Ludobojstwo Dokonane Przez Nacjonalistow Ukrainskich Na Polakach W Wojewodztwie Lwowskim 1939-1947, by Szczepan Siekierka, Henryk Komanski, and Krzysztof Bulzacki. 2006. Wroclaw
Lwow Voivodship: OUN-UPA Genocide of Poles in the Western Part of Eastern Galicia: A Comprehensive Work
THE GENOCIDE CONDUCTED BY THE UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTS AGAINST POLES IN THE LWOW VOIVODSHIP, 1939-1947, is the title of this monumental work. This is a one-volume encyclopedia and is packed with detail. It not only extensively documents the Ukrainian genocide of Poles, but also contains many photos of Polish families, Polish villages, and destroyed Polish churches.
THE TOLL OF THE OUN-UPA GENOCIDE
In the Lwow Voivodship alone, based on detailed tabulation, the UPA is known to have murdered 20,299 Poles and burned 66,427 Polish settlements. (pp. 1178-1179). At least 400 Ukrainians were also murdered. Owing to incomplete coverage, the projected Polish death toll, for the Lwow Voivodship alone, is approximately 40,000 Poles.
The foregoing data is based upon interviews of 2,098 eyewitnesses. All of these are identified by name. (pp. 1213-1242).
AFTER THE RED ARMY RE-OCCUPIED THE GENERAL LWOW AREA
The re-entering Soviets established UPA-fighting units called the Istriebitielne Bataliony (Strebki). Poles took part in these destruction battalions because there was no other way to protect the Poles from the ongoing murderous UPA attacks. (p. 28, pp. 40-41).
LEGACY OF THE KRESY POLES
Following the Soviet re-occupation of the territories in 1944 and the British-American Teheran-Yalta giveaway of the Kresy (Poland’s eastern half) to the Soviet Union, some 2 million Poles were unilaterally expelled from their centuries-old domiciles. (p. 9) Most of these Polish refugees re-settled in the Recovered Territories, notably in Lower Silesia.
FOCUSING ON BORYSLAW, THE OIL TOWN
In Boryslaw, there was no organized UPA attack during the German occupation, but several tens of local Poles disappeared without a trace when they ventured into nearby Ukrainian villages. Boryslaw became a haven for many Poles during 1943-1946. (p. 176). As the Red Army was driving out the German occupants in 1944, the UPA began an attack on Boryslaw. The local A. K. (Home Army) unit mobilized its defenses, and the UPA canceled the attack. (p. 190). However, during the second Soviet occupation of these territories, some Poles were murdered at Boryslaw itself. The Soviet authorities subsequently expelled the Boryslaw Poles from January 1945 through the second half of 1946. (p. 176).
—
UKRAINIANS WERE NOT OPPRESSED IN PRE-WWII POLAND
The authors reject the “Ukrainians were oppressed” notion regarding pre-WWII Poland–a false and canned excuse for the Ukrainian genocide of Poles. For instance, Ukrainians had representation in the Sejm (Polish parliament). They enjoyed a flourishing set of cultural and sport organizations. The Ukrainian Maslosoyuz, an agricultural cooperative, was very successful. (It sold dairy products all over Poland, and not just in the predominantly Ukrainian regions of southeast Poland).
Ukrainians complained about not being granted a Ukrainian university in Lwow (which they wanted for separatist reasons), while Ukrainian bishop Khomyshyn (Chomyshyn) endorsed a Ukrainian university in Stanislawow (now Ivano-Frankivsk) but was ignored. (p. 6). Note that the Ukrainian complaint is all the hollower because the Ukrainians already had the Shevchenko Society in Lwow. The only Ukrainian political parties that were outlawed by the Polish government were those that were seditionist or Communist.
The OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) became the core of the OUN-UPA genocide of Poles. Before the war, it was a terrorist organization, and its agents murdered not only prominent Poles (e. g, Pieracki) but also prominent Ukrainians that advocated good relations with Poles (e. g, Ivan Babij, the director of the Ukrainian high school in Lwow). (p. 6).
CHURCH OWNERSHIP CONFLICTS WENT BOTH WAYS
Perennial Ukrainian complaints about Poles “stealing” Ukrainian churches involve selective amnesia. Consider the village of Kuzmina (p. 132). At the time of Austrian rule, Poles started building a church, but could not finish it. The Ukrainians supplied the funds, and, with Austrian blessing, made it into a Ukrainian church. When the Polish state resurrected in 1918, the Polish authorities took the church back. After the 1939 Nazi German invasion, the Ukrainians took the church again. In 1944, with the expulsion of the Ukrainians, the Poles once again gained possession of the church.
On a related subject, the “stolen Orthodox churches” of the Chelm (Kholm) region were originally Polish Roman Catholic churches that had been confiscated by the Russians at the time of the Partitions and converted into Orthodox churches. They were eventually re-possessed by the Poles, and in no sense stolen by them! See:
THE TRUTH ABOUT PAWLOKOMA
Before WWII, the Poles and Ukrainians generally got along well in the village of Pawlokoma, but OUN influence started to stir up the Ukrainians and to incite them to murder Poles. (pp. 98-99). During the WWII German occupation, the local Ukrainians were further radicalized by the OUN, and collaborated with the Germans and acted against Poles. (pp. 100-101).
In early 1945, UPA units existed in Pawlokoma and in surrounding villages. The UPA was responsible for the murder of several local Poles, including Pawlokoma Poles. (p. 103).
On March 1-2, 1945, a Polish guerrilla unit took revenge, although the revenge was in no sense comparable to what Ukrainians had earlier done to the Poles. The Polish unit surrounded the village of Pawlokoma, and ordered all the Ukrainians into a church. The women and children were let go. The men were ordered to identify which one of them were the murderers of Poles. When the men stayed silent, the Polish unit took all the men (120-140 of them) out, and shot them. (p. 104).
Ukrainian claims of 365 killed (including Ukrainian women and children) are unsupported by the facts. According to a census of January 1945, there were 735 Ukrainians in Pawlokoma. Once one realizes that women and children comprised about 2/3rds of the population, the Polish-told toll of 120-140 Ukrainian men is consistent with the census figures. (p. 104).
The sparing of the Ukrainian women and children was a humanitarian act, one not done by Ukrainians towards Poles, but this act of kindness backfired on the Poles. The Ukrainian women and children complained to the Soviet authorities, and the latter imprisoned or sent to Siberia a total of 82 Poles. (p. 104).
—
Detailed village-by-village catalogues that document the Ukrainian OUN-UPA genocide of Poles (reviewed) are also available for the remaining voivodships of southeastern Poland:
Stanislawow
Tarnopol
https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/ukrainian-upa-genocide-of-poles-komanski/
Wolyn
https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/ukrainian-upa-genocide-of-poles-siemaszko/
