Zagaje massacre was a

mass murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more pe ...

of ethnic Poles carried out on 1112 July 1943 by the troops of the

Ukrainian Insurgent Army 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 ...

group "Piwnicz", aided by the Ukrainian peasants, during the

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 th ...

Władysław Filar Władysław Filar (18 July 1926 – 13 August 2019) was a Polish historian, academic and a soldier of the 27th Home Army Infantry Division. Filar was born in Iwanicze Nowe in Volhynia, Poland (now Ukraine). During the Second World War, he foug ...

(2008), ''Wydarzenia wołyńskie 1939-1945. W poszukiwaniu odpowiedzi na trudne pytania.'' Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek. .

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 ...

(2000), ''Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na ludności polskiej Wołynia 1939-1945'', Warszawa, p. 380. Approximately 260350 people were killed, including women and children. The village Zagaje was levelled out and does not exist anymore. It was located in the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

Podberezie of the Horochów County (''

powiat A ''powiat'' (pronounced ; Polish plural: ''powiaty'') is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture ( LAU-1, formerly NUTS-4) in other countries. The term "''powia ...

horochowski'') in the Wołyń Voivodeship of the

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 ...

(now,

Horokhiv Raion Horokhiv Raion ( uk, Горохівський район) was a raion in Volyn Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center was the town of Horokhiv. The raion was abolished and its territory was merged into Lutsk Raion on 18 July 2020 as ...

, Ukraine). Overall, in the Horochów County some 4,200 ethnic Poles were murdered, in nearly hundreds of separate locations before the end of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict. The village Zagaje is not to be confused with the Zagaje colony, located in

Czaruków,

Łuck Lutsk ( uk, Луцьк, translit=Lutsk}, ; pl, Łuck ; yi, לוצק, Lutzk) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast (province) and the administrative center of the surrounding L ...

, of the same

voivodeship A voivodeship is the area administered by a voivode (Governor) in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times and the area of extent of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in western medieval ...

. The massacre was committed in the course of so-called Bloody Sunday of 11 July 1943, when the OUN-UPA killing squads raided simultaneously 99 Polish villages in two counties, including

horochowski and powiat włodzimierski. With the neighbouring powiat kowelski counted in, the number rose to 150 settlements. Most victims – assembled for regular Sunday services – were murdered in Polish Catholic churches, and in their environs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zagaje massacre 1943 crimes in Poland Razed cities July 1943 events Massacres in 1943 Massacres in Poland Massacres of Poles in Volhynia