"Nuremberg Trial" "The chief of the 2nd Department of Special Operations of Abwehr Erwin von Lahousen is testifying:" "1939 the chief of Abwher Admiral Canaris was instructed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Third Reich Joachim von Ribbentrop to get in touch with Ukrainian nationalists whom Intelligence had already made close ties in terms of military operations" "in order to provoke an insurgent movement in Poland that would result in extermination of Pollacks and Jews." "From the testimony of an arrested member of The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN):" "1943 in Svichov village of Vodnov district together with hoodlums from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists did participate in a mass massacre of Polish citizens." "{\fnTimes New Roman\i1\fs16}STEPHAN SHEKERA President of Society of Volhyn Massacre Remembrance (Poland) My aunt was pitchforked under her bed" "A less than two year old baby was chopped right in the cradle two labor-girls and grandma's cousin " "{\fnTimes New Roman\i1\fs16}JOSEPH CHERVINSKY community defense volunteer in Volhyn in 1942-1944 (Poland) all of them were shot in head and back and thrown into a cellar on the Holy Saturday" "From the testimony of a member of The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN):" "Pollacks couldn't resist since they had no arms in sheds" "The fight lasted for 4 hours." "Then everyone went home." "far away from the battle line one of the biggest non-combat tragedies of The World War II was unfolding in the province of Volhyn" "VOLHYN - 43 The Genocide in the Glory of Ukraine" "Volhyn is a special territory in Ukraine which had been always in one way or another under the influence of contesting forces" "{\fnTimes New Roman\fs16\i1}SERGEI KRAVETS executive secretary of "Great Russian Encyclopedia" Press I don't really know those who wouldn't boss around in Volhyn: then Cossacks during uprisings of Bogdan Khmelnitsky" "Second after Pollacks it was populated with Ukrainians and many other national minorities so did some Austrians writer (Poland) They were sons and grandsons of those who'd lived there before The World War I when that part of Poland belonged to the Austrian Empire" "People would get along there" "we'd sell honey" "We'd sell honey to Jews and Ukrainian traders" "We were doing business in good faith" "My mom would always explain this way:" "It's possible to lose or fake a receipt" "Same thing with a bill and one must hold to it" "Ukrainian girls would do housekeeping" "They'd come from poor villages" "Polish and Jewish kids" "Ukrainian girls were very nice" "on the occasion of state holidays the Rabbi and state officials" "It used to be really harmonious and pleasant environment" "1929" "The 1st congress of Ukrainian nationalists was held in Vienna an Austrian officer who'd been in charge of Ukrainian nationalist squads during The World War I and The Civil War. became the head of this illegal organization" "{\fnTimes New Roman\fs16\i1}MIKHAIL SHEKERKA historian (Poland) It was a group that attempted to grab a certain part of Polish territory where they could found their own state" "Ukrainians would settle in areas which after World War I became a part of Poland:" "Galicia" "It covered 19 Polish districts in the south-east including Krynica unitarian state" "a Ukraine only for Ukrainians" "From the manifest of the First Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists 1929:" "Only complete removal of all the occupants from Ukrainian lands would give a chance to extensive development of Ukrainian nation" "Ukrainian state should aim to cover all Ukrainian ethnographic territories." "Ukrainians were supposed to own this land a Ukrainian term standing for 'aliens'" "They were divided into tolerable chuzhinci as well as intolerable chuzhinci" "Tolerable chuzhinci would refer to more or less assimilated Russians who could be tolerated as second-rate people and Pollacks" "The territory was supposed to be purged from them" "Zakopane wherein a training facility for Gestapo and OUN gunmen was located also Vilnius" "These centers were interacting with each other and designing an anti-Polish campaign" "But in Poland until 1939 a common citizen wouldn't feel it" "two battalions of Ukrainian nationalists took part in it:" "Nachtigall and Roland as SS battalions" "The first thing that Ukrainian nationalists did when they took Lvov was shooting of thirty Polish professors the revenge of illiterate students on highly educated people" "The place I am originally from - thousands of Jews were killed there orders were given by Gestapo but killings were made by Ukrainian police" "Leaders of OUN who had very close ties with Abwher were informed about the preparation of Barbarossa Plan" "They created the manual "Struggle and Action of OUN during the War" "It was a huge pamphlet about 100 pages long that provided a detailed description of everything that had to be done" "From "Struggle and Action of OUN during the War":" "Polish leaders have to be killed" "Intellectuals have to be killed in the first place" "Our power must intimidate our enemies" "Terror is meant for chuzhinci-enemies as well as our own traitors." "When The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists got a carte-blanche from German authorities as well as resources it started implementing this program quite successfully put their people from the other and check papers" "If somebody was identified as a Pollack by passport or other signs like Polish speech they would kill him" "And this was happening when [Nazi] Germans controlled the territory" "It's hard to say precisely when Ukrainian nationalism originated since first conflicts between Rusyns and Pollacks who were a part of Austria-Hungary" "Treaty of Versailles was rather ill-suited for Ukrainians since it deprived them of their self-determination right" "{\fnTimes New Roman\fs16\i1}ROSTISLAV ISCHENKO President of Center of System Analysis and Forecast Poland would implement the policy of "pacification meaning Polish military retirees would settle in Ukrainian lands" "They were coming back from the front in 1921" "Ukraine and Belarus was over" "Numerous Polish colonies had been springing up all over Volhyn" "By 1939 Pollacks would make up about 15-10 % of the population of Volhyn" "One should also keep in mind that Volhyn is a predominantly agricultural area where land is of utmost value" "That's why the distribution of land wouln't really promote good relationships between colonizers and locals" "Ukrainians were mostly villagers whereas Pollacks would live in cities" "{\fnTimes New Roman\fs16\i1}IRENEUSH KSHEMINSKY Professor of Warsaw University It's hard to argue with historical facts" "Ukrainians considered themselves somewhat undervalued" "Volodymyr-Volhynsky [town] had no Ukrainian institutes or schools despite the fact that the majority of population were Ukrainians" "They could attend only Polish schools" "Ukrainians had to study in Polish before the war in Poland there'd been quite an interesting phenomenon" "{\fnTimes New Roman\fs16\i1}IGOR BARINOV Candidate of Historical Sciences It was called in Polish "Getto lawkowe that could be translated as "Ghetto at the desk actually not only Ukrainians but also Jews literally seat numbers so they couldn't move anywhere from there" "It's quite a symbolic thing" "But it does reflect the attitude towards Ukrainians and Jews showing that Pollacks were a kind of dominant nation and some people would say we'd taken to a wrong path no doubt they would play their role in feeding the hatred" "There were occasional killings of Pollacks in some places" "Entire families would be slaughtered" "It's a distorted notion of justice when justice is understood only as "I am dealt short" "You live meagerly or worse than your neighbor not because you are less hardworking or less educated and he took your best land" "It's very simple answers to human passions which are eternal" "Nationalism is based on the jealousy to a great extent" "they were foresters" "They were killed in the first turn" "Public employees were killed one by one we couldn't understand a thing or it was just a robbery it turned out a preparation for the mass massacre" "In a way it was a declaration by Ukrainian nationalists that one should have no doubts and commit any crime in the name of Ukraine therefore we can do anything so we've got the right to avenge" "the head of an OUN battalion:" "you should know" "Heebs [Jews] are your enemies" "You must kill them your leader is Stepan Bandera." "[Bandera] was neither the founder nor a major theorist of this movement" "He even didn't participate in battles" "But apparently this man had a very low self-esteem coupled with huge ambitions" "He'd been a short and a sickly boy since childhood and not much to look at" "His nickname was Baba [Cissy] or Gray Fox" "By and large I couldn't find anything ingenious in his works etc." "The main ideology of Ukrainian nationalists was ethnic Fascism" "Death to enemies!" " Glory to Ukraine!" " Glory to heroes!" "was the main idea of Bandera" "For a primitive mind it's very hard to keep many things at the same time" "Everything is very simple there" "Everything is black and white so we're gonna finish them" "{\fnTimes New Roman\fs16\i1}MARIA KISELEVA Candidate of Biological Sciences And there's no room for some other nations" "Once you choose this path when you judge people by their origin genocide will be always looming" "Banderovtsy [followers of Bandera] killed sixteen members of my family" "An old villager was murdered when he was heading for the mill" "Banderovtsy captured him in the field together with his daughter" "Of course they knew him since all of them were locals stuck his heart on a piece of wire and would go around nearby villages singing "Poland hasn't died yet" "They were doing terrible things step-mother were killed" "They found them hiding in farm buildings poked their eyes and threw them into the well still alive" "It's horrifying to even imagine something like that" "When raiding Polish settlements then screaming "Hurray!" they would tighten the circle" "The 201st punitive brigade "SD" that would perform punitive operations" "In this sense they were experienced professionals" "Why has it happened to Ukrainian nation?" "'Cause it was like a child without home and family that would continuously change hands" "Just imagine what a foster child should feel without parents or experience of some stable and isolated existence when it can form itself" "Naturally it causes anger since the child was deprived of the basics stability and sense of security" "It applies both to humans and nations" "That's why such outbursts of hatred and aggression would occur to one neighbor or another" "These were attempts of self-formation based on opposing the other" "Germans also started actively agitating Ukrainians against Pollacks was to take advantage of ethnic or interethnic animosities" "It was a policy of occupation authorities that would inspire clashes between Ukrainians and Pollacks" "For Germans it was important to cleanse eastern territories" "Hungarians as well as other peoples" "It was also important for Ukrainian nationalists" "When they needed Ukrainian nationalists they'd cooperate with them etc." "Ukrainian nationalists would act based on the political situation" "In Fall 1942 OUN leaders realized that the Red Army is going into the offensive soon" "There'd been already Stalingrad [a major battle] and it was more or less clear what was going on" "They figured while Germans were retreating and before the Red Army could come closer it was possible to seize a territory and create a state there that could receive support from Western Allies" "And this way the plan of creation of the independent Ukrainian state could materialize" "the Head of Security of the Organization of Ukrainian nationalists would say to his combatants:" "It's not about tens or thousands" "It's about each and every Pollack from seniors to children" "Once and for all we must rid our land from this scum." "Right away OUN combatants came up with a couplet:" "We've gotta blood to the knee so Ukraine could be free" "Once I was shocked with a description of one of their "jobs" "This is from an eye-witness testimony" "He says that OUN partisans from UIA [The Ukrainian Insurgent Army] came to their village" "And he just goes on describing that a crowd of about eighty people was taken to the square and just chopped there with axes" "Just to imagine this picture men and this was done by human beings" "Freud coined such term as 'Narcissism of small differences'" "Ukrainians" "We're close nations and neighbors and could be friends nation or country doesn't feel their own limitations they have to set themselves against others so not to merge with them" "So to keep their own identity or ego they have to destroy their neighbors and this way prevent the inner confusion of the nation" "Nuremberg Trial" "From the testimony of Abwher officer Erwin Shtolze:" "Canaris personally gave an order to carry on fight and terror secret agents were sent there" "Instructions were given to make ammunition and food depots" "With Himmler's personal order Roman Shukhevych was made the head of UIA [The Ukrainian Insurgent Army]" "Roman Iosifovych Shukhevych went through the sabotage training in Gdansk" "He served in the Third Reich detachments" "He achieved the rank of an SS captain" "As a deputy of the special division Nachtigal he would train students from Ukrainian nationalists" "He was awarded with two Crosses and a medal by Nazi Germany" "Together with Bandera he got a member of OUN when he turned 19" "OUN and UIA were a single big gang of Ukrainian nationalists" "In massive bloodbaths entire villages in Volhyn were slaughtered" "{\fnTimes New Roman\fs16\i1}HENRIK SLOVINSKY community defense volunteer in Volhyn in 1943-1944 (Poland) It started in February 1943" "The first village that was burnt and which population was slaughtered was Porosle in Sarom district" "From there a series of killings swept to the south" "1943" "A third of villagers got slaughtered 182 people" "It was Lipkini village you'd expect the same from others so you clean up grounds as much as possible" "April 1943:" "In Tumansky district the sotnya [squad] of the National Army was given a task to wipe out Pollacks and burn down all their settlements before April 15" "Perelisyanka villages were burnt and their population was killed 18 people were hacked to death in Galinovka village pulled the nose and sliced into pieces Polish doctor Schelkin." "To get cruelty to a point when it evokes animal terror and stupor - such ideas of genocide belonged to Shukhevich" "They would underlie the mobilization of men from 16 to 50 years old" "They'd put them on wagons and wouldn't give any firearms" "They'd give them axes and drive them for punitive operations" "There were various methods of mobilization burning a household because of the refusal and after taking part in one massacre you'd been tied with blood" "In a crowd the responsibility as such gets dissipated and he doesn't think since he's driven with some collective unconscious" "From interrogation records of the head of an UIA squad Stepan Redisha:" "My squad took part in burning a large village with nearby farms children and then finish them off with guns" "We'd do that with a slogan:" "Kill Polish szlachta that invaded Ukrainian lands" " What did the field unit do?" "{\fnTimes New Roman\fs16\i1}HALATURNIK V.S. (Nickname "Nechay") Deputy of an UIA reconnaissance unit" "Fieldunitkilledthem" " In which way?" "removing skulls" " Who was your leader?" " The head of our unit was Krutyak Nikola" "They believed this way they're going to create a Ukrainian state monoethnic the way they wanted it to see" "running away if these killings didn't happen" "80% of Pollacks wouldn't leave in their own houses" "000 Pollacks living in Ternopol" "And now I could count less than 10 and he was praying to God so a German SS officer would shoot him" "This way it would be an easy death" "and fast" "In hands of UIA it wasn't easy" "It was terrible" "In Mohilevsky family Banderovtsy killed parents and son Joseph" "Daughter-in-law Irene was taken to the hut of the gang leader rape her and then threw her into a well" "Irene was pregnant" "This method of killing was the most common poke their eyes floors" "you see children" "1943 a UIA gang under command of Ivan Klinchuk (nicknamed "Lysiy")" "slaughtered Polish village Volya Ostrovetskaya" "On the corpse of villager Maria Yasenyuk was sitting her 5-year old son" "He was asking mom to go back home" "The kid couldn't realize what had just happened" "A Banderovets came up to the child and shot him to his head" "That day nationalists killed 220 children" "Those who would kill children during Volhyn Massacre they wouldn't think that those kids had committed some crime against Ukraine" "Their only crime was that they were born as Pollacks there" "A child is actually the greatest threat since it represents the future for its enemy" "and this future must be destroyed as breed the sense of guilt as we understand it doesn't cross their mind" "They understand only force" "A generalized image of an Ukrainian nationalist is not well educated" "People who aren't learned much and who mostly live in the west of Ukraine" "It's a person who would fight with anyone he deems necessary at the moment" "Russians" "{\fnTimes New Roman\fs16\i1}VIKTOR SCHEDRIN historian and even their own members" "honest people who refused to participate in killings" "give them food and shelter and some of my acquaintances escaped death" "They demanded everyone to participate in killings of Pollacks it creates more and more desire to destroy" "No inhibitions are working at this moment and such feelings are quite primitive" "These killings were also possible 'cause virtually all the Pollacks got drafted it was a general mobilization" "Villages and towns were empty" "Only teenagers and seniors remained" "Whereas Ukrainian nationalists would go in hiding and dodge the military service" "that's why the odds were in their favor" "1944: destroy all the buildings previously inhabited by Pollacks" "1944 destroy trees planted close to their buildings leaving not a single trace of Polish habitation." "we pay close attention to this point that if something was left Pollacks would have claims for our lands" "One of the major reasons for their actions - they didn't meet any resistance" "There were virtually no armed Polish squads" "Village self-defense was organized" "Wards were created which would warn people about possible dangers" "And our major weapons were plough shovels and hammers so to make an alarm make some spears so to have some means of protection" "1943:" "we're getting from Volhyn bloodcurdling tidings" "A wide-scale massacre of Polish population is going on" "Ukrainian gangs are well-armed and run rampant unpunished" "We appeal to all Polish organs regardless of their political orientation to immediately start organizing protection of Volhyn lands." "We started organizing self-defense units" "We would go all around the place and bring people to large settlements where these units were formed" "Ghuta Stepan'ska a few Polish villages were merged there" "They organized self-defense barricades" "In July 1943 nationalists attempted to destroy this settlement 600 villagers were dead after two days of fighting" "It became clear that for Ghuta Stepan'ska the next day would become its last one" "covered with darkness and fog we took people from Ghuta Stepan'ska to the north where Germans were located by the railway "East-West" "Germans took almost everyone as laborers to Germany" "At least they survived" "In April 1943 a general counterattack of Soviet Army began" "Germans needed power at the front" "In order to control Polish and Ukrainian territories" "German command started forming division "SS Galicia" from local volunteers" "SS Galichina" in Ukranian" "Some people would join the division out of purely pragmatic reasons" "This way they'd avoid being taken as forced laborers to Reich" "Some part could be explained with ideological closeness between German Nazism and Ukrainian nationalism" "000 volunteers were enlisted into the division would swear loyalty to the Reich:" "pledge my allegiance to the German leader and Supreme Commander of German Army Adolf Hitler to be fully loyal and obedient" "I solemnly promise to faithfully serve the German army as well as my motherland" "Germans would use the 14th SS-division Galichina for their own ends like occupying lands which they were unable to conquer" "While Ukrainians would use it to legalize their acts of ethnic cleansing with the permission of the Third Reich" "It was a part of their ideological agenda" "Galichina division participated in numerous punitive operations this way helping out Germans and doing all the dirty work for them" "1944 a gang of UIA gunmen together with the 4th police regiment of SS Galichina attacked Polikrovy village where Pollacks and Ukrainians lived together" "All villagers were taken outside and sorted according to their nationality" "Then Pollacks were shot with machine guns 365 people died" "From a letter of UIA leader Shukhevich to metropolitan Sheptytsky:" "Germans are satisfied with our work." "Galicia division was created with the support of the leader of Greek Catholic Church" "Andrey Sheptytsky" "Uniat chaplains would join Nazi ranks receive confessions from them and forgive their sins" "And occasionally Greek Catholic priests would even participate in killings" "By and large they were people belonging to two confessional groups:" "Greek Catholics and Orthodox Christians who separated from Russian Orthodox Church" "We could call them now "schismatics we are the Church of Ukrainians" "Not the Church which is neither Jew or Greek not the Church of Christ but the Church of Ukrainians wouldn't restrain these inhumane emotions" "On the contrary it would nourish and instigate them" "Ukrainian nationalism by and large is a quasi-religion that pushes out Christianity out of people's minds and hearts" "Solid evidence of that is atrocities done by Ukrainian nationalists and being done at the moment" "Since [genuine] Christians are incapable of doing something like that you turn him into a fanatic capable of anything motivations" "Here's the enemy" "000 Pollacks 000" "000 000" "000 000 in Polesye" "000 Pollacks were killed" "000 dead among Polish population let alone Jews" "It was a mere genocide" "In our shed father made a field-type altar mothers would pray there" "They would pray for Soviet Army to come as soon as possible" "In the aftermath of the Volhyn Massacre that formally was over in 1944 killings would continue at least for a few years" "Mutual hatred would outburst into killings like they usually do" "Only after the population exchange between Soviet Ukraine and Poland when Pollacks moved to Poland only when separation based on the ethnic affiliation took place" "this conflict got resolved major formations of OUN-UIA were destroyed in 1944-1945" "Some 90% of them were killed" "Many of those who'd laid down arms etc." "From the moral point of view it's a question for Ukraine if it's ready to acknowledge its wrong" "Nothing could justify it" "Pollacks and Ukrainians should think about their own concerns" "I can only admit my own guilt and somebody else's guilt should be admitted by the guilty" "In Poland they turn the blind eye on the tragedy of the Volhyn Massacre" "Neither in Polish or Ukrainian schools they learn about this tragedy" "Polish authorities consider themselves to be guardians of Ukrainian state" "In the official view of Ukrainian authorities the tragedy was happening spontaneously" "There was no apology" "There was a common declaration of Polish and Ukrainian presidents that it's been a tragedy from both sides in 2013 the Polish parliament was considering to recognize the Volhyn Massacre as a genocide" "But due to political agenda it was recognized as a tragedy with elements of genocide but not a genocide as such" "1999 in Poilish town Wroclaw a memorial was erected" "It's inscribed there:" "To Polish citizens killed in 1939-1947 by Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA)" "Another inscription says:" "In memory of Ukrainians who provided shelter to Pollacks" "I believe there's only one way to avoid it in the future - to enforce an internal taboo on using nationalistic factor" "by politicians it mobilizes so easily" "One may gain some tactic victory" "but in the end it'd be hell and you'd be responsible for it"