Huta Pieniacka massacre

Huta Pieniacka massacre
Monument at the site of the village
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Location of Huta Pieniacka massacre
(map of Poland before the 1939 invasion)
Date28 February 1944
LocationHuta Pieniacka, Occupied Poland (Nazi German Distrikt Galizien)
TypeMassacre of Polish inhabitants
MotiveAnti-Catholicism, Anti-Polish sentiment, Greater Ukraine, Ukrainisation
ParticipantsUkrainian ultranationalists
Deaths500–800[1][2]

The Huta Pieniacka massacre was a massacre of the Polish inhabitants of the village Huta Pieniacka, located in modern-day Ukraine, which took place on February 28, 1944. Estimates of the number of victims range[3] from 500 (Timothy Snyder[1]) to 600-800 (Grzegorz Motyka[2]) to 1,200 (Sol Littman).[4]

A 2003 investigation by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance and a 2005 investigation by the Institute of History at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences both concluded that the Galician SS carried out a massacre of civilians. They disagree on the scale and on the balance of responsibility between the Ukrainians and their German commanders.[3] According to the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, —700 to 1,500 people, including around 1,000 Huta Pieniacka residents, plus people from surrounding villages who had sought refuge in the village, were killed, and the action was committed by the 4th SS Volunteer Galician Regiment and 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician).[5][3] Polish witnesses testified that the orders were given by German officers.[5] According to Polish witness accounts and scholarly publications, German Nazi policemen were accompanied by a paramilitary unit of Ukrainian nationalists under Włodzimierz Czerniawski's command, including members of the UPA and inhabitants of local villages who intended to seize property found in the households of the murdered.[6]

According to the Ukrainian investigation, the dead numbered 500, and the massacre was committed by Waffen-SS Galizien–affiliated soldiers under the initiative of SS Police regiments.[3] The Warsaw division of the "Commission for the punishment of crimes against the Polish people" launched an investigation in July 2001.

  1. ^ a b Snyder, Timothy (1 December 2002). The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999. Yale University Press. pp. 165, 166. ISBN 978-0-300-12841-3. The SS-Galizien began its career with the destruction of several Polish communities in winter and spring 1944. Best known is the burning of Huta Pieniacka in February 1944 and the murder of about five hundred of its inhabitants.
  2. ^ a b Wojciechowski, Rozmawiał Marcin (7 March 2010). "65 lat temu spacyfikowano polską wieś na Ukrainie. Co stało się w Hucie Pieniackiej". wyborcza.pl. Archived from the original on 12 May 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d Rudling, Per Anders (2012). "'They Defended Ukraine': The 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1) Revisited". The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 25 (3): 329–368. doi:10.1080/13518046.2012.705633. ISSN 1351-8046. S2CID 144432759. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  4. ^ Littman, Sol (2003). Pure Soldiers Or Sinister Legion. Montréal: Black Rose. ISBN 1-55164-218-2. (in English)
  5. ^ a b Investigation of the Crime Committed at the Village of Huta Pieniacka (in English)
  6. ^ "Polish Institute of Remembrance". Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2009.