Almost nothing remains of the Polish village of Puźniki, which is located almost 800 kilometers from Warsaw, about 60 kilometers from Buczacz in Podolia, Ukraine. Some fruit trees planted by the former inhabitants, the trace of the former road that led through the then rich and wealthy village, a chapel, a cross commemorating the place of the slaughter of about 80 people, mainly children, women and the elderly. There is also an old cemetery with some moving tombstones.
The cemetery is now particularly important because it is thanks to this monument that it is possible at least initially to identify the location of the pit (dug by the Germans to bury their wounded) in which the victims of the murder committed by the UPA band in the night of 12 to 13 February 1945. Post-war eyewitness accounts speak of this, but time fades memory, the shock of terrible experiences can change perspective. Did they mark the place of burial correctly? Has it survived to this day?
Everything here is overgrown with dense forest and shrubs. First felling was done, the area was cleared. Then a team of specialists consisting of a Ukrainian archaeological company and Polish archaeologists and forensic doctors started searching. Since May, the loudly roaring excavator has been exposing the earth meter by meter. Archaeological probes are powered every meter.
So far, the common grave of Poland has not been found. Experts estimate that work here could last until the middle of next year.
It’s just one place. But still – a major breakthrough: the search for Polish victims of the Volhynia massacre began. Ukrainian local, oblast and central authorities have given their consent. As it is said unofficially, this was possible thanks to the support of the Polish authorities, including the strong personal commitment of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
There are many fears associated with these works on the Ukrainian side. The official (that the conclusions of the investigation will negate the Ukrainian position on the Polish-Ukrainian civil war) and the hidden (the locals fear that after the identification of the victims, there could be claims to land ownership). It’s hard to share them, but it’s worth knowing.
It’s in the Polish Cemetery Puźnikiin heavy rain, after breaking through a 4-kilometer clayey, almost impassable road, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki gave an important speech on the 80th anniversary of the tragedy of Volhynia against the background of ongoing reconnaissance work.
The murder of the inhabitants of the Polish villages of Puźniki in the Ternopil region, where we are now, in February 1945 by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists – UPA was one of the last acts of a terrible tragedy. The tragedy we call the crime of Volhynia
said the head of the Polish government.
READ MORE: These words were spoken in Ukraine! Prime Minister: Volhynia’s crime is genocide, a hell in which more than 100,000 Poles lost their lives
I had the honor of being one of the journalists who witnessed that moment. And I thought it would be difficult to deny the truth of those who lament the fact that Kiev, at the time of the historic Polish-Ukrainian rapprochement, has not yet made a significant gesture. But also about that it is not a real accusation that Poland forgot about the murdered compatriots, that Poland let go of the subject.
In the vast areas of this part of the Second Polish Republic, many Poles died – were brutally murdered. Khutors and villages that flourished for centuries disappeared from the face of the earth. Only gray ash remained, gray ash from schools, churches, houses, farms.
Today, on the 80th anniversary – almost exactly the 80th anniversary – of Bloody Sunday, 1943, July 11, we not only commemorate that time, but call for all cemeteries to be found so that we may exhume and bury the victims with dignity.
We won’t rest, me I will not rest until the last victim of that terrible crime in Volhynia, the crime of Eastern Galicia, is found. This is our duty, this is our legacy. We owe it to everyone who lived in this place at the time and survived or did not survive that heca tomb.
Today I pay tribute on behalf of the Republic of Poland. I pay tribute to all the Poles who were murdered back then, killed in the years 1943-45, during the massacre in Volhynia. I call you, our ancestors, our sisters, our brothers – rise to the call. I call you to be witnesses and guardians of the good future of our peoples
– said Mateusz Morawiecki.
Let us remember these words: “I will not rest until the last victim of that terrible crime in Volhynia, the crime of Eastern Galicia, is found.” This is an important commitment.
The Prime Minister’s speech also fits well with the efforts of the Polish Church, which works on Polish-Ukrainian issues under the leadership of Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki.
READ MORE: Archbishop Gądecki during Holy Mass. in Parosla: Poland and Ukraine must finally say ‘we grant and ask for forgiveness’.
At the same time, Prime Minister Morawiecki avoided the pitfall of transferring the subject of Volhynia to the current Polish-Ukrainian cooperation.
We are here today at a special time. In a special moment when a tyrant tries to destroy an independent, sovereign, free Ukrainian state
– he said. He added, which is clear to anyone who looks further, that “without explaining this Volhynian story to the end, Russia will always use the Volhynian Charter to drive a wedge between Poles and Ukrainians.”
This is an additional – apart from the moral – burden that those on the Ukrainian side who do not want to face the truth about the terrible years 1943-1945 take upon themselves.
There is still a long way to go to the full truth in this case and to proper commemoration of the victims. Today it seems impossible for Ukraine, fighting against Russia, to quickly utter the words that the descendants of the victims of the UPA and all of Poland are waiting for. But it seems possible that we can at least ease our pain by finding and properly burying the murdered Poles. This is a fundamental thing in the world of Western civilization. If Ukraine wants to be completely in the West, it must accept that. The ongoing work in Puźniki gives hope that things will go in this direction. Just like the wreath laid on that day by the head of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Until recently this was unthinkable.
Source: wPolityce