OPERATION VISTULA
Operation
Vistula was a terrible time for the Greek Catholic population in southern
Poland during the close of WWII. Much
has been written about it. In
particular there are several Internet sites that explain what occurred from
several viewpoints. See Operation
Vistula My
ancestors from the villages of Swiatkowa Wielka and Dudynce
were deported from their ancestral lands during this holocaust. Theresa Osiurak Teoli
contributed the following article. Her
mother, Magdalena Furdak Osiurak, survived Hitler and immigrated to the
USA. This article, published in 1947 in
a Ukrainian newspaper, was kept with her valuables as a reminder. After Magdalena’s death, her daughter,
Theresa, had the article translated into English because she knew of its
importance to her mother. With her permission we have included it here. The
atrocities described took place along the San River centered in the town of
Bukowsko which is a short distance from Dudynce.
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HOW UKRAINIANS WERE EXPELLED FROM THE WESTERN LANDS by Volodymyr Buchatskyj
The resettlement of Poles
from the (Ukrainian) Western lands to Poland started in the fall of 1945 and
was accomplished quickly and without much interference. It would appear that the Poles did not feel
indigenous to these lands. In addition
to this, they felt that they could gain by settling on the >regained
lands<, lands from which the Germans were banished. The poles were resettling en mass, thus for
example many Poles from Lviv headed for Breslau. But even here, the communists did not press the issue as 30,000
Poles were allowed to remain in Lviv (mostly older people, the infirm and
single women.
The expulsion of Ukrainians
was totally different. Our population
felt indigenous to the lands where they lived, they were deeply attached to
their land, thus were protesting their expulsion. Adding to this, the ownership of land was most important to our
villagers. The communist system of
collective farming was considered inferior and compared to “absentee
ownership”. Thus no one was willing to
put his neck in the collective yoke.
When the call for voluntary
“resettlement” was ignored, the Bolsheviks sought the assistance of the Polish
government, and here they found assistance from the :rytsezhakh kresovykh”
(knights, Poles) who were eager and
waiting with their dislike of the “kabans” (pigs, Ukrainians). Nearly all the Polish establishment, the
army, the police and the Polish villagers and towns people joined this bloody
activity with great joy and enthusiasm.
Thus began the orgies of the cruel treatment of our population. The lead was taken by the polish communist
soldiers lead by their officers. Chief
among these were: Captain Jan Wyzhganowki, “poruchnyky” Ceslaw Kosakowski and
Wladyslaw Kwiatkowski, captains Bernatowski and Gurmowski in the Sianik and
Krosno counties. Captain Gzyra had a
free reign throughout Lenkivshchyna where he was famous for murder and pillage.
The Polish police, formed
from town’s undesirables during the German occupation, had a free reign
throughout our villagees as well.
Encouraged by the government
actions, local village gangs of vigilantes had a free reign in villages such as
Dubrivka Pilska, Nadolainy, Nebeshchany, Novotanets, Tisarivtsi and
others. The town of Bukivsko (
Bukowsko) was the center for these gangs.
They would set out from here for their raids and bring back the loot
afterwards. On the 23 of March, 1946, a
platoon of UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army ) defeated the vigilantes in Bukivsko,
took away their loot and burned down the police station.
Gangs of vigilantes also
operated in the more northern regions of the San river valley, villages of
Plaziv, Naril, Adamivka Ruzhanetska and others. When the Polish army occupied Lemkivshchyna in 1946, the
Polish-Soviet resettlement commissions came along with them to expel the
Ukrainian population. The villagers
would bury all their valuables and with only some provisions hide in the
forests. The expulsions were carried
out cruelly and without any regard. The result of the activity of the army and
the commissions was absolutely terrible.
I am quoting here only a few
examples of the shameful deeds of this Polish activity. These accounts are accurate in all
respect. These examples come from the
notes of UPS fighters who were defending the villagers from the vicious
Poles. All of this defensive activity
of the UPS will be the subject of separate memoirs.
Polish Brutality
On May 7, 1945, a gang of
Polish village vigilantes from Bukivsko and Novotanets were pillaging and
robbing villages. They set upon the
village of Komancha, where they brought out the Rev. Orest Wenhrynowych from
the parish residence and chopped his head off.
Afterwards, they threw his body as well his eight year old son into a
burning barn. They robbed the chuch and
ordered the local teacher to take church flags to Bukivsko and deposit them in
the Polish church. Also in May of 1945, a (Polish) vigilante
gang from the village Nebeschany lay siege to the villages of Odechova,
Woeoblyk and Syniava pillaging homes and killing and wounding tens of villages.
On January 23, 1946, Polish soldiers
attached the village of Ratnavytsia.
Here, after torturing them, the soldiers killed Stephan Bilas and Mykola
Kotyka. The same soldiers arrested 9
villagers in Kanjane as they were resisting expulsion. These were executed in Sanok. The next day, January 24, the same soldiers
attacked the village of Dariv where they killed a woman and her two children.
On January 23, 1946, a
platoon of Polish soldiers under the command of Captain Gutowsky attacked and
pillaged the village of Zavadka Morochivska.
The commotion in the village alerted the UPA fighters that were
stationed in a nearby forest. The UPA
fighters defeated the Poles, captured much ammunition and arms and took away
the pillaged goods.
On January 24, 1946, a platoon of Polish soldiers occupied the village of Morochiv. After the villagers resisted expulsion. Sixty villagers wer shot and another 100 were wounded. This platoon was under the command of Captain Gzyra.
On February 16, 1946, the
Polish police attacked the village of Chertizh. There they pillaged homes and beat villagers. They broke the ribs of Reverend Konstantyn
Poliansky and then threw him on the wagon (to be expelled) together with his
family. On January 24, 1946, the Polish
soldiers murdered a 70 year old priest, his family and 14 other villagers.
On May 13, 1946, a platoon of
Polish soldiers attacked the village of Wola Matieshewa. They wounded the village teacher, Mychailo
Bilanych, and buried him alive. The
family dug up the teacher, after the soldiers departed, but he died shortly
afterwards.
On March 28, 1946, Polish
soldiers burned down the villages of Kozhushne, Wysochany, Prydyshiw, Polonna
and Cerednie Welyke. Seven villagers
died in this action. During April,
1946, Polish soldiers and police lay siege to the villages of Pavlokoma and
Obarym. These villages were viciously
attacked with machine gun fire. More than 100 individuals were killed during
this action.
During April and May, 1946,
villagers from the Lisko county were being expelled. The Polish army announced that they would kill anyone they found
fleeing to or hiding in the forest.
Many villagers did return to their villages after their food ran out,
were caught and expelled. Expulsion in
the northern counties; here platoon of the MOWOPKPB fell upon the villages as
wild beasts in the Spring of 1946.
The villagers from Liublybets
hid from the Polish soldiers in the nearby forest. The soldiers wounded four of the villagers and afterwards put
them to death. A 70-year-old villager
was killed in the village of Dykiw Stary.
The soldiers and the gangs of vigilantes beat the villagers in almost
every village and raped women, both old and young, everywhere, even in
churches. This occurred especially, in
the village of Liublynce Stary, Webycia, Dykowi Novym and others. In the village of Ulashiv, the soldiers
killed four villagers who were hiding from the authorities in a cellar.
In Pidliashia and Cholm
regions the inhabitants were devastated.
These inhabitants were dealt with severely by the Germans, and now the
actions of the polish “knights” persuaded them to “voluntarily” resettle
eastward.
According to the
Polish-Soviet agreement, the activity of “resettlement” was to be completed by
June 1946. When the Soviet commission
left in July 1946, the Polish authorities resettled the remainder of the
Ukrainians (mostly Lemkos from western lands) about 30,000 individuals, onto
eastern Prussia to occupy former German properties. The resettled people were left helpless by the Polish
government. Their life was complicated
because the Russian Orthodox priests beset them as did the communist
propagandists.
A few Ukrainians remained in
these territories- those of mixed marriages.
Interestingly enough, numbers of “Mosophiles” and “Rusyns” remained in
some towns. These acquired Polish
identity papers as they did not trust their “older Brother” – the Russians.
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