On 19 September 2026, a monument to the Victims of Wolyńska Crimes, co-financed by the Institute of National Memory, was unveiled at the municipal cemetery at Biała Street in Lublin. An urn of Ostrówków and Wola Ostrowiecka was placed in the symbolic grave. The commemoration reminds us that the Polish state has a work to find and bury all the murdered.
Symbolic grave at the cemetery at Biała Street
The celebration began with Mass in the intention of the murdered, celebrated in the garrison church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The participants then gathered at the municipal cemetery at Biała Street. The commemoration was unveiled by Deputy president of the National Academy of Sciences Dr. Karol Polejowski, Vice-Vice-Voivode of Lublin Andrzej Maj and Deputy president of Lublin Anna Augustyniak.
The ceremony was attended by families and descendants of victims of Ukrainian nationalists in Volyn and east Małopolska, representatives of state and local authorities and anti-communist opposition activists. besides present were the manager of the Bureau of Commemoration of the Walk and Martyrdom of the IPN Adam Siwek and the manager of the Lublin branch of the IPN Dr. Robert Derewenda.
Earth from places of martyrdom of Poles
During the ceremony in the symbolic grave, an urn was placed with the ground brought from Ostrówków and Wola Ostrowiecka. These towns are a testament to the planned action aimed at the Polish civilian population. Their memory belongs to a wider communicative Genocide on Volyn and Blood Sundaywhich must not be brought to a comfortable expression with a symmetrical conflict.
According to the findings cited by IPN On 11 July 1943 UPA troops, frequently supported by the Ukrainian local population, attacked 99 Polish villages in 4 districts of Volyn. The Institute reports that about 8,000 Poles, mainly women, children and older people, may have been killed that day. The scale of this operation shows that it was not a violent retaliation or an accidental outburst of violence. The aim was to remove the Polish population from the Borderlands.
Karol Polejowski recalled that the crime committed by the OUN and UPA nationalists served the biological, cultural and economical depolonization of the east Borders. He besides pointed out that the task of the Polish State remains the further search for the remains of the victims. “Our work there was not finished,” said an IPN representative, announcing the return to Ostrówków and Wola Ostrowiecka until they were found and buried.
Truth is simply a prerequisite for reconciliation
The monument in Lublin has a meaning greater than another point on the map of memorial sites. For decades the communist state removed the Volyn crime and the Polishness of Kresów from the authoritative story. present it is the work of the Republic to reconstruct the names of the localities, the destiny of families and the fact about perpetrators. This memory besides sustained Self-defense of Polish settlements and 27 Volynska National Army Infantry Division.
Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation cannot be built on silence. Cooperation with the Ukrainian State against the Russian threat does not deprive Poland of the right to truth, exhumation and worthy burials. On the contrary, honest relations require naming genocide and rejecting the worship of the CNS and UPA. This was besides the case during celebrations at the monument in Domastawa.
At stake is the continuity of Polish memory and the simple work towards compatriots who remainder in unmarked places. The monument in Lublin gives them a symbolic grave. The Polish state must guarantee that all possible uncovering of the victim besides receives a real grave.
Source: Institute of National Memory, PAP
