Bloody Sunday
July 11, 1943, marked the event known as "Bloody Sunday." Partisan units of Ukrainian nationalists, supported by the civilian population, attacked settlements in Volhynia. It was a meticulously planned operation. People were ruthlessly murdered regardless of age or gender (there was talk of the necessity to exterminate all Poles, tracing back seven generations). Pre-war Volhynia Voivodeship in the Eastern Borderlands was a territory then occupied by the German Third Reich. The "Bloody Sunday" was the culmination of the Volhynian massacres. On July 11, we observe the National Day of Remembrance for Poles—Victims of the Genocide committed by the OUN and UPA. This day marked the peak of the Volhynian Massacres. At dawn, UPA units—often with the active support of the local Ukrainian population—simultaneously surrounded and attacked 99 Polish villages in the Kovel, Volodymyr, and Horokhiv counties, as well as parts of the Lutsk county. The civilian population was extermi...