The victims cry out not for revenge, but for remembrance and truth. 82nd anniversary of the Volhynia massacre [PHOTOS]

The commemorations began at noon with sirens sounding throughout the city. At the Victims of Volhynia Roundabout, those gathered sang Dąbrowski's Mazurka, praying for the thousands of victims. They also lit symbolic candles in memory of the victims of the genocide perpetrated by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

In the afternoon, a Mass was celebrated for the victims at the Church of the Discalced Carmelites, and an hour later, a patriotic ceremony was held at the Volhynian Tomb at the Military Cemetery, with the participation of the Polish Army Guard of Honour.

• July 11th of this year is celebrated as a new national holiday – the National Day of Remembrance of Poles – Victims of Genocide perpetrated by the OUN and UPA in the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic. The Act of June 4, 2025, establishing this holiday (Journal of Laws of 2025, item 891) emphasizes that "martyrdom resulting from belonging to the Polish nation deserves to be commemorated on a day recognized annually by the Polish state, on which tribute will be paid to the victims." The act recalled that "in the years 1939–1946, Ukrainian nationalists from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and other Ukrainian nationalist formations operating in the Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic (Volhynia, Ternopil, Stanisławów, Lviv, Polesie voivodeships) and the current Lublin and Subcarpathian voivodeships committed the crime of genocide against the Polish population."
• "They murdered over one hundred thousand Poles, mainly rural residents, destroyed their property, and led hundreds of thousands of Poles to flee from the Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic. The apogee of this crime fell in July 1943, and the symbolic date of the hecatomb of Poles at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists is July 11, 1943, when Poles were murdered in approximately one hundred towns," the act states.

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