The 80th contract anniversary (11 July) of the Volynsko-Małopolskie Reich, or genocide carried out on Poles by the Ukrainians from the OUN-UPA in 1943, is coming, but the murders on Poles were besides carried out by average Ukrainian families carrying herd instinct of hatred against Poles.
Russia's aggression to Ukraine was - I thought earlier - not the best time to criticize Ukrainians, and already the fact that Poland and Poles have collectively opened their hearts and wallets to aid Ukrainians in this terrible time of war with Russia caused me any moral discomfort in answer to the question: Is present in the face of Russia's aggression against Ukraine a time to remind the Ukrainians of their crimes in the Poles in Volyn and east Galicia?
I say, no doubt! How not now?
Ukraine's war with Russia began on February 24, 2022 and possibly in fact, in the first fewer months of its course, this delicate subject should not have been discussed. But the war continues, and it may be the time erstwhile Ukraine will yet respect us and build a very hard historical fact a good long-term relation between our countries, especially due to the fact that present there are many Ukrainians in Poland (and those pre-war arrivals to Poland for financial reasons, as well as already war migrants fleeing through Russian barbarians) and in fact we have a alternatively good and human relation with them.
After all, at the time of Russian aggression, Poland and Poles were the first to initiate aid to Ukrainians, and this was completely bottom-up as well as stately. It is estimated that Polish aid to Ukraine has so far amounted to over PLN 15 billion, and the value of military equipment provided by Poland of Ukraine has exceeded PLN 10 billion. Together it amounted to over PLN 25 billion and it is estimated that at the end of the year the full aid of Poland and Poles will amount to at least PLN 30 billion for Ukrainians.
We are a front country bordering Ukraine, but our consequence did not should be so beneficial to the Ukrainians. We have not created camps for war refugees, due to the fact that Ukrainians have found and found shelter in Polish people and families, and besides the Polish state, local governments, humanitarian organizations (including Caritas), etc. I can say with a clear conscience that this collective attitude aimed at the aid of Ukraine and Ukrainians has amazed the planet and I think that besides the Ukrainians themselves...
So I think that, as it seems, our assistance besides makes the utmost nationalism (szovinism) of Ukraine not specified Ukrainian public support as it utilized to be, and the Ukrainians themselves in seeking their national identity gotta face the past of the CNS-UPA, in which they mostly respect the freedom movement fighting for the sovereignty and independency of Ukraine. possibly this war will make this national identity built on its foundation. This heroic defence against the Russian aggressor creates fresh heroes of Ukraine and truly brings Ukrainian society together. It can truly be a fresh past of Ukrainian statehood in the future, due to the fact that Ukrainians before it had no historical basis to mention to any of their own country or Ukrainian people.
Nevertheless, Ukrainians were able to mass and brutally and genocidally execution Poles and we cannot truly be certain that any interior or external circumstances cannot origin them to wake up to this chauvinist and the ghost inside them. Of course, I hope not, but it is all the more worth clearing out their past of this filth and building our relation on the truth.
Once I mentioned that my utmost distrust (phobia) of anti-Polish Germans, Jews and Russians was enough. But unfortunately, there is inactive the last nation to which I have very mixed feelings and yet it can - possibly even "by force" and under certain reservations - be included in my set. It was the Ukrainians - liable for the genocide of Poles in Volyn (February 1943 - February 1945 on Polish lands occupied by the German 3rd Reich) and east Galicia/Eastern Malopolska (years 1943–1945 on Polish lands occupied by the 3rd Reich and USSR). Ukrainians then brutally murdered - according to various estimates - 130 to 220 1000 Poles and more than 500 1000 of our compatriots had to flee from them (also later from the Soviets), with the murders of Ukrainians in Poles, the fear of them and the request to escape inactive continued in the 1950s, respective years after the war.
The genocides of Poles were carried out by Ukrainian nationalists associated with the CNS-UPA with the active, frequent support of the local Ukrainian population towards the Polish minority.
The nightmare was animal (sorry animals) hatred of Poles. The Ukrainian murders on Poles were so barbarous and so cruel that their perpetrators do not deserve the name of calling them people.
The Volyn massacre (and Galician) is most likely the cruelest genocide in Poles during their centuries of history, or 1 of the biggest ones, though in fact Germany and even the Soviets were not so barbarously hateful of Poles, although after the war we experienced Stalinism and communism - besides cruel and during planet War II Germans besides murdered Poles, but they were not so cruelly savage. All they needed was a bullet, not bullying their victims just before they died.
I have repeatedly written that any standardisation of common global bilateral relations must be based on historical truth. Only fact and respect for past and a clear attitude toward it give the anticipation of reconciliation between nations, no substance how hard past is.
The worst possible action is to effort to silence or whitewash past events by 1 of the parties or to reverse their contextal, global historical importance and to call murderers heroes for example... This gives emergence to any kind of ethical-moral rebellion on the another hand, which can produce a multiplied aversion to a peculiar nation, much more intense than if the fact were accepted and accepted by all.
So how crucial it is that Polish-Ukrainian relations should besides be based on historical fact and in no way whitewash or negate the past. This is all the more crucial today, erstwhile Ukraine is on the brink and needs friends with respect to W. Putin's aggression on this country. And it truly is not adequate to unveil the "pre-arrested" Lviv in the Polish cemetery, but yet there must be authoritative designation and apology of Poles for the CNS-UPA genocide. In view of our help, we should yet request this clearly from the president of Ukraine! From the Polish point of view, further glorification by Ukraine of the OUN formation and UPA and creation of their leaders as national heroes cannot be the basis of correct Polish-Ukrainian relations based on truth.
And this fact - as I have already pointed out - is difficult, especially for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, due to the fact that it was the CNS-UPA supported in a large part by the Ukrainian civilian population, which in Volyn and in east Galicia (Eastern Malopolska) in 1943-1945 (as I wrote above) brought - according to various estimates - 130 to 220 1000 Polish victims. Ukrainians themselves were besides murdered, who in any way showed a favorable attitude towards Poles. Additionally, Ukrainian acts of panic forced hundreds of thousands of our countrymen to flee their homes.
The fact of cultural genocide itself should be an a'priori premise for the historical negative assessment of the CNS-UPA and become the same foundation for building a appropriate and friendly relation between our countries and nations... peculiarly in the current hard geopolitical situation.
This is all the more essential given that these murders - regardless of age and sex - were carried out in a cruel and savage manner. Dr. A. Korman counted as many as 362 methods of torture utilized on Poles by Ukrainian nationalistic OUN-UPA killers. It is not time to list them here, but I wrote about them in my erstwhile texts [1,2].
These methods of torture surpassed the tortures of the Nazi genocide. Germans or genocidal russian Russia.
You can't forget these facts and whitewash them. It is impossible to glorify historical, cruel, and savage genocidal killers as national heroes. Otherwise, unfortunately, common Polish-Ukrainian hatred may increase. On the 1 hand, it may be the basis of the rebirth of Ukrainian nationalism, in which "Lachy" (meaning Poles) were regarded as the main enemy of Ukraine, and - on the another hand - in Poles aversion to Ukrainians and sympathy to all who someway harm Ukraine (e.g. Russia). And this present is not very good for Ukrainians, but besides for Poles.
Both Poles and Ukrainians should depend present on the best possible contacts and common friendships, but I repeat: only widely accepted fact and a clear attitude to it can be the basis of good relations between our peoples. If this is the case, there will surely be almost no and hostile to Ukrainian nationalists Polish statements and actions... If this is the case, the streets of Ukrainian cities will surely not bear the names of UPA or OUN and there will be no S. Bandera monuments...
It is besides crucial to know the historical background of Ukrainian murders in Poles in Volyn and east Małopolska. I mention to the following films:
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I think that they will explain a lot, besides pre-war errors and ambiguity of treatment in these areas of the majority of Ukrainians by the authorities of the Second Republic: from the desire to colonize them to experiments of building a mutually respectable community of nations (experiment of the state of Henryk Józewski).
But can even the elements of the incorrect policy of the authorities of the Second Republic of Poland explain the barbarity and cruelty of the CNS-UPA and much of the Ukrainians themselves?
I besides did not mention Ukrainians' cooperation with German Nazis. This was how volunteer Ukrainian armed formations were formed during the Second WW with Germany, e.g. the 14th Waffen SS-Galizien Division, the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police (activating - sic!!! - in the territory of the General Governorate since 1941), the “Roland” Battalion formed (sic!!!) in Austria in 1941, the “Nachtigall” Battalion - at the request of the CNS-R consent to the creation of this unit on 25 February 1941 granted Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, and at the beginning of March gave consent to the command of the Wehrmacht, and many, many others. (See: ]]>https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ukraine%C5%84_formations_collabor...]]>)
Don't I have the right to "pull for safety"? The war will end, and I hope with success for Ukraine and Ukrainians. And then we truly will have a very crucial relationship that can only be built on historical truth.
How sadly it filled me, then, to pay tribute to the victims of Ukrainian genocide by our Prime Minister M. Morawiecki:
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Could not the president of Ukraine truly send 1 typical of the Ukrainian authorities to pay tribute to the Poles murdered by Ukrainians? besides bad...
P.S.
Finally, I'll say this. I'm alive due to the fact that my mother's household managed to escape the execution of OUN-UPA hatchets last night. My grandmother, grandfather, and 4 daughters (including my mother) delivered a informing from 1 young Ukrainian who had a crush on 1 of my mother's sisters, had to pack what could be taken and leave their home and land at night and flee to Lublin. And they were about to die in an hr at the hands of Ukrainian neighbors... How many stories are there...
[1] ]]>http://www.polskatimes.pl/article/942193,scribe-wolyńska-manobotage-d...]]>
[2] ]]>http://www.fakt.pl/how-Ukrainians-murdered-polakow-lista-tortur-na-polaka...]]>(Dr. A. Korman in: On Outworld (No. 35, 1999)
[3] east Galicia and east Malopolska is not precisely the same territory, but most territorially it overlaps: this is why these names are frequently utilized interchangeably, although the genocide of Ukrainian nationalists in Poles concerns (except Volyn) east Malopolska
