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Polish MPs back plan for memorial day to honour victims of WWII-era massacres by Ukrainians

10.06.2025 11:00
Poland's lower house of parliament has backed plans to establish July 11 as a National Day of Remembrance for Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists during and after World War II.
The lower house of Polands parliament, the Sejm, in session in Warsaw on Monday, June 9, 2025.
The lower house of Poland's parliament, the Sejm, in session in Warsaw on Monday, June 9, 2025.Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara

Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said last week that Polish-Ukrainian relations can only be built on historical truth.

"July 11 will be the Day of Remembrance for Poles — victims of the genocide committed by OUN-UPA on the Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic," Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X.

“We honour memory and strengthen identity because only on historical truth can we build lasting mutual relations," he added.

The bill, introduced by Kosiniak-Kamysz's agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL), was approved by the lower house last Wednesday.

The legislation, which will now be considered by the upper house, the Senate, designates July 11 as a national holiday commemorating the mass killings of ethnic Poles by the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and other Ukrainian nationalist groups.

The groups were active between 1939 and 1946 in what was then eastern Poland and is now western Ukraine.

Under the bill, more than 100,000 ethnic Poles, primarily rural residents, were murdered in the massacres, which reached their peak in July 1943.

The bill notes that July 11, 1943, known as "Bloody Sunday," marked the worst day of the atrocities when coordinated attacks were carried out in nearly 100 towns and villages.

Polish civilian victims of a World War II massacre committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Polish civilian victims of a World War II massacre committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Image: Władysława Siemaszków, Ludobójstwo, page 1294, from Henryk Słowiński collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The legislation also says that the victims "suffered martyrdom solely because of their Polish identity," and affirms that they deserve national remembrance through an annually observed national holiday.

The violence took place in the Volhynia region and the neighbouring provinces of Lwów, Tarnopol and Stanisławów—areas that were once part of Poland’s "Eastern Borderlands" before borders shifted after WWII.

(gs)

Source: IAR, PAP