The Sahryń massacre was a massacre of Ukrainian combatants and civilians by members of the Polish

Home Army The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...

on 10 March 1944, committed as a reprisal to similar, though en masse, attacks carried out on Polish villagers by the

Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist partisan formation founded by the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) on 14 October 1942. The UPA launched guerrilla warfare against Nazi Germany, the S ...

. The exact total death toll of Ukrainians killed in Sahryń is unknown, but estimates vary from 234 to over 600,Adam Jaworski, "Ukraińcom krzyż na zgodę", https://web.archive.org/web/20080226093154/http://www.kronikatygodnia.pl/tekst.php?abcd=21800&dz=1J. Makar, ''Chełmszczyzna w latach okupacji niemieckiej'', In: ''Polska-Ukraina: Trudne pytania. Materiały XI międzynarodowego seminarium historycznego „Stosunki polsko-ukraińskie w latach II wojny światowej”, Warszawa, 26–28 kwietnia 2005'', Światowy Związek Żołnierzy Armii Krajowej-KARTA-Wołyński Uniwersytet Państwowy im. Łesi Ukrainki, Warszawa 2006, 83-88288-49-0, p. 225.Ihor Ilyushyn, ''UPA i AK. Konflikt w Zachodniej Ukrainie (1939–1945)'', Tyrsa, Warszawa 2009, p. 148.Володимир Сергійчук, ''Трагедія українців Польщі'', Ternopil 1997, p. 67. of which between 150 and 300 were confirmed civilians.Oddziałowa Komisja IPN w Lublinie, stan na wrzesień 2010. The surnames of 234 victims are known.M. Zajączkowski, ''Ukraińskie podziemie...'', p. 302.

History

In the spring of 1944,

Sahryń Sahryń is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Werbkowice, within Hrubieszów County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies approximately south of Werbkowice, south of Hrubieszów, and south-east of the regional capital L ...

was one of the Ukrainian villages, which was burned down by

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

partisans during the conflict of

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...

with Ukrainian

OUN-UPA The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist partisan formation founded by the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) on 14 October 1942. The UPA launched guerrilla warfare against Nazi Germany, the S ...

, along the Curzon Line. The conflict "continued throughout June 1944, resulting in considerable bloodshed and the destruction of dozens of Polish and Ukrainian villages". Sahryń was the site of the initial thrust of the AK counter-offensive against UPA, under the command of

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

Zenon Jachymek, due to Ukrainian self-defence stationing there. At dawn on 10 March 1944 the AK unit from Division Hrubieszow attacked the fortified village. A heavy fighting broke out. The Ukrainians retreated, but both Catholic and Orthodox churches in Sahryń were burned down. Between 150 and 300 civilians were killed by Polish forces in reprisal and 260 farmhouses were set on fire. Marek Jasiak, "Overcoming Ukrainian Resistance"
''in:''

Aftermath

Historian Mariusz Zajączkowski said that the massacre could be described as a

war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

or perhaps a

crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...

. The

Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives which also includes two public prosecutio ...

(IPN) investigation on this matter was discontinued in 2010, and the IPN denied that any crime had been committed against the Ukrainian civilians in Sahryń. A Ukrainian request to reopen the investigation was refused. The monument in memory of the Ukrainian victims of AK in Sahryń was erected in 2009, with the hope that both Ukrainian and Polish presidents would attend the ceremonies, but there were spelling errors discovered in the names, and as of 2011, it still awaited its official unveiling. The monument was built by the Ukrainian side, with Polish participation.

References

{{coord missing, Ukraine Polish massacres of Ukrainians in World War II Military operations involving the Home Army March 1944 in Europe 1944 murders in Poland Massacres in 1944 Hrubieszów County Attacks on churches in Poland Church massacres in Europe 1944 in Christianity Church arson in Europe Attacks on religious buildings and structures during World War II Residential building arson attacks in Poland Arson in the 1940s History of Lublin Voivodeship 1944 mass shootings in Europe Mass shootings in Poland Attacks on farmhouses Attacks on buildings and structures in 1944

History

Aftermath

See also

References