A memorial to victims of the Volhynia massacres has been unveiled in Poland
The history of Volhynia continues to cause tensions between Poland and Ukraine. While the Polish authorities have declared the massacres to be a genocide, Ukraine rejects that label.
The monument, which was funded by the Polish Army Veterans’ Association in America, has drawn controversy due to its brutal depiction of a baby being impaled on a Ukrainian trident. Several cities refused to host the statue.
Thousands of people attended Sunday’s official opening, including figures from the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party. However, Poland’s two main political parties, the centrist Civic Platform (PO) and national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), did not send representatives.
The memorial – a 20-metre-tall bronze sculpture created by the late artist Andrzej Pityński – depicts an eagle, the national symbol of Poland, being consumed by flames. On its wings are the names of places whose inhabitants were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
The precise death toll of the massacres is unknown, but estimates range up to 120,000. The victims, the majority of whom were women and children, were in many cases killed with extreme brutality.
For that reason, Pityński’s sculpture features at the centre of the eagle a depiction of a baby impaled on a trident representing the “tryzub”, which is the national symbol of Ukraine. The base of the monument also features children’s dismembered heads impaled on fence pickets.
Włodzimierz Osadczy, a historian at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) and member of the committee behind the sculpture’s construction, expressed satisfaction that “the truth about Volhynia is beginning to emerge” despite Polish politicians too cautiously “weighing their words” when speaking about the crime.
We do not weigh words when we condemn the crimes of the Holocaust, we do not weigh words when we condemn Auschwitz. However, here we are told to weigh words. We should not weigh words, but call things by their names and pay tribute to the victims who suffered an unbelievable death.
However, the monument was criticised by the president of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland, Mirosław Skórka, who told broadcaster TVN that
the Volhynia massacre should be discussed, considered and prayed for, not turned into a spectacle that is supposed to reinforce hatred.
Ukraine's ambassador has criticised the "unacceptable" suggestion by Poland's foreign ministry spokesman that President @ZelenskyyUa should apologise for the Volhynia massacre, which saw up to 100,000 ethnic Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists in WWII.
Meanwhile, in further signs of progress, Zelensky and Polish President Andrzej Duda jointly attended a ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the massacres and the chairman of Ukraine’s parliament expressed sympathy for the pain felt by Poles over the “terrible events in Volhynia”.