[Wróć do tekstu w języku polskim]
The next anniversary is fast approaching of the horrendous genocide of Polish civilians living in the south-eastern territories of the Second Republic of Poland, carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) partisans which are currently being glorified in Ukraine.
Despite attempts to whitewash history, it is our duty to remember those who in the 21st century in the middle of Europe, over 70 years after the crime, do not have graves or places of commemoration.
Therefore, it is imperative to be reminded about these tragedies by recalling testimonies of witnesses of those events. For you today we would like to quote a description that was recorded in the memory of a resident of the Stanisławów province of the Home Guard soldier Stanisław Jastrzębski. The description is related to the fight that his unit fought near Halicz in August 1945:
„ Two platoons entered the village and began to search house by house… Several shots disturbed the silence and caused panic in the village. …The Banderites [UPA partisans] only were any good at murdering the defenceless. In an armed conflict, they quickly panicked and fled the battlefield. … After spending the night and preparing the prisoners for the road, the next day, at dawn we set off on the road to Halicz. Along the way, we passed burned villages and estates, still smoking ruins of Polish farms, from which came the terrible roar of cattle imprisoned in burning barns. Pungent smoke choked our throats, and the air was full of the odour of dead men. I felt nauseous. There were burned people, who were killed by the Banderites and thrown into the fire … Men with slit throats, women with ripped guts, babies beaten alive on bloody rails. What has to happen to man so that he gets to such a degree of degeneration!?
Here and there a light wind was blowing in the dying ruins. Under the charred beams of a barn we saw the bodies of several women and children. … Before another cottage, we saw the bodies of completely naked women with their breasts cut off, or their bellies torn open. It was a view from hell. There seemed to be no end to the cruelty and death.
This slaughter could only be done by people without any human feelings, who did not know what pity was and had no conscience. The originators and performers of these atrocities were Banderites.”
The events described by Stanisław Jastrzębski took place in 1945. The Banderian ideology infiltrated the areas granted to Poland after the Yalta conference. The symbol of ersistance against UPA partisan units is the repeated defence of Bircza. The ending of these monstrous murders, which they are now trying to silence, was the implementation of the Wisła campaign, which ended the UPA’s genocidal activity.
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