W?adek,
Thank you for the
detailed explanation of the issue.
I agree that the
deportations were basically a Russian/NKVD cleansing operation but there was
local significant co-operation involvement by the Ukrainians.?
After all, who was put on the deportation lists ??
The NKVD had an idea to get rid of the Polish people, but did they
know who were the Polish people, where did they live, their backgrounds,
details, etc.?? they had to have lots of local
help.?
Once the Polish
people were deported, the locals divided up the spoils, property livestock,
houses, etc¡¡
The ankiety at
Hoover institute state that in mid Oct 1939, all Polish officials were
removed and forced elections were imposed. There were three choices on the
new NKVD ballot boxes, a ?Ukrainian, a Russian
and? a Jew.
Then in Feb 10,
1940 deportations started in the middle of the
night.
Regards
Zbigniew
-----Original
Message-----
From:
Kresy-Siberia@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:Kresy-Siberia@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Walter
Orlowski
Sent: Thursday,
June 28, 2007 7:21 AM
To:
Kresy-Siberia@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Kresy-Siberia] Re: Pomnik
Bandery w Lwowie? Monument to Bandera in Lwow?
Hello Carol:
I know it will be
hard to believe, but the Communist government never
addressed this issue
as ethnic cleansing of Poles by Ukrainian
Ultranationalists. They
followed the Russian lead and simply called
them acts of banditry. Small
groups of survivors kept the memory
alive, but they were ignored by all
official Communist Government
organs. The Post-communist government of
Kwasniewski pretended NOT to
know or understand and the IPN under
post-Communists followed the
lead. The vast majority of Poles are not
aware of the extent of the
crimes committed by OUN-UPA or even who
Stepan Bandera was.
You did ask about survivors of the massacres. We
do not know just
how many Poles from Southern part of Kresy (Wolyn,
Tarnopol, Lwow and
Stanislawow) survived because the Soviets played with
the numbers of
returnees from deportations as opposed to survivors. None
of the
Communist numbers are believable. However, what matters is the
lack
of action by the Polish Communists and the Soviets in pursuing the
SS
and UPA criminals living in England, Canada and the US.
The
Ukrainians were not responsible for the deportations of Poles
into
Russia. The deportations were part of a Soviet plan to
ethnically
cleanse Kresy of Polish population. Many Ukrainians did
collaborate but
it was strictly an NKVD operation.
In looking at this issue, one has
to recognize that base and the
support of OUN-UPA, and the SS units they
spawned, came from the 5
million Ukrainian population of Kresy, within
pre-WWII Polish
borders. OUN had a tight grip on that population and few
dared oppose
it. Those who did were killed. Further East, 50-80 miles
from where
I was born, there were no attacks on Poles and no murders
perpetrated
by neighboring Ukrainians. The Ukrainian Nationalists
(OUN-UPA)
always meld the two groups of Ukrainians to cover up their
crimes.
The two groups had nothing in common. The Ukrainian victims of
Nazi
crimes were all from Eastern and Central Ukraine, the victimizers
(SS, UPA-OUN) were from Kresy and those Ukrainians were not
victimized by the Nazis.
The Ukrainians in question, never joined
our side in the war and
remained loyal to the Nazis to the end.
Incorporating them into the
II Korps in Italy after the war was a ploy
by the British and
Americans to save them from returning to Poland and
Ukraine and into
Soviet hands.
One group that I cannot forgive
are the post-Communist who took over
Poland after 1990. They
deliberately obfuscated the issue and delayed
and delayed probably
waiting for the survivors and the perpetrators
of the crimes to die off.
With best regards,
Wladek
_
