On January 20, 44 (or on February 29, 44 in the village of Zawale), the following were murdered: 1. Chojna Edward, the property manager; 2. Sokołowski Bronisław non–commissioned officer; 3. Biernacki Józef age 23.

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

source: prof. dr hab. Jankiewicz Leszek S., „Supplement to the list of losses of the Polish population provided by Komański and Siekierka for the Tarnopol province (2004)”; in: Listowski Witold (ed.), „OUN-UPA genocide in the South-Eastern Borderlands”, in: Kędzierzyn-Koźle 2015, vol. 7

[The Ukrainians] murdered 21 Poles, including entire families. Others: „17.II.44 — local The Ukrainians murdered 13 Poles. The murdered had their tongues cut out, their eyes gouged out, their arms and legs cut off. The gendarmerie, which was given the names of the identified murderers, contented themselves with writing down the protocol”.

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

source: Central Archives of Modern Records, in: AK, ref. No. 203 /XV/15, sh. 122

„The town they lived in was located on the very tip of the young Polish state. It was about 5 km from their home to the border with Romania, and about 2 km to the border with the Soviet Union. The last Polish railway station, Iwanie Puste, was also located near their home  […] . The engagement of the young Irena Urban with a Pole from a neighboring town in Borszczów was planned for February 17, 1944, as for the protocol in the Katowice prosecutor's office in March 2004, Ms Ewa Bosakowska, née Mieraelńska, a peer of Ms Maria Urban, and her closest family neighbor, testified villages. This detail is also remembered by Mrs. Zofia Urban, Józef's widow, born on August 28, 1932 in Lviv, who knows her husband's experiences very well. Ewa recalls – Irena Urban's fiancé was Leszek Bielawski and he was the s/o a major in the Polish army. During the occupation, Leszek worked with Mr. Władysław Urban, his would–be father–in–law in Kudryńce, at a tobacco collection point  […] On that night, February 17–18, due to the fact that there were supposed to be many guests in the Urban house, Józef Urban's friend, Ivan Boyko, a Ukrainian, invited his friend to his place for the night. Boyka's house was also in the same village, but about 100 meters from the Urban's house. Józef agreed to the offer, being aware that his sister's mother–in–law, Leszek, and their coachman, were to stay in their family house for the night. Uncle Józef was 17 years old at the time, he was almost an adult – stresses Irena  […] The guests arrived, including the beloved fiancé, so awaited by Irena. Feast, stories, laughter and uplifted, joyful atmosphere continued. after all, there were reasons to be happy. It was already approaching 11 o'clock at night, when one of the participants of the engagement noticed that there were people outside the window. For that night, as never before, the large and heavy front door had never been closed and bolted. It was too late for whatever reaction from the people inside the house. Shooting began. Their home has been attacked! My grandmother kidnapped two daughters standing closest, Władysława and Maria, and took them with her, then ordered them and little Tadzik to run away to the attic, and then to jump out through the window and run away wherever they could find shelter. Everyone already knew that they were in mortal danger. Mrs. Maria told her daughter that in order to get to the attic, one had to go up a wooden ladder, and the attic door was a kind of a closing hatch of a ceiling (wooden ceiling). When grandma led them out and slammed the hatch behind her, Maria, Tadzik and Władysława heard shots inside the house, and some bullets even pierced the wooden attic door. The terror was immense. In those seconds my mother realized that the attackers had killed her mother and my grandmother. The terrifying screams of the attackers and their victims were heard in the house. Meanwhile, in the attic, three siblings noticed that there were men and their horses standing under the window that their mother had instructed them to jump out of. Then they decided to quickly run through the attic to the apartment of a Ukrainian family, where little Hania lived. The host was not at home that night, and Hania's mother already understood what was happening in the neighboring apartment. She knew that all of them were in great danger, that a tragedy was unfolding behind the wall. Despite her horror, she did not refuse them shelter. She hid everyone somewhere. She put my mother in bed, where Hania slept under a large duvet – says Mrs. Irena. Terrified, Tadzik hid in a recess under the stove, where the firewood was dried. He went there, like a cat, into the farthest corner. It is not known where their sister Władysława hid. Maria, terrified, trembled under the blanket, almost holding her breath, not only out of fear for herself, but also to hear everything that was happening behind the wall. We could hear screams and moans all the time – continues Ms Irena's memories of her mother. Eventually everything went quiet. after a short moment of terrifying silence and conversations in Ukrainian, two men burst into the apartment where three siblings were hiding. First, they found aunt Władysława and under the threat of putting a rifle to her head, they forced her to give them all their horses. My grandparents then had large farms. I think five horses a few cows, a lot of pigs and other domestic animals. as my mother always reported, aunt Władysława, although she was probably very frightened, still had great pride and that is why she was to answer the Ukrainians that so far neither she nor the horses had served them, so they would not serve them either. The striker, however, firmly demanded: «and yet you will come out and give me these horses» – quoted Mrs. Irena, which was often repeated by Mrs. Maria. Despite her aunt's resistance, the bandit took her out of the house into the yard, and little Tadzio, scared to the limit, left the hideout at that moment and ran after his older sister. Mum remembered the words of the Ukrainian who said to the boy: «good that you are here, come with us, you will go where your mom and dad». Mom also recalled that although she did not see the attackers in the room, she heard that especially one of them spoke Polish flawlessly. The second of the attackers who took part in the action began to look for more hidden ones in this apartment. at one point, he picked up a duvet and saw a 13‑year‑old fully dressed. He guessed that she escaped from the pogrom and was the Urban's daughter, but he did not take her from there. It is said that a Ukrainian, the housekeeper of this apartment, was to save little Maria by saying that it was her daughter. The bandit gave up and left. after a short time, Maria heard two single shots. She realized that her sister and brother had been shot! after a terrifyingly long night, during which she did not sleep her eye and remained in great uncertainty, when it was getting light, Maria got out from under the duvet and decided to go to her apartment. The Ukrainian woman with whom she spent the night, allegedly, despite strenuous pleas, she was unable to stop her. The closest to the entrance to her apartment Maria saw Władysława shot and Tadzik without shoes. His sister held him in her arms because he ran after her barefoot. It was an image she refused to believe all night. When she entered further, it chilled her! She saw her father hacked with an ax. The murder weapon was lying next to the victim. Maria's mother was lying shot dead on the kitchen floor, but it seemed that she had been killed at the table before she collapsed to the floor. There was blood on the table and in the open drawer. Mietek and Irena were killed by the shots. Leszek Bielawski's mother was also shot, and he was exceptionally massacred with a knife. He was holding a flashlight (a portable kerosene lamp) in his hand. arranging the corpse gave the impression that he was hiding under the bed from the attackers, and they cut him on the hands with knives. From this it follows that they stabbed the knife until they hit the heart. Everything indicated that they were taking the most revenge on him. Coachman, a Ukrainian, was also shot, he was found under the bed. another picture that Maria remembered from these difficult moments was the presence of feathers from torn duvets and pillows. It was stuck to an unimaginable amount of blood on the floor. These frozen streams and pools of blood were spilled over all rooms! When the girl was still inside, the Germans entered the house, they were surely informed about the Ukrainian crime against the Urban family. One of them pulled my mother out of the apartment speaking broken Polish; «come from here, this is not a sight for baby» and he was very scared of the sight he saw. My mother's brother also reached the yard, who was saved thanks to an overnight stay with Ivan and took his sister Maria back to the apartment of a Ukrainian neighbor, where she spent the previous, tragic night. Then my mother, in all the noise outside, noticed a dog howling from behind another wall, as if from your neighbors' apartment, your Choinas. It was an unbearable, terrifying howl – Mum recalled years later. She slipped through the crowd in the yard and entered the Choina apartment. There she found a dead neighbor, Mrs. alfreda, with a shattered head, a wolfhound dog lying next to her corpse, and a terrible howl! The neighbor was 9 months pregnant! Luckily, Mr. Choina wasn't home that night. Irena's mother recalled a very difficult moment when she was preparing for the funeral. The survivors had to clean the house, remove the traces of the tragedy. It was necessary to wash off the blood and clean up after the robbery. The The Ukrainians came there not only to kill, but also to steal whatever they could. They had all night for it. They even robbed the house of clothes. Maria and Józef did not have anything to wear for their mother in the coffin. They put some old borrowed shoes on her feet. a carpenter from the village made six ordinary coffins. a huge grave has been prepared at the cemetery – a spacious pit  […] Soon, Józef Urban came to them with information about the tragedy and some of the Mierzwński family went to the crime scene. Ewa also chose. Even today, she remembers this event with emotion: when my mother and I entered the kitchen, I saw the bodies of Leszek Bielawski, Władysława Urban and her parents Władysław and Paulina Urban on the floor. Someone's hands were sticking out from under the bed, then they said it was that carter, who brought Bielawski. apart from the bodies, I saw a huge mess in the house, full of feathers from torn pillows, overturned furniture, and torn curtains  […] after the tragedy, Maria and Józef no longer lived in their former apartment. Mr. Choina took them to Mielnica. Everything that could only be taken from the Urban's house, and what the Ukrainian attackers failed to steal, they took with them. a quarter of a cow, pork sausage products, some grains, seeds, huge jars of honey, dried mushrooms, etc. remained in the pantry. Mr. Choina deposited it all somewhere near the station in Mielnica. Probably with the intention of transporting these things together with the orphans to the family in Radziszów. Then the Ukrainians and him shot him. The bodies of Mr Choina and Bronisław Sokołowski were found near the train station in Mielnica. They died on February 29, 1944, therefore, on the 12th day after the raid on Urbanów. This fact is well remembered by Ewa Bosakowska, because her father, Mr. Jan Mieśmieński, who was on the railway service in Mielnica, witnessed the discovery of the body. The situation of the surviving children became very complicated, most of all they were again paralyzed by fear. The surviving good was lost, and the hope of going to relatives was lost. The siblings were also afraid to return to their family home. a Polish woman from Mielnica took care of Maria, and Józef was soon drafted into military service. When, in June 1944, the Mierząński family returned to their home in Ivan Pusty, they took Maria in. They lived together until January 1945. It was not until the second half of January that Mr. Mieśmieński arranged for the carriage, which his family, along with Maria and Józef, took to Poland. It was on January 25, 1945”..

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

source: Bierówka Janusz, „Memories of Maria Jaskuła from Radziszów”, fragment; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.01]

source: Szarwiło Bogusław, „Bloody engagement in Iwani Puste”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.01]