On Sunday July 11, 1943, the
OUN-UPA
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army ( uk, Українська повстанська армія, УПА, translit=Ukrayins'ka povstans'ka armiia, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan formation. During World ...
death squads aided by the local Ukrainian peasants simultaneously attacked at least 99 Polish settlements within the
Wołyń Voivodeship of the prewar
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
under
the German occupation.
[Nabi Abdullaev]
Foreign Policy Association: Central and Eastern Europe.
Fpa.org. Retrieved on July 11, 2011. It was a well-orchestrated attack on people gathered for a Sunday mass at Catholic churches. The towns affected included
Kisielin (
Kisielin massacre
Kisielin massacre was a massacre of Polish worshipers which took place in the Volhynian village of Kisielin ( Second Polish Republic until 1939), now Kysylyn, located in the Volyn Oblast, Ukraine. It took place on Sunday, July 11, 1943, when uni ...
),
Poryck
Pavlivka ( uk, Павлівка, formerly Poryck, pl, Poryck) is a town now located in northwestern Ukraine, in Volodymyr Raion of Volyn Oblast, near Volodymyr, on the Luha river. For centuries, Poryck was property of several noble Polish familie ...
(
Poryck Massacre), Chrynów (
Chrynów massacre), Zabłoćce, Krymn, with dozens of other towns attacked at different dates with tens of churches and chapels burned to the ground. The
Volhynian massacres spread over four prewar voivodeships including
Wołyń
Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. The ...
with 40,000- 60,000 victims, as well as
Lwów
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
,
Stanisławów and
Tarnopol
Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...
in
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a s ...
with 30,000- 40,000 Poles murdered for the total of 100,000 Polish victims of
UPA terror. The Bloody Sunday of July 11, 1943 is not to be confused with the
Stanisławów Ghetto Bloody Sunday massacre of 10,000 to 12,000
Polish Jews
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lo ...
on October 12, 1941, before the
Stanisławów Ghetto announcement.
Selected locations of the Volhynian Bloody Sunday massacres
Below is the list of selected locations of the OUN-UPA mass killing raids targeting Polish Catholics, with the confirmed number of victims from July 11, 1943 exceeding one dozen men, women and children, according to compendium of
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia
The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia ( pl, rzeź wołyńska, lit=Volhynian slaughter; uk, Волинська трагедія, lit=Volyn tragedy, translit=Volynska trahediia), were carried out in German-occupied Poland by the ...
compiled by
Władysław Siemaszko
Władysław Siemaszko (born 8 June 1919) is a Polish publicist and lawyer, former member of the Polish resistance Armia Krajowa (AK), author of numerous publications focusing on the massacres of Poles in Volhynia. He is the father of writer Ewa ...
and
Ewa Siemaszko
Ewa Siemaszko is a Polish writer, publicist and lecturer; collector of oral accounts and historical data regarding the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia. An engineer by profession with Master's in technological studies from the Warsaw University of L ...
. Existing settlements which have been attacked, but whose number of Polish victims remained undetermined at the time when the information was collected, are not listed here.
Władysław Siemaszko
Władysław Siemaszko (born 8 June 1919) is a Polish publicist and lawyer, former member of the Polish resistance Armia Krajowa (AK), author of numerous publications focusing on the massacres of Poles in Volhynia. He is the father of writer Ewa ...
, Ewa Siemaszko
Ewa Siemaszko is a Polish writer, publicist and lecturer; collector of oral accounts and historical data regarding the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia. An engineer by profession with Master's in technological studies from the Warsaw University of L ...
,
''Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na ludności polskiej Wołynia.'' Tom 1-2.
Publisher: Borowiecky, Warsaw, , Vol.1; pp. 137, 141, 144-145, 147, 159, 179, 186, 191-192, 195, 337, 382, 616, 696, 817, 820, 823-829, 831-834, 836, 838-839, 848, 850, 852-853, 857-859, 863-866, 868, 871, 887-888, 890-893, 895-896, 899-905, 915, 929-930, 948, 959.
References
{{Massacres of Poles
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia