serhi

what Armia Krajowa destroyed Ukrainian of civilians - it is proven and is not need to talk that the AK killed them for other reasons, and not on ethnicity.

After the refusal of Germany to recognize the act of restoration of the Ukrainian State, and the arrest of Stepan Bandera, Yaroslav Stetsko and other Ukrainians who were serving in Germany, joined the ranks of the UPA on the orders of the OUN. In place of the Ukrainians, the German occupation administration gained of Poles who were cruel to local Ukrainians.
With the occupation of Poland by Soviet and German troops emerged Home Army, which set as its goal the restoration of Great Poland in its pre-war borders.
For this purpose, in Volhynia and Galicia were placed part of the Home Army.
Most of the units of the Home Army, which operated in Ukraine, were placed in the Volyn region, because at that time there were a large number of Polish villages.
Volyn AK units were later regrouped in the 27th Infantry Division of the Home Army.
July 30, 1941, between the Polish government in exile and the Soviet government signed a cooperation agreement. This agreement was of great importance for the Soviet partisans Sidor Kovpak who used the Polish villages in western Ukraine and Belarus as a foothold. In addition, the AK and the Soviet partisans often conducted joint military campaign against the UPA. The first major clash between the joint Polish-Soviet and Ukrainian armies began to fight near the village of Buteyko in April 1943.

at Nuremberg was not mentioned about the UPA, so that no one recognized them as murderers.

Mosquito

well, they were cutting alive people - civilians - with saws, murdering even women and children, after it they could have expected revange and they got it. UPA murdered tens of thousands of civillians. As for Nurnberg triall its simple, noone did care for Ukrainians - they were left for Soviets.

serhi

Attempts to formally recognize the criminals participants of the Ukrainian liberation movement was unsuccessful, as that would not want the Soviet Union:
At the Nuremberg trials (1945-46), the OUN was not considered as criminal organization.
In 1954, hearings were held in the United States Commission of Inquiry of Congress, which withdrew OUN accusations of complicity in the Holocaust. Moreover in the UPA fought the representatives of many nationalities, including Jews.
In 1985-87 in Canada, there have been several hearings concerning Ukrainians accused of war crimes (many of whom were members of the Waffen-SS "Galicia"). Commission headed by Supreme Court Justice Jules Deschênes Québec (Jules Deschênes) acknowledged that charges of war crimes have not been confirmed ... Membership in the Division "Galicia" is not sufficient evidence for prosecution of the court.

Armia Krajowa to blame for the deaths of some 20,000 civilians Ukrainians.
What is forgotten Armia Krajowa on territory of Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania? Do not need to do a sacrifice out of Poles, they were on this land occupiers, like communists and the nazis.

Mosquito

Yeah those Poles were foreigners and Ukrainians were majority of people living in Lwow. Not to mention the fact that those western ukrainian nationalists were living only because Poland defeated Soviet Union in 1920 and they had luck to live in Poland, not Soviet Union where would be quickly murdered or finish in gulags.

serhi

I'm not asking you who lived in western Ukraine at that time, I ask what Armia Krajowa did in Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania?

I have nothing against the glorification of Armia Krajowa in Poland, I am surprised at the ratio of the Poles to the soldiers of the UPA, which fought for the independence of their country on their soil against all invaders - the Germans, Soviets, Poles.

Mosquito

What did Armia Krajowa did in Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania? It was Polish resistance against enemy who occupied Poland and the soldiers were recruited from the people living on those territories. There was no such country like Ukraine or Belarus. It were Poles who fought for independence there. Polish AK soldiers in Ukraine didnt come from other parts of Poland, they were local Polish population.

Osviux

Deleted...

Labienus

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is the correct name.

Edward

Just few remarks regarding Polish-Ukrainian relations;
Ukraine was not conquered by Polish Kingdom. It joined Polish kingdom voluntary in16 century.

One of the ultimate objectives of Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920 was independent Ukrainian. Polish forces were not sufficient to achieve this objective. As a result, Ukraine falls under Soviet rule with small western part remaining under Polish control.

It is a historical fact that Ukrainians were economically disadvantaged in comparison with Polish settler. There was also other form of discriminations, mostly in the form of land purchase. Same of the land was sold only to Polish settlers. This policy caused big resentment between Ukrainian populations.
Members of Ukrainian Nationalistic organisation were prosecuted and imprisoned. Ukrainian language and culture was not actively discriminated but it was also not supported by Polish state.
As a city of Lwow is concerned, before WWII population was predominantly Polish with sizable Jewish community.
By the same standard German city of, say Stettin (Szczecin) was populated by Germans.
It was not Polish , Ukrainian or German decision to shift the border of Poland west couple of hundreds kilometres. It was an outcome of WWII and its roots we have to seek in Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. Stalin did not agree to restore Poland in pre-war borders and return acquired lands to Poland. Western allies dully endorsed this land grab and agreed to compensate Poland on the West.
Any revisionism of the border is not possible today and I hope will not be possible in the future. There is only very small Polish minority in Lwow. Ukrainians lived there from 2 or 3 generation since 1945 and consider this city as an integral part of Ukraine. The same apply to former German cities, there is no German population there and Poles resettled from former Eastern Poland lived there since 1945 and consider these cities as integral part of today’s Poland.


Below is same extracts from T.Snyder analyses of ethnic cleansing in Western Ukraine

“At a presentation at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center, Timothy Snyder, Assistant Professor of History, Yale University, explained that his research found that Poles and Ukrainians engaged in “ethnic cleansing” against each other in what is now Western Ukraine during the early 1940s. Following the eradication of Jews in the region, which finished in this region by 1942, about 94% of Poles in what became Soviet Ukraine and 95% of Ukrainians in what became Poland were forcibly resettled.

Snyder began his presentation by dividing the events into three separate stages: First, in 1942, a Ukrainian national army began to “cleanse” Poles in the Ukrainian western region of Volhynia: Second, from 1944-46, a series of official population exchanges resulted in ethnic Poles and Ukrainians being deported to their respective countries: The third stage, in 1947, was a Polish operation known as Operation Vistula in which Polish Communists forcibly moved ethnic Ukrainians from one part of Poland to another.

According to Snyder, a number of factors encouraged violent conflicts to occur in the regions of Volhynia and Galicia. Snyder noted that the destruction of the Polish state and the deportations of the Polish elite and Jewish populations by the occupying Soviet and Nazi forces created a political vacuum in which Ukrainian nationalists were able to rise to power. A second precondition was the fact that the many unemployed Ukrainian young men had joined forces with the occupying forces of the Soviet army and later, the German secret police for work, and had received training in ethnic warfare. Snyder then stated that Ukrainian nationalist leaders used various forms of propaganda to convince the Ukrainians to carry out ethnic cleansing against the Poles.

Snyder concluded by saying that many parallels can be drawn between the ethnic cleansing in 1943 Volhynia and the genocide that occurred in Bosnia during the early 1990s. First, the collapse of a state in both pre-war Poland and Yugoslavia in the 1990s created a situation where one ethnic group could aggressively attack another. Second, Snyder noted, in both cases, propaganda was used to incite various ethnic groups to carry out genocide. Finally, in both 1940s Ukraine and 1990s Yugoslavia, there was this idea of preemption. In both situations, leaders convinced their people that if they did not cleanse the other ethnic group then they would be subject to attacks. Snyder pointed out that once people were convinced of this, they quickly became more willing to carry out “ethnic cleansing” against their enemies. Snyder ended by saying that “ethnic cleansing” is a matter of political history rather than ancient hatreds, and that all factors must be addressed when examining how it occurs.”

serhi

For the Polish population.
In recent days some Polish communities are turning to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, statements about their loyalty and willingness to cooperate with the Ukrainian people in their struggle against German invaders and Polish provocateurs, which together with the Germans attacked the Ukrainian population and are destroying it.
Not being able to settle certain claims, we give an answer to those who put forward, or thinks to put forward such statements:
1) The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, due to betrayal of the Polish politicians (allegedly standing on the basis of cooperation with the UPA), as well as performances of some of the Poles, with German arms, which destroyed Ukrainian population and burned the villages, was forced to punish with severity of the military-revolutionary requirements.
2)The measures that were applied to the Poles in some communities, there were a means of ensuring the Ukrainian population before the planned betrayal, and will not extend to those citizens - the Poles, who stand on the basis working with us.
3)We guarantee absolute safety of that part of the Polish population, which will help you in fighting against the Germans and the Polish provocateurs. Ukrainian people do not have to destroy their national minorities, on the contrary - provides them with an equal right, seeking from them the loyalty and cooperation.
We call upon the loyalty Polish population to resist the enemy's propaganda and not to leave their homes and work quietly on their farms.
Poles! Remember that any aid to the Germans reinforce their against the Ukrainians and allow him to exterminate the Polish population in the Polish ethnographical lands
You thereby to strengthen the shackles for yourself.
4)You have to persuade Poles who have a weapon to have used it not against the Ukrainians who want to be masters of their own land only, but against our common enemy - the German rider who wants to take our (Polish and Ukrainian) of land, and destroy us all .
Your destiny - is in your hands!
July 17, 1943
UKRAINIAN Insurgent Army Headquarters Detachment "SICH"


Ethnic map of the Commonwealth pre-war period. The Polish underground, sought to restore this state within these limits at any cost. Ukrainians - their own state on their land. Compromises on both sides were impossible