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Ethnic cleansing of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, 1942-1946 (ZZWRP)

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Since "ethnic cleansing" is an amorphous term, a better title would be: Genocide of Poles... This book provides an excellent, concise introduction to this little-known sordid episode of history. Although more comprehensive works on this genocide have since been published, this small book remains an excellent introduction to it. It also summarizes several Polish-language works that would otherwise have been inaccessible to the English-speaking reader. Since many Ukrainians continue to glorify the OUN-UPA killers, blame the Poles, or invent a mythical Ukrainian-Polish war out of this unilateral genocide, this topic remains as relevant as ever.

The number of Poles murdered may reach the few hundreds of thousands. And, far from being exaggerated, the death toll may have been depressed. For instance, 1992 forensic digs of the Polish victims at Ostrowska in Wolyn have uncovered several hundred more skeletons than wartime estimates. (pp. 61-62).

Ukrainian deniers cannot make up their minds whether to blame their atrocities on the victims (Poles) or to deny the fact that the killers had been Ukrainians to begin with. The latter involves the assertion that the killers were actually Soviet bands--an absurdity easily refuted by the fact that many of the murderers can be identified by survivors as Ukrainian neighbors.

Ukrainian apologists often say that "It was war" or "It was their land". But war is one thing: Deliberate, systematic mass-murder of mostly-defenseless men, women, and children is quite another. Also, genocide does not follow from territorial disputes which, of course, are routinely common all over the world. For instance, Poland and Czechoslovakia have sparred over the fate of Trans-Olza (Zaolza), but the Polish majority never sensed a mandate, based on "ethnographic" grounds or whatever, to exterminate the Czech minority. (p. 66).

We also hear the Poles-started-it-at-Zamosc myth. In actuality, Polish guerilla attacks on Ukrainian (and German) settlements there had been a reaction against the systematic German-sponsored (e. g., Odilo Globocnik's) forced replacement of Poles with Germans and Ukrainian collaborators--certainly not genocide of Ukrainian civilians. (p. 67).

Claims about prior systematic Polish oppression are also wide of the mark. For instance, only a small percentage of Poles in Volyn and eastern Galicia were landlords, and the average Polish peasant's farm had only 2.5 hectares more than the average Ukrainian peasant. (p. 66). The Polish pacification of 1930 involved beatings of Ukrainians and vandalism of Ukrainian property, but only a handful of deaths. It was in response to a much-larger wave of OUN-sponsored arsons and assassinations directed at Poles and anti-separatist Ukrainians. Significantly, the League of Nations refused to condemn the Polish nation for its action. (pp. 67-68). Finally, the pacification doesn't have the remotest tactical or moral symmetry with the later OUN-UPA genocide.

Some Ukrainians are honest. (pp. 70-71). Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk admitted the OUN-UPA genocide. Kiev Professor Zaturensky condemned the OUN-UPA, and opposed its rehabilitation. Cherednychenko, another Kiev professor, condemned the OUN-UPA as nothing more than a band of cutthroats that should never be made into Ukrainian national heroes.