Leonówka massacre
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| Massacre in Leonówka | |
|---|---|
 Location of Leonówka on an Austro-Hungarian military map from around 1910[1] | |
| Location | 50°45′25.8″N 26°37′5.2″E / 50.757167°N 26.618111°E Leonówka, Volhynian Voivodeship, (occupied Poland–Reichskommissariat Ukraine) |
| Date | 1-3 August 1943 |
Attack type | Shooting and stabbing, massacre part of Volyn genocide |
| Weapons | Rifles, grenades, bayonets, axes, bludgeons and pitchforks |
| Deaths | approximately 190 |
| Perpetrators | Ukrainian Insurgent Army |
| Motive | Anti-Catholicism, Anti-Polish sentiment, Ukrainian nationalism, Genocidal intent |
In early August 1943, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army killed approximately 190 Polish people in Leonówka, a colony in Tuchyn, Rovensky Uyezd, Wołyń Voivodeship, as part of the larger campaign of massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, considered as a genocide.
On the night of August 1-2, 1943, Leonówka, which was home to about 300 Poles and several Ukrainian families, was surrounded by a 100-strong UPA unit arriving from the village of Żelanka. The UPA insurgents threw grenades into houses, entered homes, and murdered their inhabitants. Those who tried to flee were shot; all buildings were set on fire.[2] It is estimated that about 150 people were killed.[3] Around 2 a.m., the Ukrainian unit left the burned-down village.
On August 2 or 3, 1943, a group of UPA insurgents on horseback stopped Polish refugees from the village of Kudranka passing through Leonówka. The Poles were robbed of their belongings, taken to a nearby forest, and murdered there. 42 people were killed.[3]
Citizens of the village Leonowka were likely last documented in 1926 in a 'Birthday Card' sent to America from Poland.[4]
This has the historical value of a census.
Notes
[edit]- ↑ III. katonai felmérés (Third Military Survey) (Map). 1:200,000. Cartography by Austro-Hungarian Army. Térképtudományi és Geoinformatikai Intézet, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem. c. 1910. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
K.u.k. Militärgeographisches Institut
- ↑ Urbanowicz Gilbride, Bozenna (2020). Waiting for Mama (2 ed.). iUniverse. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-5320-8231-3.
- 1 2 Siemaszko, Władysław; Siemaszko, Ewa (2000), Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na ludności polskiej Wołynia 1939–1945, t. 1, Warszawa: "von borowiecky", Wydawn. von borowiecky, pp. 715–716, ISBN 83-87689-34-3, OCLC 749680885
- ↑ "About this Collection | Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship for the United States, 1926 | Digital Collections". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2026-08-03.