Draft:Olchowce massacres
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|
_1.jpg) Monument in Olchowce | |
| Date | 1942–1944 |
|---|---|
| Location | Olchowce, Poland under German occupation |
| Type | Execution by shooting |
| Perpetrator | Nazi Germany |
| Deaths | 30–40 |
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The Olchowce massacres were a series of executions carried out by Nazi German forces in 1942, 1943, and 1944 in the village of Olchowce, now a district of Sanok.
History
[edit]The executions in Olchowce took place during World War II under the German occupation in the years 1942, 1943, and 1944, within the then Landkreis Sanok.[1][2][3] At the time, Olchowce was a village near Sanok.[2]
The victims were prisoners from the Sanok Prison.[2][3] The executions were conducted by Gestapo officers, who transported individuals or groups of prisoners from the prison to Olchowce.[1][2] The execution site was a forested area to the left of the road leading to Przemyśl, beyond the Orthodox Church of the Ascension.[2] It was located at the edge of the forest, behind the embankment of a former military shooting range.[2][3][4][5] Local gravediggers, Dymitr Dymiśko and Michał Krowiak, were tasked with burying the victims.[2]
In the summer of 1942, two unidentified men were executed by shooting.[1] In 1943, approximately 17 people, including men and women who spoke Polish, were brought to the site, stripped of their clothing, shot, and buried in three pre-dug graves.[1][2] This mass execution was corroborated by post-war accounts from local residents, including Jan Milczanowski and Maria Niecpoń.[2] On 23 January 1943, the victims included Andrzej Woźniak (aged 60), Janina Woźniak (aged 17), Katarzyna Woźniak (aged 57), and Michal Otocki from Tyrawa Wołoska. On 23 April 1943, Jan Łuczyński and Ludwika Łuczyńska from Bukowsko were executed. Additionally, witness Jan Milczanowski reported an execution of seven individuals, including three women.[1] The victims were farmers who reportedly failed to comply with the occupation authorities' contingent obligations.[3]
Among the victims was Sergeant/Second Lieutenant Władysław Szelka, codenamed Czajka and Borsuk, commander of the Niebieszczany post within the Sanok District of the Home Army.[6] His execution, reportedly carried out by Gestapo officer Leo Humeniuk, occurred on 22 July 1944.[1][2] Szelka was taken from the Sanok Prison along with another prisoner, Paul (or Paweł) Aleksiejewicz Karpenko (born 1921, a Soviet paratrooper and prisoner of war, arrested on 13 July).[1][7] Both were driven to Olchowce and executed.[1][2][5][8]
Estimates suggest that between 30 (for 1943–1944)[2][3] and 40 (for 1942–1944)[1][9] people were executed in Olchowce. Some sources indicate a higher number.[10] No exhumation of the victims' bodies was conducted postwar.[2] Most victims' identities remain unknown. Although the Germans maintained a Prisoner Register 1942–1944 for the Sanok Prison, no documentation confirming the executions of these prisoners was found.[1] According to the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy's sources, the victims were residents of Olchowce and nearby areas.[11]
Commemoration
[edit]Soil from the execution site was collected and placed in an urn at the Mausoleum of World War II Victims, established in 1948 at the cemetery on 15 Rymanowska Street in Sanok.[12]
Initial plans to erect a monument at the execution site were abandoned.[3] Instead, a monument was unveiled on 20 July 1975, during the celebrations of the "30th anniversary of the victory over fascism", on the eve of the National Day of the Rebirth of Poland.[5][11][13] The monument was placed on 15 Przemyska Street, just before the aforementioned church, which post-war became part of the Roman Catholic Parish of the Ascension[3][5][14][15] (Olchowce was incorporated into Sanok in 1972).[16] The monument was described as "an obelisk in honor of fallen patriots".[13] A 1980 guide by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites referred to it as "a monument at the execution site".[9] The monument commemorates Poles murdered by the Nazis between 1942 and 1944.[1][9][13]
The initiative for the monument came from the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy branch at Autosan, with Wiktor Gościński as the main proponent and organizer.[5][15] The monument was designed by Dr. Wojciech Kurpik from the Museum of Folk Architecture.[13] It was constructed through a community effort by Sanok residents, including Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy members and representatives of local businesses and institutions.[1][5][13] The monument consists of a boulder placed horizontally on a pedestal.[17] It bears an inscription:[3][4][5][15]
A place sanctified by the blood of Poles murdered by Nazi oppressors in 1942–1944. The people of Sanok, 1974
The monument is surrounded by a fence made of iron posts and chains.[15] Both the inscription and Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy's records indicate the monument was erected in 1974.[10]
In the early 1990s, the execution site had an old plaque and remnants of a fence. Nearby, in the forested area, a cross and a plaque were placed with the inscription:[3][4]
A place sanctified by the blood of murdered prisoners. Imprisoned in Sanok in 1942–1944
Documents, accounts, and artifacts related to the wartime events in Olchowce were collected at the local School Memorial Room of National Remembrance.[14]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Zając, Edward (15 August 1975). "Pomnik na miejscu straceń w Olchowcach" [Monument at the Execution Site in Olchowce]. Gazeta Sanocka – Autosan (in Polish). 16 (35): 1–2.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cyran, Czesław; Rachwał, Antoni (1979). "Eksterminacja ludności na Sanocczyźnie w latach 1939–1944. 5. Masowe egzekucje ludności. c) Egzekucje w Olchowcach na "starej strzelnicy"" [Extermination of the Population in the Sanok Land in 1939–1944. 5. Mass Executions of the Population. c) Executions in Olchowce at the "Old Shooting Range"]. Rocznik Sanocki (in Polish). IV. Wydawnictwo Literackie: 46–47.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Garlicki, Emil (1985). Przewodnik. Szlakiem miejsc pamięci narodowej [Guide. Along the Trail of National Memorial Sites] (in Polish). Sanok: ZBoWiD. p. 10.
- ^ a b c Jarosz, Marian (1994). Katalog miejsc pamięci, walki i męczeństwa z terenu byłego powiatu sanockiego [Catalog of Memorial, Battle, and Martyrdom Sites in the Former Sanok County] (in Polish). pp. 11–12.
- ^ a b c d e f g Oberc, Franciszek (1998). Pomniki i tablice pamiątkowe Sanoka [Monuments and Memorial Plaques of Sanok] (in Polish). Sanok: Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna w Sanoku. p. 9. ISBN 83-909787-1-7.
- ^ Brygidyn (1992, pp. 88–89, 96, 112, 169, 179, 204, 249, 289)
- ^ Księga więźniów śledczych 1942-1944 [Prisoner Register 1942–1944] (in Polish). Sanok: State Archives in Rzeszów. 1944. p. 284.
- ^ Brygidyn (1992, pp. 208–209)
- ^ a b c "Województwo krośnieńskie" [Krosno Voivodeship]. Przewodnik po upamiętnionych miejscach walk i męczeństwa, lata wojny 1939-1945 [Guide to Commemorated Sites of Struggle and Martyrdom, War Years 1939–1945] (in Polish). Warsaw: Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites. 1988. p. 389. ISBN 83-217-2709-3.
- ^ a b Andrunik (1986, p. 188)
- ^ a b Andrunik (1986, p. 3)
- ^ Andrunik (1986, p. 21)
- ^ a b c d e "W dniach lipcowego święta. Uroczyste odsłonięcie w Sanoku obelisku ku czci poległych patriotów" [During the July Holiday. Ceremonial Unveiling in Sanok of an Obelisk in Honor of Fallen Patriots]. Nowiny (in Polish). 161: 2. 21–22 July 1975.
- ^ a b "Miejsca pamięci narodowej. Obóz w Olchowcach" [National Memorial Sites. Camp in Olchowce]. Nowiny (in Polish). 79: 3. 22 April 1982.
- ^ a b c d Andrunik (1986, p. 189)
- ^ "Rozporządzenie Prezesa Rady Ministrów z dnia 6 października 1972 r. w sprawie zmiany granic miasta Sanoka w województwie rzeszowskim" [Ordinance of the Prime Minister of 6 October 1972 on the Change of the Borders of the City of Sanok in the Rzeszów Voivodeship]. Dziennik Ustaw (in Polish). 43 (274). 6 October 1972.
- ^ Andrunik (1986, pp. 3, 188)
Bibliography
[edit]- Andrunik, Arnold (1986). Rozwój i działalność Związku Bojowników o Wolność i Demokrację na Ziemi Sanockiej w latach 1949–1984 [Development and Activities of the Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy in the Sanok Land in 1949–1984] (in Polish).
- Brygidyn, Andrzej (1992). Kryptonim "San". Żołnierze sanockiego Obwodu Związku Walki Zbrojnej – Armii Krajowej 1939–1944 [Codename "San". Soldiers of the Sanok District of the Home Army 1939–1944] (in Polish). Sanok: San.