Photos of UPA's victims

[MichaelB_PL]

Originally Posted by General23

UPA ARMY ARE FEEDOM FIGHTERS, they fought against ANYONE who even thought of occupying Ukraine!

Well, they were also WAR CRIMINALS, who have murdered tens of thousands of Polish women and children.

BTW the links I've put in the first post in this thread do not work and for some reason I can't edit the post, so here's a link to a site with the photos (different photos, not just with atrocities):

WoЁyЯ naszych przodkСw...



This is a photo from the colony of Katerynówka, where these 3 children were murdered by UPA in an attack during the night from 7th to 8th May of 1943. These are two sons of Piotr&Aniela Mękala and Stasia Stefaniak, a daughter of Polish man and Ukrainian woman, who got her stomach ripped open and arms and legs broken.

A sidenote about the the third described victim - it was common practice for UPA to murder a child if only one of the parents was Polish, this was supposed to create "Ukraine free from Poles".

[bm-21Lemko]

YouTube - NKWD victim in Lvov 1941

Here is where both poles were killed by the NKVD in Lwow or Lviv however you want to pronounce it. The wehrmacht pulled them out of the NKVD headquarters.

It sad but both Poles and Ukrainians were killed by communist government.

YouTube - Victims of soviet teror

4,000 local inhabitents of ukrainians and Poles.

Killed Lithuanian civilians by Polish Armia Krajowa on 23 June 1944 and used possession of Lithuanian prayer books as a means of identifying Lithuanian men

apparently this was out of revenge for the Glinciszki massacre, but the nazi police had already left Dubingiai.

Let us not forget that they were also more killings of civilians not just by UPA but also by AK and Lithuanian schuma battalion.

[Lvivske]

Originally Posted by Zbyszek

UPA ...This terrorist organisation has not been admitted into the world association of war veteran units.

A quick look on google debunks that claim, for at least its practicality

Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko joined several public Ukrainian organizations in calls for reconciliation, pensions, and other benefits for UPA veterans that would equate them in status with the veterans of the Soviet Army

In 2007, president Yushchenko awarded the title "Hero of Ukraine", the country's highest honour to UPA leader Roman Shukhevych.

oh and heres the clincher:

January 10, 2008 Viktor Yushchenko submitted a draft law [so UPA and OUN fighters] as well as persons who assisted these organizations shall be recognized as war veterans.

Yushchenko pushes for official recognition of OUN-UPA combatants

[Lvivske]

Originally Posted by MichaelB_PL

Well, they were also WAR CRIMINALS

Every country has 'war criminals', but that doesn't paint the entire army/organization/nation in the same color.

[MichaelB_PL]

bm-21Lemko: I'm not certain what was the point you wanted to make by showing that other forces in WWII also commited war crimes - I still find General23's enthusiastic pro-UPA declaration to be disgusting and ignorant, considering the (ghastly) facts.

Lvivskie: I think Zbyszek meant the "world association of war veteran units", while you are referring to actions of president Yushchenko, who acted for giving UPA veterans more rights in Ukraine - you two are speaking about two different things.

Originally Posted by Lvivske

Every country has 'war criminals', but that doesn't paint the entire army/organization/nation in the same color.

I generally agree with that statement, although I think that in the case of armies and organisations (not nations), one should look at the overall activity of a given army/organisation, at how widespread the war crimes were, etc etc.

In UPA's case, we are not talking about some kind of rare, random atrocities, we are talking about an organised, consistent action of ethnic cleansing in which hundreds of villages were exterminated.

Massacres of Poles in Volhynia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"On July 11, 1943, UPA units surrounded and attacked Polish villages and settlements located in three counties - Kowel, Horochow and Wlodzimierz Wolynski. The events began at 3 in the morning, Poles had no chance to escape. After the massacres, the Polish villages were burned to the ground. According to those few who survived, the action had been carefully prepared, a few days before the massacres there had been several meetings in Ukrainian villages, during which UPA members were telling natives that slaughter of all Poles was necessary. (...)
Timothy Snyder describes the murders: "Ukrainian partisans burned homes, shot or forced back inside those who tried to flee, and used sickles and pitchforks to kill those they captured outside. In some cases, beheaded, crucified, dismembered, or disemboweled bodies were displayed, in order to encourage remaining Poles to flee"(...)
Altogether, in July of 1943 the Ukrainians attacked 167 towns and villages. [20]. This wave of massacres lasted 5 days, until July 16. It is also asserted that the UPA continued the ethnic cleansing, particularly in rural areas, until most Poles had been deported, killed or expelled. After 1944, the scale of such actions was limited. Mass murders of Poles also took place in Eastern Galicia, mainly in the area around Ternopil.(...)"

[bm-21Lemko]

Originally Posted by MichaelB_PL

"On July 11, 1943, UPA units surrounded and attacked Polish villages and settlements located in three counties - Kowel, Horochow and Wlodzimierz Wolynski. The events began at 3 in the morning, Poles had no chance to escape. After the massacres, the Polish villages were burned to the ground. According to those few who survived, the action had been carefully prepared, a few days before the massacres there had been several meetings in Ukrainian villages, during which UPA members were telling natives that slaughter of all Poles was necessary. (...)
Timothy Snyder describes the murders: "Ukrainian partisans burned homes, shot or forced back inside those who tried to flee, and used sickles and pitchforks to kill those they captured outside. In some cases, beheaded, crucified, dismembered, or disemboweled bodies were displayed, in order to encourage remaining Poles to flee"(...)
Altogether, in July of 1943 the Ukrainians attacked 167 towns and villages. [20]. This wave of massacres lasted 5 days, until July 16. It is also asserted that the UPA continued the ethnic cleansing, particularly in rural areas, until most Poles had been deported, killed or expelled. After 1944, the scale of such actions was limited. Mass murders of Poles also took place in Eastern Galicia, mainly in the area around Ternopil.(...)"

Like Lvivske said each side has war criminals, even the soviets could be considered with their NKVD.

like i said in a previous post here

When one shoved, the other shoved back. My question is the Wehrmact, were some not honorable as well because some committed ethnic cleansing.

My point is all sides are guilty no matter who started it.

In March of that year the Interior Military (Wojska Wewnetrzne) murdered about 540 people in Stary Lublinets; in April - 400 people in Goraj. In March the peasant self-defense in cooperation with some forest detachment murdered about 300 Ukrainians in Pawlokoma, while in Piskorovychi - a detachment of the NSZ slaughtered some 400 Ukrainians, readied for resettlement. Another detachment of the NSZ attacked the village of Verkhovyna in June of 1945 and murdered some 200 people, including 65 children. There were numerous cases of murdering Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox priests, together usually with their families. In this way some 30 priests perished. In the neighborhood of Majdan Sieniawski it happened that a Polish military detachment or a band murdered a Roman Catholic priest, a Pole, who condemned those murders committed upon the Ukrainians. According to the UBP, from March to June 1945, the Polish underground and other detachments killed over 1500 Ukrainians.

[Lvivske]

Originally Posted by MichaelB_PL

In UPA's case, we are not talking about some kind of rare, random atrocities, we are talking about an organised, consistent action of ethnic cleansing in which hundreds of villages were exterminated.

I wouldn't say the few instances of pushing polish civilians out (and the atrocities that occurred) define the whole of the UPA's actions at all. there were legitimate battles with the Poles as well, and not to mention fighting the Nazi's and Red Army

It was a 3 front war for the UPA and you are focusing solely on 1/4 of the parties involved.