On Sunday, 11 July 1943, OUN-UPA death squads, aided by local Ukrainian peasants, simultaneously attacked at least 99 Polish settlements within Wołyń Province of the German-occupied prewar Second Polish Republic. It was a well-orchestrated attack on people gathered at Catholic churches for Sunday mass. The towns affected included Kisielin (the Kisielin massacre), Poryck (the Poryck Massacre), Chrynów (the Chrynów massacre), Zabłoćce, and Krymn, while dozens of other towns were attacked on other dates; tens of churches and chapels were burned to the ground.
The Volhynian massacres spread over four prewar provinces, including Wołyń with 40,000–60,000 victims, as well as Lwów, Stanisławów and Tarnopol provinces in Lesser Poland with 30,000-40,000 Poles murdered, for a total of 100,000 Polish victims of the UPA terror.
Location of powiaty Włodzimierz (top left) and Horochów (lower centre) in Wołyń Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic with neighbouring administrative units; the epicentre of the UPA massacres of July 11, 1943
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 compiled by Władysław Siemaszko and Ewa Siemaszko. 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.
| Powiat (county) |
Gmina (commune) |
Name of settlement |
Number of dead victims |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| horochowski | Chorów (pl) | Bakonówka | more than 21 | Polish farmhouses burned down |
| Janin estate | around 50 | From Janin, departure for a raid on Zamlicz | ||
| Zachorów Nowy | 30 | Perpetrated by SB-OUN led by Wasyl Melnyk | ||
| Zamlicze village and estate | 118 | Separate article (pl) | ||
| Kisielin (pl) | Kisielin | 90 | Kisielin massacre | |
| Podberezie (pl) | Koziatyn (pl) (uk) | 21 | 16 killed on site & 5 attempting to flee | |
| Zagaje village | 260–350 | Zagaje massacre, July 11 or 12 | ||
| Skobełka (pl) | Musin (Marianówka) | all | Eradicated village | |
| Świniuchy (pl) | Liniów (pl) (uk) | 70 | ||
| Sienkiewicze | all | Eradicated village, July 11 or 12 | ||
| kowelski (pl) | Krymno (pl) | Krymno | 40 | Massacre at a church |
| włodzimierski | Chotiaczów (pl) | Bużanka (pl) (uk) | 14 | |
| Nowojanka | at least 12 | Polish farmhouses burned down, July 11 or 12 | ||
| Suchodoły estate | 80 | |||
| Suchodoły village (uk) | all Poles | |||
| Grzybowica (pl) | Chrynów (pl) | 150 | Chrynów massacre | |
| Franopol | 9 | |||
| Grzybowica | more than 34 | |||
| Gucin | 147 | Separate article (pl) | ||
| Gurów | 202 | Gurów massacre | ||
| Kropiwszczyzna (pl) | more than 20 | |||
| Nowiny | ~ 80 | |||
| Sądowa | 160 | Separate article (pl) | ||
| Sądowa area | 13 | |||
| Stasin | 105 | Separate article (pl) | ||
| Wygranka | 150 | Separate article (pl) | ||
| Zabłoćce (pl) | 76 | Massacre at a church | ||
| Żdżary Duże colony | 51 | |||
| Korytnica (pl) | Strzelecka colony | 60 | Attacked on July 11 or 12 | |
| Turówka (uk) | 49 | |||
| Wydranka | several dozen | |||
| Mikulicze (pl) | Biskupicze Górne estate | 70 | ||
| Biskupicze Górne village (uk) | at least 20 | |||
| Markostaw (uk) | 44 | Attacked on July 11 or 12 | ||
| Mikulicze | 24 | |||
| Orlęta | ~ 50 | |||
| Zygmuntówka | several dozen | |||
| Poryck (pl) | Iwanicze Stare & Nowe village & colony | more than 9 | ||
| Jerzyn | 51 | Attacked by the same death squad as in Poryck | ||
| Kłopoczyn (uk) | 15 | |||
| Lachów (pl) | at least 21 | |||
| Orzeszyn | 306 | Separate article (pl) | ||
| Pawłówka | 10 | |||
| Poryck | 200 | Separate article (pl) Poryck 1943 massacre of Poles | ||
| Romanówka (pl) | more than 15 | |||
| Topieliszcze (pl) | more than 14 | Attacked on July 11 or in the following days | ||
| Wolica | 14 | |||
| Werba (pl) | Dominopol | at least 220 | Dominopol massacre | |
| Piński Most | 29 | |||
| Wołczak | 9 |
References
- Nabi Abdullaev, Foreign Policy Association: Central and Eastern Europe. Fpa.org. Retrieved on July 11, 2011.
- Massacre, Volhynia. "The Effects of the Volhynian Massacres". Volhynia Massacre. Retrieved 2018-07-13.
- Władysław Siemaszko, Ewa Siemaszko, Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na ludności polskiej Wołynia. Tom 1-2. Publisher: Borowiecky, Warsaw, ISBN 978-83-60748-01-5, 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.
- Terles, Mikolaj (1993). Ethnic cleansing of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, 1942-1946. Alliance of the Polish Eastern Provinces, University of Michigan. p. 39. ISBN 0-9698020-0-5.
- Władysław Filar (2008), Wydarzenia wołyńskie 1939-1945. W poszukiwaniu odpowiedzi na trudne pytania. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek. ISBN 978-83-7441-884-3.
- Strony o Wołyniu, Nowojanka. Archived 2016-10-31 at the Wayback Machine Wolyn.ovh.org
- Strony o Wołyniu, Suchodoły. Archived 2016-08-11 at the Wayback Machine Wolyn.ovh.org
- Strony o Wołyniu, Franopol. Archived 2016-04-11 at the Wayback Machine Wolyn.ovh.org