History /
just before the war the Polish/Ukrainian szlachta learned Ukrainian [243]
Good Lord, I just read: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Poles_in_Volhynia
Now I know why my mother has such an aversion to Ukrainians.
"The atrocities were perpetrated with utmost cruelty. The victims, regardless of their age or gender, were routinely tortured to death. Norman Davies in No Simple Victory gives a short, but shocking description of the massacres. He writes: "Villages were torched. Roman Catholic priests were axed or crucified. Churches were burned with all their parishioners. Isolated farms were attacked by gangs carrying pitchforks and kitchen knives. Throats were cut. Pregnant women were bayoneted. Children were cut in two. Men were ambushed in the field and led away. The perpetrators could not determine the province's future. But at least they could determine that it would be a future without Poles."[56] Timothy Snyder describes the murders in the following way: "Ukrainian partisans burned homes, shot or forced back inside those who tried to flee, and used sickles and pitchforks to kill those they captured outside. In some cases, beheaded, crucified, dismembered, or disembowelled bodies were displayed, in order to encourage remaining Poles to flee".[57] Similar account has been presented by Niall Ferguson, who wrote: Whole villages were wiped out, men beaten to death, women raped and mutilated, babies bayoneted.[58] Ukrainian historian Yuryi Kirichuk from Lviv described the conflict as similar to the medieval rebellions.[59]"
That is around Kovel, 13 years after my father's family left. Smart people!
