuryi Kirichuk the Germans were actively prodding both sides of the conflict against each other. Erich Koch once said: "We have to do everything possible so that a Pole meeting a Ukrainian, would be willing to kill him and conversely, a Ukrainian would be willing to kill a Pole". Kirichuk quotes a German commissioner from Sarny whose response to Polish complaints was: "You want Sikorski, the Ukrainians want Bandera. Fight each other".

On August 25, 1943, the German authorities ordered all Poles to leave the villages and settlements and move to larger towns.

Also the Soviet partisan units present in the area were aware of the massacres. On May 25, 1943, the commander of the Soviet partisan forces of the Rivne area in his report to the headquarters stressed that Ukrainian nationalists did not shoot the Poles but cut them dead with knives and axes, with no consideration of age or gender.

Number of victims

The actual death-toll among civilians murdered during the Volyn Massacre is still being researched. Recent estimates place the number of Polish victims at around 60,000 in Volyn alone, while estimates of all Polish victims of the ethnic cleansing in former eastern Poland run as high as 300,000. UPA did not spare members of mixed families, including Ukrainians. Historian Tadeusz Piotrowski writes that OUN-UPA nationalists murdered also local Ukrainians who did not want to participate in the massacres of Poles. The ethnic cleansing was focused on unarmed countrymen as UIA partisans were not present in cities. Piotr Łossowski estimates that in the massacres, around one-third of Poles living in Volyn (50,000-60,000) perished, those who survived, were mostly inhabitants of towns and cities . Władysław Siemaszko created a list consisting of 33,454 names of Polish victims, however, Łossowski emphasizes that the document is far from complete, as in numerous cases there were no survivors, who would later testify.

Although the exact number of Ukrainian victims is not documented, according to Ukrainian estimates the Polish self-defence units were engaging in acts of retaliation, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 Ukrainians. Research continues on arriving at the number of victims on either side.

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. Those who survived left Volyn mostly to the neighbouring province of Lublin. After the war, the survivors moved further west to the territories of Lower Silesia. Polish orphans from Volyn were kept in several orphanages, with the largest of them around Kraków. Several former Polish villages in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia do not exist any more, what remains are ruins.

Responsibility

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, (OUN) of which the Ukrainian Insurgent Army would have become the armed wing, promoted removal, by force if necessary, of non-Ukrainians from the social and economic spheres of a future Ukrainian state. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists adopted in 1929 the Ten Commandments of the Ukrainian Nationalists, which all members of the Organization were expected to adhere to. This Decalogue stated "Do not hesitate to carry out the most dangerous deeds" and "Treat the enemies of your nation with hatred and ruthlessness".

It is suggested that the decision to ethnically cleanse the area East of Western Bug river was taken by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army early in 1943. In March 1943, OUN(B) (specifically Mykola Lebed) imposed a collective death sentence of all Poles living in the former eastern part of the Second Polish Republic and a few months later local units of the UPA were instructed to complete the operation with haste. The decision to cleanse the territory of its Polish population determined the course of events in the future. According to Timothy Snyder, the ethnic cleansing of the Poles was exclusively the work of the extreme Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, rather than the Melnyk faction of that organization or other Ukrainian political or religious organizations. Polish investigators claim that the OUN-B central leadership decided in February 1943 to drive all Poles out of Volhynia, to obtain an ethnically pure territory in the postwar period. Among those who were behind the decision, Polish investigators see Dmytro Klyachkivsky, Vasyl Ivakhov, Ivan Lytvynchuk, and Petro Oliynyk.

According to prosecutor Piotr Zając, Polish Institute of National Remembrance in 2003 considered three different versions of the events in its investigation:

1. the Ukrainians at first planned to chase the Poles out but the events got out of hand in the course of time.
2. the decision to exterminate the Poles was taken by the OUN-UPA headquarters.
3. the decision to exterminate the Poles was taken by some of the leaders of OUN-UPA in the course of an internal conflict within the organisation.

Reconciliation

The question of official acknowledgement of the ethnic cleansing remains a matter of a discussion between Polish and Ukrainian historians and leaders. Efforts are ongoing to bring about reconciliation between Poles and Ukrainians regarding 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 Kwaśniewski 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 however has not issued an apology.

On July 11, 2003, presidents Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Leonid Kuchma attended a ceremony held in the Volynian village of Pavlivka (previously known as Poryck). 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. 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 Volyn 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".

Reconciliation is hampered by the fact that the contemporary Ukrainian State is legally the continuation of the Ukrainian Soviet State, and has no legal relationship with the Ukrainian state proclaimed in 1941 in Lviv. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army and other military formations operating on Ukrainian territory have to date not been recognised by the Ukrainian government despite numerous efforts by president Yushchenko to do so. As a result, the government structures of contemporary Ukraine do not have the legal right to discuss any aspects regarding reconciliation.

Notes

1. ^ Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen, Immigration and Asylum, page 204
2. Template:Pl icon Józef Turowski; Władysław Siemaszko, Zbrodnie nacjonalistów ukraińskich dokonane na ludności polskiej na Wołyniu, 1939–1945 (Template:Lang-en) Warsaw, Wydawnictwo von borowiecky Publishing, 2000. Second edition, foreword by Prof. dr Ryszard Szawłowski. ISBN 83-87689-34-3.
3. Niall Ferguson, The War of the World, Penguin Press, New York 2006, page 455.
4. Дзюбан, О. Українсько-польське протистояння у вересні 1939 року у тогочасній пресі та споинах очевидців / Українсько-польський конфліцт під час Другої світової війни. Львів, 2003 (In Ukrainian); Dziuban, O. Ukrainian-Polish insurgence in October 1939 in contemporary press and witness memoirs / Ukrainian-Polish conflict during the Second World War. Lviv, 2003 p. 98
5. Ewa and Władysław Siemaszko, Ludobójstwo, vol 2, page 1294.
6. Paul Robert Magocsi, A History of Ukraine, University of Toronto Press: Toronto 1996, ISBN 0-8020-0830-5
7. Oleksandr Derhachov (editor), "Ukrainian Statehood in the Twentieth Century: Historical and Political Analysis", 1996, Kiev ISBN 966-543-040-8. section 2, subsection 2
8. Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations ..., p. 144
9. Subtelny, Orest (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-5808-6.
10. Сивицький, М. Записки сірого волиняка Львів 1996 с.184
11. [Lidia Glowacka, Andrzej Czeslaw Zak, Military Settlers in Volhynia in the years 1921-1939
12. Subtelny, O. (1988). Ukraine: a History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pg. 429. ISBN 0-8020-5808-6
13. Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki, Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 0313260079, Google Print, 538
14. [Lidia Glowacka, Andrzej Czeslaw Zak, Military Settlers in Volhynia in the years 1921-1939
15. ^ To Resolve the Ukrainian Question Once and For All: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ukrainians in Poland, 1943-1947, Timothy Snyder, Working Paper, Yale University, 2001
16. Poland's Holocaust, Tadeusz Piotrowski, 1998 ISBN 0-7864-0371-3 p. 14
17. John Armstrong (1963). Ukrainian Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press, pg. 65
18. Orest Subtelny. (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 455-457.
19. Дзюбан, О. Українсько-польське протистояння у вересні 1939 року у тогочасній пресі та споинах очевидців / Українсько-польський конфліцт під час Другої світової війни. Львів, 2003 (In Ukrainian) Dziuban, O. Ukrainian-Polish insurgence in October 1939 in contemporary press and witness memoirs / Ukrainian-Polish conflict during the second world war. Lviv, 2003 p. 92.
20. Timothy Snyder. (2004) The Reconstruction of Nations. New Haven: Yale University Press: pg. 163.
21. Victor Smart, Holocaust Research Project, "Wilhelm Boger. Auschwitz – Political Department"]
22. Devin Owen Pendas, The Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, 1963-1965
23. Timothy Snyder. (2004) The Reconstruction of Nations. New Haven: Yale University Press: pg. 163
24. Timothy Snyder. (2004) The Reconstruction of Nations. New Haven: Yale University Press: pg. 162
25. Sowa, "Stosunki ...", p. 171
26. Feliks Trusiewicz, "Zbrodnie - ludobójstwo dokonane na ludności polskiej w powiecie Łuck, woj. wołyńskie, w latach 1939-1944, cz. 1" in "Na rubieży" nr 5, 1997, pp 36-39
27. Władysław Filar, Antypolskie akcje nacjonalistów ukraińskich from Przed Akcją Wisła był Wołyń, Warsaw, 1997.
28. Sowa, "Stosunki ...", p. 176
29. Motyka, p. 190
30. Od walk do ludobójstwa, Ewa Siemaszako, Rzeczpospolita, 10.07.2008
31. Wołyń - Janowa Dolina
32. Feliks Budzisz, The Day of Mourning in Kresy, Przeglad Weekly, number 28/2008
33. ^
34. Norman Davies, Europe at War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory Publisher: Pan Books, November, 2007,544 pages, ISBN 978-0330352123
35. Timothy Snyder, “To Resolve the Ukrainian Question Once and For All”: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ukrainians in Poland (November 2001)
36. Niall Ferguson, The War of the World, Penguin Press, New York, 2006, page 455.
37. Gazeta Wyborcza 23.04.2003
38. Foreign Policy Association: Central and Eastern Europe|CE Europe
39. Antypolskie akcje nacjonalistów ukraińskich
40. Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 11, pg. 24
41. Wiktoria Śliwowska, Jakub Gutenbaum, The Last Eyewitnesses, page 187
43. ^ "Nie tylko Wołyń", Piotr Łossowski, Przegląd, 28/2003
44. Zagłada Puźnik - Rzeczpospolita
45. Norman Davies - Teksty - EUROPA
46. History of Buczacz during World War II quoted from Norman Davies (1996), Europe: A History
47. Po Polakach pozostały mogiły… - Rzeczpospolita
48. ^ Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Cite error: The named reference "autogenerated1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
49. Template:Pl icon
50. Ukrainian archives
51. Template:En icon
52. ^ Jak za Jaremy i Krzywonosa, Jurij Kiriczuk, Gazeta Wyborcza 23.04.2003
53. According to Polish-Ukrainian historian Eugeniusz Misiło, the Poles allegedly murdered in Pawłokoma by UPA, in reality were kidnapped by Soviet NKVD, in an attempt to start a series of retaliations. (Misiło, Pawłokoma ..., p. 20)
54. Prof. Władysław Filar, Polish Institute of National Remembrance, "Antypolskie akcje nacjonalistów ukraińskich"
55. Template:Pl icon Józef Turowski, with Władysław Siemaszko, Zbrodnie nacjonalistów ukraińskich dokonane na ludności polskiej na Wołyniu 1939-1945, Warsaw: Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce – Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Środowisko Żołnierzy 27 Wołyńskiej Dywizji Armii Krajowej w Warszawie, (Template:Lang-en – Institute of National Remembrance with Association of Soldiers of the 27th Volhynian Division of the Home Army), Warsaw, 1990
56. Władysław Siemaszko, Ewa Siemaszko (2008) . "Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na ludności polskiej Wołynia 1939–1945" (in Polish). Vol. volume 2 (3rd edition ed.). Warszawa: Von Borowiecky. p. 1056. ISBN 978-83-607748-01-5. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); |volume= has extra text (help); Check |isbn= value: length (help)
57. Subtelny, p. 475
58. ^ Analysis: Ukraine, Poland Seek Reconciliation Over Grisly History, Jan Maksymiuk, RFE/RL, May 12, 2006
59. Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen Immigration and Asylum. From 1900 to the Present
60. Vic Satzevich, The Ukrainian Diaspora
61. Karel Cornelis Berkhoff, "Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule", Harvard University Press, 2004, ISBN 0674013131 p. 291
62. Polish report on the massacres, article from Ukrainian webpage
63. Volhynia: The Reckoning Begins.
64. RFE/RL Newsline, 03-02-13
65. World Briefing | Europe: Ukraine: Joint Memorial To Massacre - New York Times
66. Warsaw Voice - POLITICAL PERISCOPE
67. BBC Monitoring European - Political. London: Jul 11, 2003. pg. 1
68. RFE/RL Newsline, 03-07-14

References

• Template:En icon Subtelny, Orest (1988). "Ukraine: A History". Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-5808-6.
• Template:En icon Filip Ożarowski Wolyn Aflame, Publishing House WICI, 1977, ISBN 0-9655488-1-3.
• Template:En icon 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
• Template:En icon 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.
• Template:En icon 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.
• Template:En icon Mikolaj Teres: Ethnic Cleansing of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, Alliance of the Polish Eastern Provinces, 1993, ISBN 0-9698020-0-5.
• Template:En icon Norman Davies, "No Simple Victory: World War Two in Europe", page 352, Viking Penguin 2007. ISBN 978-0-670-01832-1
• Template:En icon Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10586-X Google Books
• Template:Pl icon Andrzej L. Sowa (1998). "Stosunki polsko-ukraińskie 1939-1947". Kraków. OCLC 48053561.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Template:Pl icon Grzegorz Motyka (2006). Ukraińska partyzantka 1942-1960 (in Polish). Warszawa: RYTM. ISBN 83-7399-163-8.
• Template:Pl icon Władysław Siemaszko, Ewa Siemaszko (2000). "Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na ludności polskiej Wołynia 1939–1945". Warszawa. ISBN 83-87689-34-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Template:Pl icon "Wołyń 1943-2008. Pojednanie". Warszawa: Agora. 2008. ISBN 978-83-7552-195-5.
• Template:Uk icon Volodymyr Serhiychuk, Poliaky na Volyni u roky druhoyi svitovoyi viyny. Kyiv, 2003. 576 pages. ISBN 966-70-60-48-7
• Template:Uk icon Volodymyr Serhiychuk, Deportatsiya Poliakiv z Ukrainy. Kyiv, 1999. 192 pages. ISBN 966-7060-15-2

Further reading

• Szawlowski, Ryszard (2001). ENGLISH SUMMARY Genocide comitted by Ukrainian nationalists on the Polish population of Volhynia during World War II (1939-1945). Wydaniwctwo Borowiecky. {{cite book}}: line feed character in |title= at position 103 (help)
• Piotrowski, Tadeusz (2000). Genocide and Rescue in Wolyn. McFarland. {{cite book}}: Text "ISBN 0786407735" ignored (help)

See also

• Historiography of the Massacre of Poles in Volhynia
• 27th Polish Home Army Infantry Division
• Janowa Dolina
• Poryck Massacre
• Przebraże Defence

External links

• Template:Uk icon / Template:Pl icon Volhynia and Eastern Galicia 1943–1944. Documents of State Committee on Archives of Ukraine
• Template:Uk icon 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.
• Template:Uk icon L.Melnik, B.Yurochko, "Rozkhytane derevo myfiv" in The Lviv Newspaper, May 25, 2007.
• Documents on Ukrainian Polish Reconciliation
• Ut unum sint: Ukraine and Poland
• Template:Uk icon Volyn Discussion (a list of articles)
• Template:Pl icon a Polish website of Światowy Związek Żołnierzy Armii Krajowej
• Template:Pl icon Genocide in Volhynia
• Template:En icon An abbreviated preface to the monographic book of Władysław Siemaszko and Ewa Siemaszko, November, 2000.

• Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from April 2008
• History of Ukraine
• World War II crimes in Poland
• Poland–Ukraine relations
• Genocide
• Volhynia
• Massacres of Poles in Volhynia