The gamekeeper Stanisław Mendelski, 43, was tricked by a friend of the gamekeeper – a Ukrainian, to the forester's lodge in Hutniaków in Huta Pieniacka in order to explain the fire of the forester's lodge and hence never returned, the body was never found.

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

source: Orłowski Edward, „Foresters who died during the war and persecution in 1938-1949 in Eastern Lesser Poland and the post-war Rzeszów region”; in: Regional Directorate of State Forests in Krosno — web page: www.krosno.lasy.gov.pl [accessible: 2021.01.29]

November 18, 1943 in Hutniakowa, district Zbaraż (?) The gamekeeper Medelski was kidnapped. A few days earlier, his business apartment was burned down.

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

Mendelski Stanisław died at Ukrainian hands.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide, February 1944”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Kubów Władysław, „Terrorism in Podolia”, in: Warsaw 2003

Ukrainian SS men from SS „Galizien–Hałyczyna”, UPA and Ukrainian peasants from the surrounding villages, in the strength of several thousand attackers, slaughtered the Polish population of 1,100 – 1,300 Poles, the large Polish village ceased to exist. „Huta Pieniacka was large: 172 houses, stables and barns were standing here. a thousand people lived there, including many refugees from Volhynia. 160 people survived the pacification carried out on February 28, 1944 by SS Galizien and the UPA. Nothing is left of the village. There is a black board on the road that once ran through the village. On it, the blue and yellow logo of the nationalist party Swoboda: an open hand with three straight middle fingers. Identical to the flags fluttering over Majdan in Kiev. a board divided in half, one side in Ukrainian and on the other – in English. at the top, the inscription: «The truth about Huta Pieniacka». «During World War II, Huta Pieniacka was one of the largest centers for the stationing of Polish fighters from the Home Army and Bolshevik subversive units in Galicia, terrorizing Ukrainian villages together. On February 28, 1944, the German occupying authorities carried out a military operation to liquidate the Polish–Bolshevik branch. The village was destroyed. In the early 1980s, Soviet–Polish propaganda spread false information about the destruction of the village of Huta Pieniacka by the SS Galizien division and soldiers of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent army». Franciszek Bąkowski waves his hand when he hears a question about the blackboard. He passed by many times, heading towards the monument, which was engraved with 580 names of the victims, the villagers. 70 years ago he lost his mother in one night, father, brother, relatives. He saw the truth with his own eyes  […] «We heard shots, screams, howls of animals. Something terrible» – Mr. Franciszek shakes his head. The soldiers were followed by UPA fighters and ordinary The Ukrainians from nearby villages, who plundered deserted cottages. «Janek Sowiński said that he knew some, that he saw who was robbing from his hideout. They even argued over who would take the duvet. and when they robbed whatever they could, they set fire to the farm» – says Franciszek Bąkowski. The Kierepks lived next to the Bąkowski family. Urszula Kierepka was a midwife. In the evening, just before pacification, she was called to give birth. Her grandson, now 84‑year‑old Sulimir Stanisław Żuk, has difficulty recalling that day. He was then less than 14 years old. «Grandma was dragged out of the house with a woman in labor, by beatings and screams they were driven to the church. Grandpa hid in the basement, closed the door from the inside, covered himself with a blanket and covered himself with potatoes. Ukrainian fascists looted the house, broke down the basement door, looked around the dark interior, but did not notice my grandfather» – he says. The baby was born in the church. Franciszek Bąkowski keeps a letter from the granddaughter of a woman who saw the fate of the mother giving birth, her child and the midwife. The reports show that the Ukrainian SS man who was guarding the inhabitants of the village trampled the newborn. «The brave midwife wanted to save the child and his mother, but this criminal killed them» – reads Excerpt from Mr. Franciszek's letter and shows the following sentences: «Grandma was numb then, she didn't feel anything, she had no thoughts  […] the SS man ordered her to take this shattered baby and take it out of the church». Mr. Franciszek's sister, Stefania, for over 40 years refused to talk about what she saw during the pacification of the village and how she survived that day. She choked up memories. «Stefcia managed to get out of the burning barn» – says Mr. Franciszek. When she was led in a group of girls and women to church, she passed buildings engulfed in fire, from which people could hear screams of people being burned alive. Later, their father's remains were found in the ruins of one of those barns. The Ukrainians expelled her from the church in one of the last groups. Straight to the Relich's barn, one of the richer farmers. They brought about 40 people in, bolted the gates, wired them so that no one could get out, and began pouring gasoline over the walls. «as smoke and flames began to leak inside, panic broke out. Stefcia was very lucky, it saved her, that she knew this barn. She once played there with the host's daughter and knew that there was a backup exit at the back, to the garden» – says Mr. Franciszek. «But the garden was covered in snow and a snowdrift was blocking the door». Stuffed believers together, several girlfriends. among them was Wanda Gośniowska, several years older than Stefania and stronger. When the packed snow finally cleared, eight or ten girls ran across the field. The soldiers fired after them. The massacre was perpetrated by the Ukrainians from the 4th Galician Volunteer Police Regiment belonging to the 14th SS Division Galizien. according to the prosecutors who investigate the pacification of Huta Pieniacka, this fact is beyond dispute. They also have no doubts that they were helped by UPA partisans  […] Wanda Gośniowska told how her father was tortured. She remembered how he was brought to church in a bloody shirt. The commander of the local self–defense unit, Kazimierz Wojciechowski, was first tortured, then doused with gasoline and set on fire. a similar fate befell Wojciech Szmigielski. For hiding a wounded Soviet partisan in his home  […] Franciszek Bąkowski remembers that the cemetery was located on the outskirts of the village, and that in Huta Pieniacka itself there were many fruit trees. Brother Władek reminded him that two beautiful sweet cherries hung in front of the gate to their farm. So one time they went looking for them, they were walking patiently in a field overgrown with thistles, trying to find the right way in the scraps of memories. Finally, they found the rotten remains of two stumps and entered the farm. In the place where their house once stood, they pulled out a tile from under the ground. «That's all I have left of my parents» – Mr. Franciszek nods. There was something else among the tangled dry thistles. a stone statue of Saint anthony, which stood in front of the house of Wanda Gośniowska's parents. They picked it up, set it up again. «You can't see it from the road, but I know where it stands» – says Franciszek Bąkowski”.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide, February 1944”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Nowik Mariusz, „I was left with the tile from my parents' house” — web page: wiadomosci.dziennik.pl [accessible: 2014.03.02]

I was one of the last to come to church. All those who had been brought there earlier were divided into groups and led to barns and burned alive. I left the church with the last group of girls. The sight that turned out to be terrifying to my eyes. Buildings were on fire, people could hear terrible screams of people burning, dogs howled, and the smell of burning human bodies and cattle was everywhere. Me and my companions realized that we were going to die. The Ukrainian SS men escorting us rushed us, laughing mockingly, „Wże was proposing your Polish – this is your Polish”. When we were brought near the buildings of Stefania Relich, we were stopped for a moment, the gate to the yard was opened, ordering us to enter there. The buildings of Genowefa Bernacka were burning on the opposite side, from where the terrible groans of people burned there came. Our escorts brutally pushed us into the yard. They stopped in front of the barn, in front of which stood cans of gasoline. They pushed us inside with their rifle butts and closed the door. There was a lot of straw and hay inside. On the opposite side was a second door leading into the garden. Taking advantage of the momentary confusion, I got to them and we managed to open them. With a few girls, there were three or four of us, I don't remember, we rushed to run away. After a while we were noticed and the shooting started. However, we managed to get to the nearby ravine through which we reached the forest. After a while, we heard shots, screams, and saw the barn from which we managed to escape. in front of which stood cans of gasoline. They pushed us inside with their rifle butts and closed the door. There was a lot of straw and hay inside. On the opposite side was a second door leading into the garden. Taking advantage of the momentary confusion, I got to them and we managed to open them. With a few girls, there were three or four of us, I don't remember, we rushed to run away. After a while we were noticed and the shooting started. However, we managed to get to the nearby ravine through which we reached the forest. After a while, we heard shots, screams, and saw the barn from which we managed to escape. in front of which stood cans of gasoline. They pushed us inside with their rifle butts and closed the door. There was a lot of straw and hay inside. On the opposite side was a second door leading into the garden. Taking advantage of the momentary confusion, I got to them and we managed to open them. With a few girls, there were three or four of us, I don't remember, we rushed to run away. After a while we were noticed and the shooting started. However, we managed to get to the nearby ravine through which we reached the forest. After a while, we heard shots, screams, and saw the barn from which we managed to escape. With a few girls, there were three or four of us, I don't remember, we rushed to run away. After a while we were noticed and the shooting started. However, we managed to get to the nearby ravine through which we reached the forest. After a while, we heard shots, screams, and saw the barn from which we managed to escape. With a few girls, there were three or four of us, I don't remember, we rushed to run away. After a while we were noticed and the shooting started. However, we managed to get to the nearby ravine through which we reached the forest. After a while, we heard shots, screams, and we saw the barn from which we managed to escape.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide, February 1944”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Gośniowska Wanda, recollections; in: Komański Henryk, Siekierka Szczepan, „The genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists on Poles in the Tarnopol Province 1939-1946”, in: Wroclaw 2004, p. 591

After the departure of the Ukrainian SS men from Huta Pieniacka, I was one of the first to reach the burnt village  […] Buildings were still burning down, dead people lay on the roads and fields. I have seen a lot of children on the rails of fences or lying with broken heads. All around, the snow was red with human blood. There were dozens of charred human bodies in the barns.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide, February 1944”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Zagrobny Bronisław, recollections; in: Komański Henryk, Siekierka Szczepan, „The genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists on Poles in the Tarnopol Province 1939-1946”, in: Wroclaw 2004, p. 611

Wilhelm Kowalczykowski returned to Huta on February 29, 1944. „He recognized his grandfather in front of the church. The old man sat hunched over his face with his hands and his head in his knees. He hid the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari in his inner pocket. His name was Wojciech Szmigielski and he took part in the unsuccessful January Uprising. When he was driven to Siberia, he managed to avoid death and escape. Now he sat still, eyes gouged out and a rusty nail pinned to his lower lip. The back of his head and back were burned. Chest and stomach shot through bullets. His clothes were dripping with blood. Not far from this place, thirty‑year‑old Zofia Hauptman was lying in her farm on Werchobuska Street. Her hair and clothes were burnt. Only scraps of charred material remained on the body. Both legs were shot above the knees and the abdomen was unnaturally swollen. She was about to give birth to her first child soon. Another woman, several minutes earlier or later, was killed with a bayonet stab. Her name was Rozalia Sołtys, she was 70 years old and she was walking too slowly. First, the torturers urged her with blows of rifle barrels. When this did not work, the blade was stabbed several times in the back. But even that was to no avail. After another blow, the bloody old woman fell and a long knife pierced her belly. On February 28, 1944, at least 865 inhabitants of Huta Pieniacka were killed in a similar way, and the village itself ceased to exist within a dozen or so hours  […] In the middle of the church, on a bench, a Soviet partisan was sitting. His head was bandaged all over. Ninety–four‑year‑old Wojciech Szmigielski crouched next to him, his face covered with his hands. Before the soldiers found them both, the old man was hiding the partisan in his bed. Now, in the church, there was an interrogation. Szmigielski tried to conceal the identity of the Soviet, explaining to the soldiers that he did not know who it was because he was wounded and did not say anything. Moments later, they were both tortured in the square in front of the church. Szmigielski's eyes poked out, their tongue stretched out and a nail nailed to his chin. After being tortured, they led them into the church and put the partisan in the confessional, and the old man next to him on the bench. Then they both burned alive. At 1 p.m., people in the church keep coming. SS men walk between the benches and pound their heads. People fall to the ground, and others are led into their places. It is stuffy and crowded. A Ukrainian who claims to be a Pole informs that the temple is mined. Panic breaks out, but the crowd is unable to break through the door. An hour later, the torturers begin to lead people out of the church. Groups of 40–50 Poles are escorted by a dozen or so The Ukrainians armed with rifles. The soldiers assure the women and children that they are being led to their homes. It wasn't a lie this time. Most of this march actually ended in their huts and barns. Where they were then set alive on fire. Around 5.00 p.m. the murder ended. Drunken chants ended the action. The SS men also organized a parade in honor of the victory. and slowly began to leave the village. Only a few houses and several dozen residents survived the raid of three battalions of the Ukrainian SS–Galizien division”.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide, February 1944”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: „Inconvenient history”; in: portal: AlbumPolski.pl, in: 2001-04-26 — web page: albumpolski.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]

Stanisława Sitnik, who survived the massacre in Huta Pieniacka, where over 800 Poles were murdered in one day, says that she remembers almost an animal roar. They were people. People being driven to slaughter. – I was there eight years ago, I have no health, it is too strong an experience for me – says Stanisława quietly. – I was crying, even though there is only an empty field there now, nothing more. And the stories of people that when they wanted to graze the cows there, the bulldozers let in and the bones and skulls started to come out from under the machines. So many people went there. Forgive? I do not know. All we suffered there.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide, February 1944”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Chajewski Dariusz, „Bloody Sunday was the apogee of the Volhynia massacre. Trauma brought from Volhynia”; in: portal: Gazeta Lubuska — web page: plus.gazetalubuska.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]

Accident report in Huta Pieniacka. An eyewitness and a resident of HP recounts:  […] At the given sign, rifle fire started around the village. The ring tightened. People met were driven to church. Seeing that they were dealing with a regular army, the population did not flee. Anyone who was just reluctant was shot on the spot. SS soldiers rushed into the huts and murdered them with long, sharp knives. The rapporteur has such a knife hidden as a keepsake. He saw children ripped with knives, women with severed breasts. When the population was rushed to the church and the doors were closed, mining began. Those present in the church were waiting to be dropped off, but in the meantime the elders arrived and ordered the mines to be pulled back. Then, segregation began in the church. Men separately, women and children separately. This segregation was pointless though, because then people were led out in parties, locked into empty huts, barns, and sheds which were set on fire. The rapporteur heard the moans of people being burned alive, he saw a woman popping out of the window with her hair and gowns burning. The woman must have been insane by now, or she had gotten scared by the shots and jumped back into the fire. People jumping out or running were shot. The action lasted from 1 am to 3 pm to 4 pm, and 2 SS men shot themselves because of carelessness. The rapporteur spoke to a dying woman, wounded in the chest with a knife, testified that a relative of their SS sheep from a nearby village, despite the spells of her husband, shot him, slaughtered the child, stabbed her, saying: „Now war – no relatives”. he saw a woman popping out a window with her hair and gowns burning hot. The woman must have been insane by now, or she had gotten scared by the shots and jumped back into the fire. People jumping out or running were shot. The action lasted from 1 am to 3 pm to 4 pm, and 2 SS men shot themselves because of carelessness. The rapporteur spoke to a dying woman, wounded in the chest with a knife, testified that a relative of their SS sheep from a nearby village, despite the spells of her husband, shot him, slaughtered the child, stabbed her, saying: „Now war – no relatives”. he saw a woman popping out of the window with her hair and gowns burning hot. The woman must have been insane by now, or she had gotten scared by the shots and jumped back into the fire. People jumping out or running were shot. The action lasted from 1 am to 3 pm to 4 pm, and 2 SS men shot themselves because of carelessness. The rapporteur spoke to a dying woman, wounded in the chest with a knife, testified that a relative of their SS sheep from a nearby village, despite the spells of her husband, shot him, slaughtered the child, stabbed her, saying: „Now war – no relatives”.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide, February 1944”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: „1944, February - Report on the attack of the Hałyczyna SS Division on Huta Pieniacka”; in: National Ossoliński Institute, Wrocław, in: No. 16722/1, p. 85

A member of the UPA band, Dovhan, Justyn Sr. Vasyl testified: „I do not remember the exact date, but I know very well that at the end of February 1944, in the early morning, Melnyk Ivan s/o Zakhar came to my apartment and told me to quickly appear in front of Yakimov's cottage Yakwa, where will I get the gun. At the same time, he informed me that the entire UPA gang, together with the [band from] Volhynia and the German army «SS–Galizien», would move to the village of Huta Pieniacka. I appeared in the above–mentioned place, where Yakimov Yakiv gave me a Russian–type rifle and 15 rounds to it. Melnyk Iwan, Yakimov Yakiv and the commander of the Volhynia UPA gang announced to all participants that we were about to go to the village of Huta Pieniacka to deal with the inhabitants, because they were helping the red partisans. After receiving this brief information and completing the preparations, German troops «SS–Galizien», in number of 200 men, set off on submarines. They were led by the starost of Sieluprawa, Kawecz Josyp s. Maksym, with their commander – a German with the rank of captain. The second sledge, also in the front, was driven by Żarkkowskyj Vasyl s/o Ivan and Żarkkowskyj Stepan. After the Germans, about 15—20 minutes later, our band together with the Volhynia UPA band went to Huta Pieniacka. As soon as we started to approach the above–mentioned village, the Germans opened fire from two cannons and machine guns, surrounding the village on all sides. Members of the UPA gang who arrived at that time, on the orders of Melnyk Iwan s/o Zachar and Żarkkowski Petr, and the commander of the Volhynian gang, also surrounded the village and did the same as the Germans, i.e. set fire to houses and other buildings, and escorted the inhabitants to the church. Of those who tried to hide, shot them on the spot and opened heavy rifle fire on the escaping people. After the ring of the lap in which the village was tightened and the action was nearing its end, the people of the church were led to the sheds and houses. Then they were closed and set on fire. The inhabitants of the village of Huta Pieniacka were herded into 4 or 5 sheds, which generally contained approximately 700—750 l [people]. They were all burned. The pogrom of the said village lasted from 8 am to 2–3 pm. Then the German troops took mainly all cattle – cows, horses, sheep, pigs and grain, and the members of the UPA gang took clothes, poultry and other things, and then together with the German troops returned to the village of Żarków, where the Germans sold some of the cattle to the residents for vodka mainly cows”.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide, February 1944”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: „Extract from the NKGB intelligence case of the USRS No. 40 «Zwiery» on events in Huta Pieniacka”, Arch. no 2387, p. 26, 50, 55, 56, 112; in: „Poland and Ukraine in the 1930s and 1940s”, in: Warsaw-Kiev 2005, vol. 4, part 2, p. 101 — web page: zbrodniawolynska.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]

source: State Archives of the Security Service of Ukraine, in: F. 26, op. 2, case 2, sh. 208—211