My name is Jan Feliks Jakubiak, b. on 02.01.1924 in the colony of Hirki, Ossa village council, commune Turzysk, Kovel district  […] I experienced the death of my grandfather Tomasz Pietruk very much. On July 11, 1943, he was returning on foot from the Church in Swojczów (this was our parish, about 10 km from Ossa). He followed the shortest route: across the bridge over the Turia River in the Polish, old and very large village of Dominopol. The Banderite guard did not let him cross the bridge, so his grandfather decided to go in a different place, to swim across the river. The sentry noticed and shot my grandfather with rifle shots. This situation was observed by a Ukrainian (NN), who probably pulled my grandfather's body out of the river and buried it in a meadow, unfortunately we do not know the place. Also on July 11, 1943, my uncle Piotr Obuchowski was murdered in his own home and buried in his own garden.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „75th anniversary of the genocide – July 1943”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Roch Sławomir Tomasz, „Memoirs of Jan Jakubiak”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.04.11]

My name is Jan Feliks Jakubiak, b. on 02.01.1924 in the colony of Hirki, Ossa village council, commune Turzysk, Kovel district  […] Initially, the UPA murdered Poles selectively in our area. Around 15 July 1943, my aunt Katarzyna Obuchowska was murdered during the escape. She ran away with a small 3‑year‑old child, Helena Obuchowska. When mother Catherine fell after a fatal shot, the child, covered with her mother's blood, fell right next to it. The frightened child lay motionless. The Banderites were convinced that the child was dead and left the victims to their fate. It can be said that Helena miraculously survived. The child was found by a Ukrainian neighbor (NN), who hid the baby for a few days and then handed over to the hiding second aunt, Dominika Kwarciana. Aunt Kwarciana looked after the child until 1946, and then my mother Janina.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „75th anniversary of the genocide – July 1943”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Roch Sławomir Tomasz, „Memoirs of Jan Jakubiak”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.04.11]

The Ukrainians murdered several Polish families. Others: see September 13, 1943.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „75th anniversary of the genocide – September 1943”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

My name is Jan Feliks Jakubiak, b. on 02.01.1924 in the colony of Hirki, Ossa village council, commune Turzysk, Kovel district  […] Polish settlements around Ossa were attacked by the Banderites on September 13, 1943. Around noon our Ukrainian neighbor, Jaworski, informed us that the Banderites were approaching. My mother and my sister Maria and brother Józef were in the field, and I was with my father, Antoni. At my father's word, we ran away from the house, but not into the forest, but to the neighbor's field, who was just digging potatoes, it was about 400 m! A Ukrainian, Vasyl Korneluk, was very friendly with our family. When we noticed that a group of armed Banderites was approaching, Korneluk said that it would be safer when I ran away into the forest, which I did. I escaped by the shortest route through the yard and orchard of another Ukrainian. The Banderites noticed me and started firing a machine gun at me. Fortunately, there was a ditch there, I took advantage of the unevenness of the ground and happily reached the forest, I think that I miraculously survived. The Ukrainian who was shooting was only 100 meters away from me. In the middle of the forest, there was a farmhouse, a Belarusian by Józef Skiepko's origin, where, with his knowledge, I hid in a barn, where I squeezed between the freshly laid sheaves and the wall. Then, through the gaps between the boards, I watched the situation outside, including the road, next to the farm. During this time, carts filled with armed UPA passed through this road several times. Fortunately, however, they did not visit the farm. After two or three days, Skiepko said that he was afraid of keeping me longer, because his young children may notice and tell the Ukrainians that I am hiding here. It threatened to murder his entire family. At night I went to the buildings of Vasyl Korneluk. I met his wife Maria who was my godmother. I was accepted by her, with an offer to hide in their buildings. It all happened in our native Hirki colony. Then I learned that the UPA had taken my father from the field. Some UPA recognized my father and said he was Polish. I am aware that my father was imprisoned in the UPA garrison and at the same time employed in a shoemaker's workshop there. My father had a second profession, he was a farmer and a shoemaker. As a shoemaker, he was known in the area for doing his job well. We also know that the father was later murdered by a Ukrainian, Ivan Poliszczuk, s/o Józef. Information about the death of my father and his murderer comes from Zenia Korneluk (daughter of Maria and Bazyli), who visited us in Poland in the late 70's and brought a clipping from the Ukrainian newspaper „Radiańska Wołyń”. There was an article there: „Disgrace and curse. The truth about the nationalism” of November 14, 1976 and a report from a court hearing against Ivan Poliszczuk, the murderer of, among others my father. Although the article contains an incorrectly written name of my father, Zenia authoritatively stated that this is what Antoni Jakubiak is talking about. The Korneluk family was particularly interested in this matter. You should also know that the correspondent of the newspaper is colored by Soviet affiliation and citizenship. It was a convenient situation when the political propaganda of the 1970s in Soviet Volhynia was still in full swing. But I go back to September 1943. Initially, I knew nothing about the fate of the rest of the family. After a few days, Bazyli Korneluk found my mother, with my sister and brother, who were hiding with their Ukrainian friends, near the village of Bobły. What, then, I learned later, at this critical moment, namely: the UPA's attack on our colony; my mother and her younger siblings were returning home from the field in a wagon, just at the time when the UPA was driving along the road to the colony of Hirki. Keeping the presence of the mind, in Ukrainian she greeted the UPA with the words: „Fame of Ukraine”, of course the UPA replied: „Fame forever!”, they made a joke there somehow and, thinking it was Ukrainians, went on. Meanwhile, my mother, without going to her own home, only hurriedly passed through the colony of Hirki and went on towards the village of Bobły.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „75th anniversary of the genocide – September 1943”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Roch Sławomir Tomasz, „Memoirs of Jan Jakubiak”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.04.11]

See September 4, 1943.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „75th anniversary of the genocide – September 1943”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]