Burning frontiers

The ruthless cultural cleansing started by UPA in Volyn in July 1943 resulted in the death of over 100,000 Poles. The Polish population in the provinces in east Poland was almost completely murdered. The bodies of the dead were thrown into mass graves whose tracks were erased. The houses and land of Poles were occupied by Ukrainian neighbours. It seemed to the Ukrainians that since their patrons – Germany – murdered Jews without fear of consequences, the consequences of crimes in the Poles would not affect them either. Therefore, erstwhile the Polish underground attempted to negociate with the UPA commander during the highest period of mass Ukrainian crimes, Polish delegates were brutally murdered.