On April 29, several nationalists, bypassing Kąty from the south, surrounded the Poles with spring field work. They were herded to nearby farm buildings, tied into „sheaves” with their children, thrown into one of the houses and set on fire. As it happened quite close to Szumsk, the Germans arrived at the scene of the crime after a few hours. It was established that the Mińkowski brothers from Kąty were among the torturers. The Germans burned the buildings of the Mińkowski family, and gave the Polish self–defense one mauser rifle and 80 rounds. Maksym Skopupskij, who, while still a melnynik, participated in the attack on Kąty, and later was one of the kurenas (kuren – an equivalent of the company) in the UPA staff „Volhynia Piwden” in Antonovka, in his memoirs „Туди де бій за волю” (p. 87) he wrote: „Полякам не треба було починати війни з нами” [Poles should not have started the war with us], and also „Поляки без потреби зв'язалися з німцями” [Poles should not have allied with Germans]. .

source: Żurek Stanisław, „75th anniversary of the genocide – April 1943”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: btx.home.pl [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Jeleńkowski Jerzy, „Destruction of the Kąty parish, May 1943”; in: „A call from Volhynia”, in: No. 3 (88), May-June 2013

In the area of St. Izydora Oracz, the Polish self–defense group fought the UPA group „Kruk” and Melnykowce „Chrina”. W. and E. Siemaszko on pp. 449–451 state that none of the defenders died during this attack, while in the village the Ukrainians murdered 53 Poles with fixed surnames and an unknown number of others.

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

source: Siemaszko Władysław, Siemaszko Ewa, „The genocide perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists on the Polish population of Volhynia 1939 - 1945”, in: Warsaw 2000, p. 449—451

At 23.20 on Tuesday, May 4, 1943, we heard the rifle shots of our guards and saw the flashes of the attackers' colorful rockets. Kosynierzy moved back to the buildings. They saw the attackers attacking the village. Fires broke out, bullets flew and struck defensive buildings. Shots intensified, bullets whistled and struck the roof of the church and „Kasa” (local bank branch). They were answered with shots from the church tower and from the balcony of „Kasa”. Bullets rained more and more on our defensive buildings and punctured the metal roofing. We saw a lot of incendiary spheres, but they did not light our roofs, because the beams and roof truss in these buildings were covered with clay and often wetted. The battle continued. The most dangerous sounded was our 10–shot rifle, mounted on the „balcony of the” Register and secured with sandbags. During the battle there was no communication between the buildings. Luckily it so happened that the bandits did not attack us from the south. There were the fewest window openings and the greatest risk of getting hit. The attack was moving closer to the west and north. The attackers hid behind the walls of buildings and fired. They robbed abandoned houses and gradually set them on fire. The fire was moving from two sides to the center of the village. From the attics in the buildings one could see a sea of fire. About 500 buildings were on fire, out of the total number of 620. Kątki (streets), Łag, Zarzeczka, Środek, Iserniańska were on fire. Only Kątek Stachury and some of the buildings on furs survived. A dozen or so houses within the range of defense also survived. Fearing our crossfire defending the sides of other buildings, the bandits couldn't get too close and throw grenades. The battle lasted until 3.30 am. After this time, we realized that they would not get us. Suddenly everything went quiet. The bandits retreating towards Suraż and Sadek burned the houses on furs. Over two thousand people were relieved. It was daylight, the attackers were gone. People came out of hiding and ran to look at the fires. The stings of burning horses, cows and pigs were very strong. Horses and cows with burned sides flew like mad, scorched, roared, screamed and screamed for human help, but there was no rescue. People who had spent the night in the meadows and in the marshes began to come. Some even lay in the water all night, fearful of being spotted in the firelight. Nobody died within the defense area, and 18 of those who hid outside the area died. Four people, including an infant, were murdered in A. Kucharski's apartment. Old women, Tomaszewski, were killed, three young men from Pikulski who were hiding in Ukrainian buildings. They were the Zieliński brothers killed with bayonets. The rest were murdered with knives and bayonets. The paralyzed old man Holc was dragged out of the house and killed.

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

source: Jasiński Feliks, „Chronicle of the Fate of Poles of the Kąty Parish, Krzemieniec County, Wołyński Province In 1939—1945”, fragments, selected by Bogusław Szarwiło, 01 July 2013; in: portal: 27th Volhynia Division of Home Army AK — web page: 27wdpak.btx.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]

The next day, in a column of about 2,000 people, they evacuated in dramatic circumstances to Szumsk, and then to Krzemieniec. W. and E. Siemaszko do not mention the fact that after the evacuation of the population, a group of defenders remained in the church, but they were murdered in the next attack. „Kąty – after being tortured, they killed a child, cut their mouth from ear to ear, and nailed a card between the eyes with the words: «Poland from sea to sea»”.

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

source: Central Archives of Modern Records, in: DR, ref. No. 202 /III/ 200, sh. 32—35

The UPA and the Ukrainian peasants broke through the defense of Poles in the church and slaughtered them. as the religious brother Cyprian relates: „Most Reverend Father, there is an opportunity to send a few words by a person who escapes the knives of the Ukrainians. What is happening here now is that there are no words to describe these slaughters and murders of Polish families. Descriptions of «With Fire and Sword» of Sienkiewicz or «Fires» by Kossak–Szczucka pales in comparison to the present events  […] Immediately after Christmas, up to 600 Poles were murdered in villages near Szumsk, the rest fled to Krzemieniec. Then the attack on Kuty was the most numerous parish in the Kremenets county (4,000 souls). When the murder began, the population fled to the church with the parish priest. In the church, they defended themselves for one night, during the day the women and their children escaped to Kremenets, men stayed in the church to defend it – the next night more hordes invaded, the church was demolished and 200 Poles were slaughtered there. Not a single soul remained from the entire parish. The high school church in Krzemieniec was turned into a flat for these refugees, then the Germans took the young to work in Germany, and the old suffered extreme poverty. at the beginning of May, two parish priests from Oleksiniec and Kołodno took refuge in us. In the parish in Oleksin, all Poles were almost slaughtered and robbed, the parish priest, having nothing to do, left us yesterday for the General Government, and also from Kołodeński. You can see the glow almost every day – they burn Polish estates, and murder those who did not escape in a brutal way  […] The refugees all flee to Wiśniowiec, where they live in deplorable conditions in the monastery and suffer terrible poverty. My heart breaks at the sight of this poverty and the stories about it. Every morning news comes – people were killed there, they were robbed there, and the house and people were burnt there again. and so day after day it passes in agony and nervous tension, because there is no doubt that when the German crew leaves Wiśniowiec (the castle), all Poles will be murdered on the first night  […] What is our life here, from this description the Reverend Father will set himself up – we are ready to die, because we would need a miracle of God and the special protection of the Mother of God, that we would raise our heads from this fire. Therefore, we are asking for holy prayers that the Lord Jesus would have mercy and reassurance, because the local Poles go through really terrible experiences, whose all fault is that they were born Poles and are Catholics, even of those The Ukrainians who converted to Catholicism in Polish times, they murder”.

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

source: „1943, June 21 - Letter from the RGO Delegate in Krakow to the President of the RGO in Krakow. It contains information on the murders in Volhynia and the problem of refugees from this area. Enclosed is a letter from the monk - Brother Cyprian from Wiśniowiec on this subject of June 7, 1943”; in: State Archive in Kraków, in: DOKr 16 s. 44262

During our march, two old men and two sick men remained in Szumsk, and after a few days returned to Kąty. Soon all the Banderites murdered them in their own backyards – in the fires. There were a handful of worshipers in our area, „Jehovah's Witnesses”, who thought they would not be moved. Also, all 16 people were murdered, and these were families with a majority of children.

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

source: Jasiński Feliks, „Chronicle of the Fate of Poles of the Kąty Parish, Krzemieniec County, Wołyński Province In 1939—1945”, fragments, selected by Bogusław Szarwiło, 01 July 2013; in: portal: 27th Volhynia Division of Home Army AK — web page: 27wdpak.btx.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]

The Ukrainians murdered 8 Poles: 5 of those who had returned to the village, and a mother with 2 children who were hiding with a Ukrainian cousin.

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

The Ukrainians murdered the 5–person family of the Ruthenized Pole Piotr Szmatkowski with his wife and 3 children, because he did not want to join the UPA.

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

The UPA murdered 16 people, Jehovah's witnesses.

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