Celebration of the National Day of Polish Memory – victims of genocide carried out by OUN-UPA at the east Borders of Poland II

sejm.gov.pl 2 months ago

Friday, July 11, 2025 17:05

Representatives of the Sejm participated in the Friday celebrations of the National Day of Polish Memory – victims of genocide by the CNS-UPA on the east Borders of the Second Republic of Poland. The commemoration was attended by Deputy Marshals of the Sejm Krzysztof Bosak and Piotr Zgorzelski and Marshal of elder Marek Sawicki.

The main ceremonies, connected with the Memorial Appeal and the ceremony of laying wreaths, were held at the Memorial of Victims of Genocide performed by Ukrainian nationalists on the citizens of the Second Republic of Poland in the south-east voivodships in 1942–47 at the Volynský Skwer in Warsaw. They were preceded by Mass in the Polish Army Department held in the intention of victims of genocide by Ukrainian nationalists on citizens of the Second Republic of Poland and the fallen, dead and surviving soldiers of the 27th Volynian National Army Infantry Division.

National Day of Memory about Poles – Victims of Genocide made by the CNS and UPA on the east lands of the Second Republic of Poland is celebrated for the first time as a state holiday. It was established by the Act passed by the Sejm on 4 June 2025.

As we read in the Act, in 1939–1946 Ukrainian nationalists from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (CNS), Ukrainian Insurgency Army (UPA) and another Ukrainian nationalist formations operating on the lands of the East Kreses of the Second Republic of Poland (volyńskie, Tarnopolskie, Stanislawskie, Lvivskie, Polesie) and present Lublin and Podkarpackie provinces made genocide on the Polish population. They murdered more than 1 100 1000 Poles, mainly residents of the village, destroyed their property and led to refugees from east Borders of the Second Republic of Poland hundreds of thousands of Poles. The apogee of this crime falls on July 1943, and the symbolic date of the hekatoma of Poles at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists is 11 July 1943, erstwhile Poles were murdered in about a 100 localities. As the legislator emphasized, the martyr's death due to belonging to the Polish nation deserves to be remembered in the form of a day distinguished annually by the Polish state, in which the victims will be paid tribute.

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