Volyn Tragedy — Polish, Ukrainian ethnic cleansing still used as political tool

[ML]

Every now and then Oleksandra Vaseiko, 72, walks alone to the forest glade near her village of Sokil, in Volyn Oblast, 500 kilometers west of Kyiv but close to the Ukrainian-Polish border.

There, the woman hangs a clean rushnyk — a traditional Ukrainian embroidered towel — on an iron cross. It marks the site where about 400 Poles were killed and buried.

They had been residents of the nearby Polish village of Ostrivky, and were killed in August 1943 by soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and some local villagers. Some residents of Sokil, including Vaseiko’s father, had helped some Poles escape death. Others looted their empty houses.

Just two months later, armed Poles attacked Sokil and a nearby village Polapy, killing dozens of Ukrainians there and burning many houses.

It was retaliation for the killing of the Poles, according to residents of Sokil and Polapy. At the same time, some locals say the initial attack by Ukrainians was itself vengeance for previous killings by the Poles.

It was one of the incidents of what is now known as the Volyn Tragedy — a series of mutual mass killings of thousands of Poles and Ukrainians in 1943. It is the most bitter episode in the history of Ukrainian-Polish relations, and likely the least studied one.

It is surrounded by myths and is widely used by politicians in Ukraine, Poland and also Russia to stir tensions between their peoples.

Complete article here:

http://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/honest-history-volyn-tragedy-polish-ukrainian-ethnic-cleansing-in-wwii-still-used-as-political-tool.html?utm_source=traqli&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=traqli_daily_editors&tqid=1KCndmV1BFIBD.GuTZkRifsr9mXLzBQnYeIlK_A%24

[msmob]

Thank you, ML for highlighting how easy it is for 'patriots' to stir up hatred to the extent right and wrong become so blurred as to be meaningless.