30 August is a very special day for the memory of the victims of the genocide in Volhynia and the eastern Małopolska region. During the raid on the villages of Ostrówki and Wola Ostrowiecka, about 1,050 people, mostly women and children, were murdered. According to the findings of Leon Popek, Ph.D., at least 474 people, i.e.70% of all the village’s inhabitants, died in Ostrówki.

Anastazja Waleczek was murdered with her sons, Edward and Jan, in the village of Wola Ostrowiecka on 30 August 1943, during an attack by Ukrainian peasants and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) militias, commanded by Ivan Klymtschak, aka "Lysyi" and Iwan Zaretschniuk aka "Voron". Photo courtesy of Bożena Waleczek-Krajewska (a family member of the victims).

The main goal of the project being carried out jointly by the IPN’s archival, investigative and commemorative divisions is to save the identities, names and personal stories associated with the victims of the Volhynia Massacre from oblivion as well as to establish the personal details and the number of people murdered.

The Victims Database is available on the www.zbrodniawolynska.pl

We would like to encourage all those of our readers who have information which could prove useful in supplementing the Database to contact us!

Please contact us by means of a special contact form.

The 1943 Volhynia Massacre website