The crimes in Puźniki were committed on the night of 12 to 13 February 1945 by the UPA sotnia Petra Chamczuk "Bystry". According to various sources, Ukrainian nationalists murdered 50 to 120 Poles. According to the residents' memories and papers in the graves in Of a cylinder capacity not exceeding 1000 cm3 may be buried up to 79 people.
Exhumations of Poles in Volyn. Who will take part in the work?
On the Polish side, exhumation works will be conducted Freedom and Democracy Foundation in cooperation with scientists from Pomeranian Medical University and representatives National Memorial Institute. In June 2022 the Foundation applied to the Ukrainian authorities for approval to search for Polish victims of the Volyn crime and received permission. After 4 months of searching, on 24 August 2023, 1 of the crime scenes was located. The work will besides be attended by representatives of the Ukrainian Foundation Volynian Antiquity, which on 8 January received approval to search.
State Secretary at MKiDN Maciej Wróbel stressed that in Puźniki "Polish citizens, whose identity we know, died". – We want to find all the victims of this dramatic night of 1945 and make a worthy burial. This is what families who live and enter into the process are waiting for, for example, the transfer of genetic material," he added.
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He stressed that Cannons are inactive under war, hard to reach. – The full situation around the exhumation process is besides exposed to attacks of Russian misinformation. We effort to be very prudent and careful, besides communicating any issues related to the exhumation process. The substance requires peculiar treatment from us," he said.
Sparrow reported that she would work at the site group of about 20 specialistsAnd genetic investigation will be done by about 50 scientists. The specialists will bring a fewer tons of equipment to the site. erstwhile it is set up, work will begin immediately. It all depends on what the weather will be that day, erstwhile you manage to do the first earthwork and start the actual exhumation process. We presume it'll take a fewer weeks. Then the remains will stay in place in Ukraine and after genetic tests will be carried out a worthy burial. Each of the victims will remainder in a one-man grave – he said.
Maciej Dancevicz: Bringing back the memory of the people who lived there
Vice president of the Freedom and Democracy Foundation Maciej Danceewicz indicated that Volynsk crime usually associated with the summertime of 1943. – In fact, however, this operation was extended until the first months of 1945 to Volyn and in the erstwhile south-eastern provinces. Reminder of places like Boxes is so needed," he said.
Dancevicz estimated that specified villages like Puffers are a symbolic place. – Pullers no longer exist, they are not on the map, they have been erased from memory. The forest grew on the site of this village. What we want to do is to reconstruct the memory of the people who lived there," he stressed.
Prof. Andrzej Ossowski: This will not be standard identification
In turn Prof. Andrzej Ossowski from the Department of Judicial medicine of the Pomeranian Medical University noted that studies in Puźniki would be peculiarly difficult. “On the technological side, in this case we are dealing with full families who died. Therefore, we will definitely usage genetic genealogy methods, fresh generation sequencing methods and procedures that are not utilized for recognition as standard – he explained. “This will surely not be standard identification,” he added. He stressed that this would be 1 of the most hard work they had done as experts.
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As he explained, the difficulty in recognition is associated, among others, with genetic distance. “We met with a large consequence from people related to the victims. So far, we have been able to accumulate a large amount of genetic material. From a household point of view, this relation is, of course, but from a genetic point of view it is distant,' explained Prof. Ossowski.
Paweł Kowal: There are 13 conclusions
Paweł Kowal, Plenipotentiary of the Government for the Reconstruction of Ukraine leading Polish-Ukrainian the Working Group on Historical Dialogue, Applications for consent to exhumations, which Poland treats as ‘baseline’ and which have been agreed with the Ukrainian side, are 13.
– These are the conclusions that concern the issues of the Volyn crime, but besides the search, the exhumation in places related to another historical events, specified as Stalinist crimes, or the 1939 defence War. In addition, further applications are being submitted – they are besides submitted by social organisations, as in the case of the town of Ugły – he informed.
Pgo / PAP / Polsatnews.pl
