Leonówka massacre

Massacre in Leonówka
Location of Leonówka on an Austro-Hungarian military map from around 1910[1]
LocationLeonówka, Volhynian Voivodeship, (occupated Poland- Reichskommissariat Ukraine)
Coordinates50°45′25.8″N 26°37′5.2″E / 50.757167°N 26.618111°E / 50.757167; 26.618111
Date1-3 August 1943
Attack type
Shooting and stabbing, massacre part of Volyn genocide
WeaponsRifles, grenades, bayonets, axes, bludgeons and pitchforks
Deathsapproximately 190
PerpetratorsUkrainian Insurgent Army
MotiveAnti-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, considered as a genocide.

Leonówka on the plaque of the Monument to the Volhynian Massacre in Warsaw

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. It is estimated that about 150 people were killed.[2] 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.[2]

Notes

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  1. ^ Complete Austro-Hungarian maps at 1:200 scale from 1910
  2. ^ a b Siemaszko, Władysław; Siemaszko, Ewa (2000), Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na ludności polskiej Wołynia 1939–1945, t. 1, Warszawa: „von borowiecky”, pp. 715–716, ISBN 83-87689-34-3, OCLC 749680885