Kurdybań Warkowicki massacre

Kurdybań Warkowicki
Village (no longer existing)
Location of the Kurdybań Warkowicki on the map of interwar Poland
Country Poland Second Polish Republic
Voivodeship Wołyń Voivodeship
County Sarny

Before the 1939 Nazi German and Soviet invasions of Poland Kurdybań Warkowicki, or Kurdyban–Warkowicki, was a village in Wołyń Voivodeship (1921–1939) near the town of Warkowicze (Ukrainian: Варковичi) in Dubno County, in the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic (now Ukraine).[1]

World War II

The village was a site of an OUN-UPA ethnic cleansing operation against the Polish civilians led by the Ukrainian Military Group No. 02 called the "Bohun" during the wave of massacres of Poles in Volhynia between 1942 and 1945. The Polish self-defence unit managed to hold its position there until the arrival of the Red Army in 1944.[2] The witnesses consider such survival remarkable with no German outposts and no Polish partisans in its vicinity.[2] Unlike neighbouring settlements, Kurdybań was not surrounded by the forest; therefore, the UPA units had no place to hide against its defenders equipped with a heavy machine gun disassembled from a Soviet tank destroyed by the Germans.[3] The Kurdybań provided refuge for Jewish families escaping the Holocaust in its vicinity. The local self-defence was made up of around 60 men including 25 Polish Jews.[4]

Most Polish self-defence units across the province fell — unable to defend the population against the genocide. Kurdybań Warkowicki was one of the only a handful of surviving units, among them: Młynów, Lubomirka, Klewań, Rokitno, Budki Snowidowickie and Osty. The settlement no longer exists.[2] It was liquidated likely during the Polish population transfers (1944–46).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Volhynia Gazetteer. Location according to SGGEE guideline, p. 20: Kurdiban (Kurdyban-Warkowicki/W of Varkovychi) near Dubno
  2. 1 2 3 (Polish) Władysław and Ewa Siemaszko, Ludobójstwo, Polska obrona, Zarys ogólny wydarzeń. Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ Tadeusz Cieślak (2 March 2012). "Samoobrona na Kurdybanie". WOŁYŃSKIE DZIECIŃSTWO by Tadeusz Cieślak, Szczecin, 2004. 27 Wołyńska Dywizja Piechoty AK.
  4. ↑ Witold Listowski (2012). Ludobójstwo OUN-UPA na Kresach Południowo-Wschodnich (PDF). Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Żyrardów: Stowarzyszenie Kresowian w Kędzierzynie-Koźlu, Wydawnictwo ARSGRAF. 73 (38/113 in PDF). ISBN 978-83-63999-01-8 – via direct download.

Coordinates: 50°29′N 25°55′E / 50.483°N 25.917°E / 50.483; 25.917

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