Ukrainian policemen who escaped from the German service murdered 3 Poles and several Soviets – workers, while 2 The Ukrainians killed their wives – Polish women: Jaromelec and the commander of the Ukrainian police, Saczko–Saczkowski, who in broad daylight hung his Polish wife in a public place, on a tree opposite the commune building. He commanded the murder of the Polish village of Obórka on November 13, 1942. Bolesław Szpryngiel writes: „It was similar in the family of Apolinary Saczkowski, the former head of the Kołki commune in the 1920s. Originally a Ukrainian – Pulinar Saczko, after Poland regained independence after World War I, changed his name and surname to Apolinary Saczkowski. As a Polish citizen, he performed compulsory military service in the Polish Army. Here he graduated from a non–commissioned officer school and for some time he remained in the army as an overtime. Released from the army, he returned to Kołki where he came from, and here, even for one term of office, he served as the head of the Kołki commune office. He married a Pole and had a son, Aleksander, also at my age. Saszka (that is what we called him) was also my schoolmate in 1938/39. The entire Saczkowski family was considered to be Roman Catholic Poles, which was demonstrated by participating in a Sunday mass at the local church, as well as at various communal patriotic celebrations. In September 1939, after the Red Army seized the Eastern Borderlands and incorporated these lands into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). Apolinary Saczkowski became Pulinar Saczko again and, as a Ukrainian communist, he worked in the District Office in Kołki. Then – after the outbreak of the German–Soviet war in June 1941 – Pulinar Saczko reported to the Nazi authorities as a Ukrainian nationalist of the Orthodox faith, declaring to them his willingness to cooperate with the occupier. The offer was accepted by the Nazis and Pulinar Saczko became the district commander of the auxiliary Ukrainian police (Schutzmannschaft), diligently carrying out the criminal orders of the Nazi authorities. At the same time, he secretly held important functions in the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its armed formation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)”.

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

source: Szpryngiel Bolesław, „Kinsmen”; in: „Recollections of those who survived”, portal: Volhynia of our forebearers — web page: www.nawolyniu.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]

Malwina Skórzewska, 43, wounded by the Ukrainians, died.

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

The Ukrainians murdered the 7–person family of Kazimierz Drzewiecki from the village of Rudnia in the forest: their parents and 5 children.

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

A Ukrainian shot 20‑year‑old Władysław Kraśnicki.

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] shot Stanisław Ulanowicz, a teacher.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – year 1943 June and the first half of the year”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

The Ukrainians murdered several Poles and threw the bodies into a well, including a baby. „At dawn, on June 5, a convoy of refugees set out from Kołek, protected by 200 volunteers from Przebraż. The cavalcade of wagons loaded with a piece of livelihood and food widened along the way  […] Not everyone in Kołki managed to take the convoy, or they could not. The final slaughter of Poles in the town was approaching inexorably. The tension grew with each passing day. The Ukrainians, without waiting for the departure of the Germans, publicly announced: Pryhotowlajsia na smert. Cow view, the ankle fly (Prepare to die. Blood bucket and bone bag). The sentence could only be postponed by escaping with the garrison convoy. The commandant, a chained Aryan who considered all but the Germans subhuman, agreed very readily. One can imagine that not under the influence of a sudden surge of sympathy for Poles. The sight of civilians on the discovered transport vehicles could have saved him from attack by partisans. Time was pressing. Ivan couldn't wait any longer. The day before June 13, the date of the Germans' departure, previously kept secret, at dusk the Urbański house came from behind. Making sure no one could see, he climbed over the fence and knocked on the door. His warnings were of no avail. Paulina was irreconcilable. He came home resigned, but with a feeling of relief. He did his job, Maryna will not be able to slap the pins on his head anymore. Making sure no one could see, he climbed over the fence and knocked on the door. His warnings were of no avail. Paulina was irreconcilable. He came home resigned, but with a feeling of relief. He did his job, Maryna will not be able to slap the pins on his head anymore. Making sure no one could see, he climbed over the fence and knocked on the door. His warnings were of no avail. Paulina was irreconcilable. He came home resigned, but with a feeling of relief. He did his job, Maryna will not be able to slap the pins on his head anymore.
The column of German cars had not yet disappeared on the horizon when the Ukrainian ringleaders called a rally near the church. The city was proclaimed the «Kolkow Republic». It is time to end the Lachs, they cried, as well as the Jews. Not a single leg of the occupiers of the Ukrainian land will remain here. And only a handful remained: in the city hospital, seriously ill, infirm old people, a few people from Ukrainian–Polish families and those who decided «to die on their own». At the beginning, the hysterical crowd threw a few people into the well, including an infant, and covered it with quicklime. Other groups gathered about 40 Poles in a wooden church. The UPO members blew up the nearby monument of the distinguished parish priest, priest Zajączkowski with dynamite, and set fire to the church. Most of the victims' houses were also burned down. Among others, they died: a universally respected medical assistant, a Ukrainian, Buczek, his wife Helena née Urbański – my mother's sister and a good friend of my grandfather, a forester Moroz. My cousins, the Buczyk sons, Tadeusz and Jurek, were saved. They were out of town that day, and as they returned home, someone warned them on the road. Their house was already burned down. In panic, they fled to the forest. It is not known what their fate was until the end of the war. At the time when the defenseless elderly were murdered in the other part of the city, nothing was known in the Urbański house of grandparents. They talked to Mr. Leon (my name is forgotten now), a former non–commissioned officer of the Polish army. After the anti–Bolshevik campaign in 1920, he worked in the forest service of one of the commune's estates. During the night attack he broke free from his torturers and, breaking through the marshes and fields, he reached the city. At that time, his seriously ill wife was in the city hospital in Kołki. Mr. Leon came with a request for a temporary admission until the wife was on her feet on her own. Busy with the conversation, they did not notice that a cart pulled up in front of the house. There was no doubt that they were strils. (Riflemen in nationalist formations). Two had rifles and the third unarmed. It was the closest neighbor – Ivan. In total surprise, only Leon remained unconscious. Unnoticed, he managed to squeeze himself into the recess next to the wood stove, from where he glanced at the continuation of the rapidly following events. Two torturers ran to my grandfather. His hands were twisted, tied and tied around his waist with barbed wire. At Paulina's scream, she was hit in the face and fell to the floor. She kept shouting: Mr. Leon came with a request for a temporary admission until the wife was on her feet on her own. Busy with the conversation, they did not notice that a cart pulled up in front of the house. There was no doubt they were strils. (Riflemen in nationalist formations). Two had rifles and the third unarmed. It was the closest neighbor – Ivan. In total surprise, only Leon remained unconscious. Unnoticed, he managed to squeeze himself into the recess next to the wood stove, from where he glanced at the continuation of the rapidly following events. Two torturers ran to my grandfather. His hands were twisted, tied and tied around his waist with barbed wire. At Paulina's scream, she was hit in the face and fell to the floor. She kept shouting: Mr. Leon came with a request for a temporary admission until the wife was on her feet on her own. Busy with the conversation, they did not notice that a cart pulled up in front of the house. There was no doubt they were strils. (Riflemen in nationalist formations). Two had rifles and the third unarmed. It was the closest neighbor – Ivan. In total surprise, only Leon remained unconscious. Unnoticed, he managed to squeeze himself into the recess next to the wood–burning stove, from where he glanced at the continuation of the rapidly following events. Two torturers ran to my grandfather. His hands were twisted, tied and tied around his waist with barbed wire. At Paulina's scream, she was hit in the face and fell to the floor. She kept shouting: (Riflemen in nationalist formations). Two had rifles and the third unarmed. It was the closest neighbor – Ivan. In total surprise, only Leon remained unconscious. Unnoticed, he managed to squeeze himself into the recess next to the wood stove, from where he glanced at the continuation of the rapidly following events. Two torturers ran to my grandfather. His hands were twisted, tied and tied around his waist with barbed wire. At Paulina's scream, she was hit in the face and fell to the floor. She kept shouting: (Riflemen in nationalist formations). Two had rifles and the third unarmed. It was the closest neighbor – Ivan. In total surprise, only Leon remained unconscious. Unnoticed, he managed to squeeze himself into the recess next to the wood stove, from where he glanced at the continuation of the rapidly following events. Two torturers ran to my grandfather. His hands were twisted, tied and tied around his waist with barbed wire. At Paulina's scream, she was hit in the face and fell to the floor. She kept shouting: tied and tied around the waist with barbed wire. At Paulina's scream, she was hit in the face and fell to the floor. She kept shouting: tied and tied around the waist with barbed wire. At Paulina's scream, she was hit in the face and fell to the floor. She kept shouting:
– Away from my house, thieves! My grandson's murderers! Let the holy ground consume you!
– Tichaj babo bo tebe ubiju – the Bandera bander unsuccessfully tried to silence her. (Hush baba, or I'll kill you)
– Biery babe, let me go with us. (Take a woman and let her go with us)
– I will not go anywhere, sobaczy son, they went to the devil!
– Pujdesz, pujdesz, we will help you. (You will go, we will help you).
Her hands were tied with a long rope. Taken outside. The other end of the rope was attached to the wagon. Paulina continued cursing. One of the bandits, the imposing ringleader, beckoned to the other. He already knew what to do. He pulled an ax from under the blankets on the cart. After one dull blow, the scream broke off in mid–word, which caused the executioners to laugh loudly.
Leon bit his fingers to keep from screaming. Leaning out of the alcove, through the wide–open kitchen door, he saw that Ivan, meanwhile, was pushing his grandfather towards the garden gate, as if he wanted to get out of the eyes of the thugs who were murdering Paulina.
– Let Ivan go, you were with us like yours – grandfather pleaded.
– Ne mohu, Ne mohu. I am not guilty. Prowidnyk Saczko–Saczkowski ordered this to be done. He Teper commandant, sobaka proclates! (I can't, it's not my fault. Commandant Saczko–Saczkowski ordered you to be slaughtered. Now he is the commandant here, a cursed dog).
– He's a good friend of mine.
– Teper druhije times. He commanded to scratch it after a rag, and I tebe rezzu lhsze. You will not feel. I am not guilty. (He ordered you to be cut pieces. But I will slit you lighter so you won't feel it. I'm not guilty).
He let Francis go first. Behind him, he suddenly grabbed his forehead with one hand and tilted his head. With his other hand, he ran the sharpened knife across his throat. Franciszek fell to the ground. Blood blushed. A rattling sounded from the deeply sliced larynx. Convulsions shook the body. The one who led the group came.
– Ivan, you got what he was mine? (Did you forget he was mine?)
– He didn't know, he was alive. You can chase! (I didn't know, he is still alive, you can finish him off) –
Saying this, he reached for the UPO–wca rifle and before the latter realized it, he retreated, put the barrel to the head of the lying man and fired. The skull shattered like a clay pot. Franciszek's blood soaked into the soil where the Urbański family had lived since his great–grandfather. She would stay there until the doom day.
–You stout fats? Taj pity the pot on takoho lousy Lacha! Please forgive me! (Are you stupid? It's a pity the bullet on such a lousy Pole! We'll still count!).
Now they will discover me by looting the house, thought M. Leon. He decided to fight. He was lucky. The attackers had to hurry because they got on the cart. They cut the horses, dragging the tied corpse of Grandma Paulina.
It is not known and there is no one to ask where they were buried. As long as there were still Poles in the city, they buried their victims in the city cemetery, often risking their lives when it was necessary to travel outside the city to fetch the bodies. Most likely, the The Ukrainians threw the bodies into a common pit. Mr. Leon, the only witness to the murder, did not know either. At dusk he found his wife stabbed with a pitchfork in the hospital. He buried the body hurriedly in a shallow grave. He walked at night along the paths known to him to Skierniewice. During the day, in less known places, he hid in the bush. From Skierniewice, where the railway line ran, it reached us, to Równe, with breaks. He was turning forty at the time. What was his further fate – is unknown”..

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – year 1943 June and the first half of the year”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Kamiński Edward, „Give up all hopes” — web page: www.strony.ca [accessible: 2021.04.11]

After the Germans left Kołki, the remaining Poles were caught, locked in the church, and then set on fire together with the church. It happened on June 16, 1943. More than 40 people or more were burnt. What was done with the charred bodies, I haven't been able to find out, but I will ask again. I made a phone call, writing about Kołki to P. Stefan Żołędziewski, born in 1929 in Koszyszczach. Mr. Stefan said how it was: Stefan's grandfather, Jan Twardowski from Milaszewo near Kołek, had four daughters and a son. Marianna married a Ukrainian, NN (P. Stefan forgot) from Kołki, named Roman, they had three children, IN. When the Poles fled from Kołki to Przebraż, she said they would not run away. The heroic Banderites locked them together with others in the church and burned them. When the Soviets came, Stefan's mother, Antonina, went to Kołki to ask about her sister's family, the locals told her that Roman had been coaxed into killing his wife and daughter, and that he and his sons would be released. This noble man didn't do it, they burned everyone in the church.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – year 1943 June and the first half of the year”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Horoszkiewicz Janusz, „On the Trail of the Volhynia Crosses – Pins on the Styr River”; in: portal: Fr Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski — web page: isakowicz.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]

Siemaszko et Siemaszko  […] give the date of the crime on June 14 or 15, 1943, when „Ukrainian partisans” gathered in the wooden church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary about 40 Poles and 1 Ukrainian, Polish husband, and burned them alive together with the church.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – year 1943 June and the first half of the year”; 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. 571

[The Ukrainians] murdered a Polish family of four: „at the turn of May, June and July 1943, while bands of Ukrainian nationalists attacked all villages and estates neighboring with Przebraż [commune Trościaniec, area Łuck], in the town of Kołki, where I lived with my family at that time, we were then attacked at home. as a result of this attack, the deaths of: 1. Father andrzej, approx. 55 years old; 2. Mother anastazja, approx. 50 years old; 3. sister of Bolesław, approx. 15 years old; 4. brother Ryszard, approx. 9 years old. Exact date of birth of the above—mentioned I cannot provide it, because I do not know, and I do not have any documents for this. I managed to escape, or rather get out of the hands of the bandit who attacked me, because I started a scuffle with him. While they jumped towards me, holding a rifle in my chest, instinctively, most likely out of fear, because I was screaming horribly out of fear, I grabbed the Ukrainian by the barrel of the rifle, trying to tilt it away from me, in case the shot did not shoot at me. My mother was free, because the Ukrainians attacked us men, i.e. less of my father. My mother, seeing that I was defending myself, rushed to help me. She caught up with the Ukrainian from behind and grabbed him by the shoulders. I took advantage of that moment and ran through the door leading to the pigsty that the Ukrainians did not know about. My sister Bolesława ran after me using the same exit, but she ran in a different direction. I remember that it was about 9 pm on Sunday evening. It was dark outside. Since the attack happened unexpectedly, [and] I was getting ready to go to sleep, I was wearing only a shirt and pants and barefoot. When I jumped out of the house and ran away in great terror and fear — replanting the multi—row barbed wire fence with which the gardens were enclosed by the house, I tore my shirt and pants off. I injured myself terribly and was naked. When I was about 100—150 m from the house, I heard the voice of Mother, who had to run after us. She called «Mother of God, where are my children». During this time, two shots were fired. Mother's lament ceased. at that time, our apartment was set on fire. I reached the river Styr, where I was running all night. at dawn, circling the town, with fields and grains, I made my way towards Balarka with the thought that I would meet my sister there. Walking through Hołodnica (a Polish village), I found that the houses were empty. I haven't met any soul. Leaving Hołodnica, I heard that in the direction in which I was going, that is, towards Balarka, a battle broke out. They fired machine and single weapons, cannons or mortars. as I couldn't locate the place of the fight, avoiding the main routes, I kept walking. When the next day I found myself in the village of Marianówka, I noticed that the houses were burned out. When I entered an orchard to pick a few unripe apples and eat them, as I was very weak, I noticed some charred human bodies next to the rubble of the house. Their arms and legs were burned. I know that they were the inhabitants of this house — Poles, because it was only a Polish village. Overcome by panic fear, I did not take advantage of the planned meal — I ran any further and forward. Then I associated that the shooting that I had heard previously had to take place in Marianówka and other villages through which I was going. Next day, walking across forests, meadows and fields, I reached the village, if I'm not mistaken, Dermanki. There, too, I found decay and burns. I think I counted two surviving houses in sight. analyzing the situation I noticed, I came to the conclusion that the same situation prevails in all our villages. as I approached one of the surviving houses and sat on a pole fence to warm myself in the sun's rays, I noticed that several cattle had come out of the forest and climbed into the oats. To drive cattle out of the so—called damage, a little girl ran out of the forest, but noticing me like a devil, ran away. after some time, a man came out of the forest who also tried to drive these cows out. When he got closer — I recognized the citizen Trybulski. He also recognized me, he led me to the forest where the inhabitants of this village were camping. I was clothed and fed there”.

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

source: „Letter from Longin Kubryn, a former resident of the town of Kołki, to Józef Ostrowski, dated April 12, 1985”; in: Archives of the Main Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation - Institute of National Remembrance, in: No. 638 purchase book, ref. No. AGK27WDAK, V/8

[The Ukrainians] burned the Polish family of Tadeusz Jurkiewicz alive.

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