On July 12 of that year, the Sejm adopted a resolution on the commemoration of the victims of the russian genocide committed in the Crimean Tatars in 1944. The day before, on 11 July, was the 81st anniversary of the start of the Volhynia Reich, but this tragic date did not focus the attention of the advanced House.
Members preferred to deal with events in Crimea alternatively than in Volyn, despite the fact that in 2016 the Sejm established on 11 July the National Day of Memory of Victims of Genocide made by Ukrainian nationalists on citizens of the Second Republic. The resolution stated that the victims of the crimes committed in the 1940s were not decently commemorated, and mass murders were not named according to the fact of historical genocide. The Sejm called for the determination of the crime scenes and their markings, to guarantee a burial worthy of all the victims found, to give due reverence and respect to the innocently tortured and murdered, to complete the list of victims.
The Sejm's position has been completely ignored. Not only by the Ukrainian side, but besides by any Polish politicians and publicists who repeat to boredom that past should be dealt with by historians, and those who have a different opinion are "useful idiots", "Russian onuce" or "putin's agents". After Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the crowning argument came that the time of war was not conducive to exhumation, and that the burial might come sometime.
Recollection of cruelly murdered Poles in Volyn and east Galicia is essential not only due to the incalculable and unsuspected genocide, but above all due to the cult of Ukrainian Nationalist Organization (OUN), Ukrainian Insurgency Army (UPA) and SS-Galizen. It's not just what our neighbors did in the war, it's what they do today. And today, by their will, the murderer became heroes, and nationalism became an authoritative trend and sanctioned by the state.
To find out, just take a walk in Kiev after the typical prospekt of Stepan Bandery. In Lviv you can see the monument of Roman Szuchewycz, who ordered thousands of Poles to be killed, calling out that “The death of all Lach is simply a metre of free Ukraine. We must so cut out Poles.” In the ultimate Council, 1 can find a resolution commemorating the combat activity of the Nazi Knight of the Iron Cross Colonel Petr Diachenko, who commanded the soldiers who were taking over Warsaw insurgents, fought the National Army in Kampinoska Forest, and then pacified Polish villages in Lublin. You can besides see the celebrations of veterans from the SS-Galizien division, who boast of many "accompaniments", including the collective execution of Poles – residents of Huta Pieniacka. Ukrainians do not head that all SS formations were recognized by the Nuremberg Court as criminal organizations, so approval for Ukrainian SS-man assemblies should not be tolerated.
Ideologists and performers of genocide crimes in Poles have their monuments and are worshiped as heroes. Unlike them, Volyn massacre victims don't even have their graves. The bones of the savagely murdered men, women, and children are scattered throughout fields, meadows, forests and roads, and witnesses of these events usually stay silent. The peculiar law provides for the punishment of all who show disregard for the veterans of criminal organizations or deny the intent of their fight.
Polish archaeologists, who in the early 1990s in Ostrówka and Wola Ostrowiecka were combing the five-hectare area in search of "death pits" encountered a pit with 323 remains. The most were children aged between 1 and six years, including 3-4 months. They described the place as full of skulls spread and overgrown by roots. There were lots of hair, girls' braids most frequently blond, as well as tiny beads, flower-shaped buttons and baby medals. I have never seen specified a number of kid remains in my exhumation work – said the shocked archaeologist.
The reluctance to discover the grim fact concerns many influential circles, including the highest authorities of Ukraine. Recognising that UPA and Bandera are national heroes, they do not consider critical opinions and negative reactions. Ukrainians know well that the scale of the crime discovered during the exhumation – thousands of crossed, crushed and broken bones, including women and children – would make a striking impression. Unlike murderers in Nazi or Stalinist uniforms, the banders seldom fired. They killed what they had at hand, with axes, saws, hammers, forks, knives. any of the victims were drowned in rivers, ponds, or wells. any people were killed by beating to death. Many Polish villages were set on fire, resulting in the death of residents in flames or as a consequence of smoke. Death was long and painful, intended to scare and discourage those who managed to preserve their lives.
The fact that, despite the passing of years, victims of genocide cannot wait for a worthy burial is simply a scandalous matter. This is not a subject for discussion, discussion or negotiation with the Ukrainian side, but a requirement. The war on Russia has nothing to do with this, since only in 2022 the German People's Association of Tomb Care carried out 972 exhumations in Ukraine. Between 2001 and 1922, nearly 103,000 re-burials of German soldiers found in Ukraine were carried out.
Reset in the historical approach will be impossible until Poles have the right to decently bury the remains of thousands of murdered men, women, old people and children who have been lying in nameless caves on Volyn dirt for decades.
The outstanding movie by Wojtek Smarzowski “Wołyń” begins with the sentiment: “Kresovan was killed twice. erstwhile through blows with an axe, the second through silence.” We can't let them get killed for the 3rd time. By abandoning their remains and agreeing to glorify the murderers.
Leszek Miller
(behind platform X)
