In Radruż in Podkarpacie, celebrations for Poles murdered by the CNS-UPA ended. The tribute was given to the victims by president Karol Nawrocki. Celebrations are part of the National Day of Memory of Victims of Genocide performed by Ukrainian Nationalists, on 11 July.
Memory Site on the Old Ends
Radruż lies in Podkarpacie, in the territory of Lubaczów, close the erstwhile east border of the Republic. This is borderland, where cultures have mixed for centuries, and the 20th century has left peculiarly painful traces. The historical wooden church and its adjacent cemetery remind of the multinational past of these areas, but besides about its tragic finale.
It was here, as the president of Poland said, that the celebrations for Poles murdered by the CNS-UPA ended. The tribute was given to the victims by president Karol Nawrocki. Celebrations are part of the National Day of Memory of Victims of Genocide performed by Ukrainian Nationalists, on 11 July.
A crime that is inactive waiting for a full memory
The Volyn massacre is 1 of the heaviest crimes committed on the Polish population during planet War II. Between 1943 and 1945, troops of the Ukrainian Insurgency Army, supported by militants of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, murdered about 100,000 Poles in Volyn and east Małopolska. The symbol of this crime remains a bloody Sunday on July 11, 1943, erstwhile respective twelve Polish towns were attacked on 1 day.
The 2016 Polish Parliament considered these events to be genocide. He besides established on 11 July a day of remembrance of the victims. The findings of the Institute of National Memory leave no uncertainty as to the scale and nature of the murder, although many victims inactive lie in the nameless graves, and any of the places of punishment have not even been commemorated.
Head of State among Rememberers
The President's presence at specified ceremonies has a symbolic dimension. Karol Nawrocki, historian and erstwhile president of the Institute of National Memory, consistently ties the office with the policy of remembering the victims of the crimes in the Kresach. The participation of the head of state in celebrations in Radruż is simply a signal that commemoration of the murdered remains a state matter, not just a local or environmental one.
For borderers and families of victims, specified presence is practical. Top-level memory is more hard to forget and relativize.
Truth as a Foundation
The commemoration of victims of the Volyn massacre is not directed against the Ukrainian people. He is faithful to the murdered and a condition for a fair settlement with the past. Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation, so essential to the common threat from the east, can only grow on the basis of the fact about what happened in the Kresach.
The celebrations in Radruż were a silent, serious motion of memory. There are many more places where prayer and burning nothing replaces large words in the erstwhile east lands.
