Pawłokoma massacre

The Pawłokoma massacre refers to the murder of Ukrainians by Poles at the end of World War II in Pawłokoma 40 km (25 mi) west of Przemyśl in Poland, on March 3, 1945. In the period before the outbreak of World War II there were 1370 residents including 1190 Ukrainians, 170 Poles and 10 Jews.

According to Ukrainian-Canadian historian Petro Potichny, from 1938–41 after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact the village was located in the Drohobych oblast and annexed to the Ukrainian SSR. During the Soviet occupation sixteen villagers were arrested. During the subsequent German occupation, nine Ukrainians were arrested and 193 were deported as Ostarbeiter to Germany. However, Ukrainians were favored by the German Nazi administration and 10 even joined SS "Galizein". Ukranian denoucinations caused 3 Poles and one pro-Polish Ukrainian woman to be sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were also responsible for the death of a local AK member, Józef Michalik.

Among those killed by the Polish underground in 1943 was the active community leader, teacher and bandurist Mykola Levytsky. Levytsky, alongside Ivan Karp, Eugenia Trojan and Ivan Szpak were all members of Ukrainian nationalist movement that advocated cleansing area off ethnic Poles. The move caused local Ukrainian chauvinists to stop their agitations for a time being. The situation was worsened when the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police arrested local AK members. Poles attempted to free them from a prison in Jawornik Ruski, but discovered that they weren't there anymore. As a retaliation, Germans together with the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police pacified Polish village Dylągowa.

On January 21, 1945 a unit of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army appeared in the village and kidnapped seven Poles and one pro-Polish Ukrainian woman, including the commune leader of Pawłokoma — Kacper Radoń. They never returned to the village, and were assumed to have been killed. The Polish community tried to discover their place of burial from the Ukrainians. However there was no response. Poles from nearby Dynow and from Pawłokoma appealed to the mayor of Powiat to send troops to extract information about the missing people. These meetings turned into anti-Ukrainian demonstrations. Retaliation occurred.

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Wikipedia