Polish PM pledges to fight for 'whole truth' of WWII massacres
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
11.07.2018 16:11
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said he "will not rest" until “the whole truth” of the WWII Volhynia Massacres is explained, as Poland on Wednesday marked the anniversary of the tragedy's bloodiest day.
Mateusz Morawiecki at Warsaw's Volhynia Massacre monument. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk
“We will not give up this road to recovering the truth about everyone who was murdered in this exceptionally savage, barbaric way,” Morawiecki said.
Poland on Wednesday marked its National Day of Remembrance of Victims of Genocide by Ukrainian nationalists against Poles during World War II.
The day coincides with the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) on 11 July, 1943, attacked 100 villages largely inhabited by Poles in what was then Nazi-occupied eastern Poland and is now western Ukraine.
Bloody Sunday was possibly the bloodiest day of the Volhynia Massacres, which saw the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) carry out genocidal killings between March 1943 and the end of 1944, according to Poland’s National Institute of Remembrance (IPN).
The massacres were part of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army’s plan to have a sovereign and nationally homogenous Ukraine after the war.
The IPN, which is charged with prosecuting crimes against the Polish nation, has said some 100,000 Poles died in the massacres, mainly women and children.
Meanwhile, some 10-12,000 Ukrainians were killed in revenge attacks by Poles, the IPN has said. Poland's IAR news agency reported that some Ukrainians were killed by Poles acting in self-defence, and by other Ukrainians, in retribution for their attempts to help Poles. (vb/pk)