Ukrainian UPA Genocide of Poles Ethnographic Lands Myth Jastrzebski

Ludobojstwo Nacjonalistow Na Polakach Lubelszczyznie W Latach 1939-1947, by Stanislaw Jastrzebski. 2007

The OUN-UPA Genocide in Post-WWII Poland, Operation Wisla, and the Myth of THE Genocide Driven By “Rightful Ukrainian Ethnographic Territories”

Title: THE GENOCIDE CONDUCTED BY THE UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTS ON THE POLES OF THE LUBLIN REGION IN 1939-1947. Consider the exculpatory arguments that attempt to dichotomize the events on either side of the Bug River, that characterize the OUN’s ideology as emancipatory nationalism, or that frame the euphemistically-phrased “removal of Poles” as taking place on “Ukrainian lands”. The events described in this book debunk all these myths. The same genocide occurred on both sides of the Bug River. The ideology of the Ukrainian fascist-separatist OUN-UPA clearly partook of imperialistic nationalism in that it laid claim to territories that were Polish by every rational measure.

THE “ETHNOGRAPHIC TERRITORIES” EXCUSE FAILS. NO DOUBT A GENOCIDE

The genocide took place not only in Ukrainian-majority areas but also on territories in which Ukrainians were a distinct minority. Against those who deny that a planned genocide ever existed, Jastrzebski cites a Ukrainian source (Litopys UPA, volume 6, p. 42) that speaks of destroying all the Poles so that the territories won’t return to Poland. (p. 10, 38). Jaroslaw Kaczynski recognized it as genocide on July 9, 2003. (p. 21). Jastrzebski takes issue not only with Ukrainian revisionists, but also with inadequately-informed Polish writers such as Grzegorz Motyka and Ryszard Torzecki, who was a Ukrainized Jew. (p. 11).

SCALE OF THE OUN-UPA GENOCIDE IN THE LUBLIN PROVINCE

A total of 11,618 Poles are known murdered, with a projected total of 14,000-15,000 victims. (p. 231)–this is for the Lublin region alone. There are hundreds of localities catalogued in this book where the murders are known to have occurred. The killers were an assortment of Nazi-collaborating Ukrainians, UPA bands from the east, and local heretofore-amiable Ukrainians who had become radicalized by OUN agitators. WARNING: There are many photos that show the creative sadism used by the killers, and this may upset sensitive readers. Ukrainians were also sometimes murdered–for offenses such as friendship towards Poles (p. 100), intermarriage with Poles (p. 110), condemnation of OUN-UPA murderous policies (p. 183), leaving for the newly-enlarged Soviet Ukraine (p. 189), and disobeying the OUN-UPA (p. 194).

Defended villages (samoobrony), often supplemented by the AK (A. K.) or BCh, were sometimes able to ward off OUN-UPA genocidal attacks (p. 23, 83, 86, 98, 149, 177, 198). Even when unsuccessful, their combat reduced the number of civilians that perished.

POLES DID NOT START THIS CONFLICT

Those who try to shift the blame on the Poles accuse them of “starting it” by killing Ukrainians (actually Ukrainian collaborators) already in 1942. This is ridiculous. OUN units had already killed some 5,000 Poles back in 1939 (p. 15). Throughout 1942, the Ukrainian collaborationist police, the future nucleus of the UPA, had been killing Poles on behalf of, and with, the Germans (p. 47, 48, 55, 60, 63, 66, 81, 82, 83, 168, 171, 172, 174, 216, etc.). The Ukrainian police also played a major role in the Germans’ de-Polonizing “Operation Zamosc” of the entire region. (p. 85).

DO NOT RELATIVIZE POLISH AND UKRAINIAN CONDUCT

Ukrainian sources misrepresent the events at Sahryn (Hrubieszow County) as a massacre of Ukrainians by Poles. What actually happened was the following: Sahryn had long been a powerful OUN stronghold, and locus of German-Ukrainian collaboration against Poles as well as Ukrainian murders of Poles. An AK/BCh attack on March 9, 1944, successfully broke-up a local UPA unit. (pp. 114-115). Even as Ukrainian civilians were deliberately killed by Poles, it was a drop in the bucket compared with the Polish civilians murdered by Ukrainians.

THE COMMUNISTS PRIORITIZED THE ARREST AND MURDER OF POLISH PARTIOTS

The OUN-UPA genocide dragged on long after WWII because the Soviet and “Polish” authorities were busy eliminating the real or imagined opponents of the newly-installed Communist puppet state. (p. 25, 47). It finally came to an end in 1947 when the Ukrainian population was resettled (Operation Wisla) which—as intended—had deprived the OUN-UPA of its base of support. (p. 29, 47, 87).