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Pidkamin massacre was committed by Ukrainian Insurgent Army (unit under the command of Maks Skorupsky), together with a unit of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galicia (1st Ukrainian) on Poles in the Eastern Galician village of Pidkamin near Brody, in former Second Polish Republic's Tarnopol Voivodeship, on 12 March 1944. Estimates of victims range from 150 to 600.

The prelude

During the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland, Pidkamen was a shelter for Poles from the neighbouring province of Volhynia, who had escaped there to hide in the local Dominican monastery. They felt safe there, since the complex was surrounded by walls, furthermore, it is located on a hill, dominating the area. Around 2,000 people, the majority of whom were women and children, were living there when the monastery was attacked in March 1944, by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, cooperating with the Ukrainian SS.

The massacre

During the first day, the attacks were repelled by a small self-defense group. At night part of the population managed to escape. The next day the Ukrainians promised to save peoples' lives in exchange to surrendering the monastery. While the monastery was being left, the Ukrainians started to shoot, and got inside the complex. All civilians were butchered, including local Roman Catholic priest, father Stanislaw Fialkowski, and three Dominican monks. Bodies were thrown into monastic well. Afterward the Ukrainian Insurgent Army camped in the Pidkamin town, and between the 12 to 16 March repeatedly attacked people hiding in the monastery and nearby villages. On 16 March, the Ukrainians withdrew because of the approaching Red Army.

The Aftermath

Around 100 Poles were murdered in the monastery, and additional 500 were killed in the town of Pidkamen itself. In the nearby village of Palikrowy, 365 Poles were killed, 20 in Maliniska and 16 in Chernytsia. Armed Ukrainian groups destroyed the monastery, stealing all valuables, except for the monastery's crowned icon. Tadeusz Piotrowski estimates the number of Poles murdered in the monastery and adjacent villages at 1000 (based on the Home Army, and German Police sources). Among survivors of the massacre, there was a renowned writer and painter, Leopold Buczkowski, whose two brothers were killed in the attack.

Footnotes

1. ^ Mikolaj Falkowski, Podkamień. Perła Kresów. Miejsce pamięci ofiar UPA. Official webpage of the Polish Radio
2. ^ Grzegorz Motyka, Ukraińska Partyzantka 1942-1960, Warszawa 2006
3. ^ Henryk Komański, Szczepan Siekierka, Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na Polakach w województwie tarnopolskim w latach 1939-1946; 1182 pages, format B5, 379 illustrations, hard cover
4. Pure soldiers or sinister legion: the Ukranian 14th Waffen-SS Division By Sol Littman, page 75
5. Genocide and rescue in Wołyń by Tadeusz Piotrowski, page 245
6. Ziemia Lwowska (Lviv Land), by Grzegorz Rakowski, page 339

See also

• Massacres of Poles in Volhynia
• Huta Pieniacka massacre
• Chodaczkow Wielki massacre
• Palikrowy massacre

Sources

• Henryk Komański, Szczepan Siekierka, Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na Polakach w województwie tarnopolskim w latach 1939-1946; 1182 pages, format B5, 379 illustrations, hard cover. Pages: 362-363. Source.
• Grzegorz Motyka, Ukraińska Partyzantka 1942-1960, Warszawa 2006. Pages: 182, 385.

External links

• From Hiding Place to Hiding Place by Regina Hader Rock. Recollections of a Jewish survivor of the war, living in the area of Podkamien
• A webpage of former Polish inhabitants of the town

• Misplaced Pages articles needing copy edit from September 2009
• 1944 in Europe
• World War II massacres
• History of Poland (1939–1945)
• World War II crimes in Poland
• Poland–Ukraine relations
• Massacres in Ukraine
• Massacres of Poles in Volhynia