The Ukrainians murdered Franciszek Olszański.

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

The UPA, Ukrainian SS men from SS „Galizien–Hałyczyna” and Ukrainian peasants, including the locals, murdered at least 367 Poles (so many victims were buried in the cemetery), they plundered their property and burnt the village. Everyone was murdered, from 2–month–old babies (Kazimiera Jurczenko, Michał Strąg) to Maria Sikora, 96. There were many more victims, many bodies were burnt together with buildings or remained in the basements of burnt houses and in the vicinity of the village. „On March 12, 1944, a selection of the inhabitants of the village took place. The Poles, separated from the Ukrainians, stood in the meadow. On one side they had a river behind them, behind which the commander of the Bandera followers was sitting on his horse, giving orders, and on three sides groups of Poles stood one band each. After a while the order to fire was given. One of them, standing by the machine gun, he made the sign of the cross and, having crossed himself, opened fire on the crowded Poles. The two remaining rifles on the sides spoke almost simultaneously. After a while, in the place where the compact crowd of people stood, lay a pile of vibrating human bodies. After the execution, this pile was surrounded by a group of about 10 Bandera followers, watching closely to see if anyone else showed any signs of life. After confirming that they were, the wounded were killed by”.

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

source: Bielecki Emil, recollections; in: Komański Henryk, Siekierka Szczepan, „The genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists on Poles in the Tarnopol Province 1939-1946”, in: Wroclaw 2004, p. 558

Józef Bryg's witness: „A pogrom started in Palikrów. And we found ourselves in its center. In panic, we ran into our friend's house. It had a spacious barn with a basement in it. We jumped in, there were some people already there. New people were coming all the time. We stared at each other in silent terror. As it turned out, there was a woman among us who was in league with the Bandera followers. As soon as the first pistol shot rang out – it had to be a pre–arranged sign – she began to scream into the heavens. They heard her immediately. And they came. – Dawaaaaaaaaj! Dawaaaaaaaaj! – the torturers chased us to the meadow. The Banderites were terrible. Uniforms, boots, machine guns and rifles. Evil, hateful looks. We were terrified. Soon a large crowd gathered on the meadow – they were almost all the inhabitants of Palikrow. They surrounded us and started checking documents for everyone. The Ukrainians were directed to one side, and Poles to the other. They spent the Jews hiding in the village on the ditch. It was a selection before execution. They let the Ukrainians go free and started setting up machine guns around us. Mum – as usual – kept me in a scarf on my back. Thanks to that, I could see everything perfectly. And I saw that the Banderites brought my father in the last group of captured Poles. My little brother was sobbing and shaking all over. The Ukrainians beat him with rifle butts on the way because they did not like that he was crying loudly. The torturers first ordered the Jews to undress. After obeying the order, these unfortunate people began to pray. It looked ghastly. It was eerily cold, and they weren't wearing any clothes. They were shivering with cold, their eyes turned to the sky. The first shots rang out immediately and the Jews began to fall to the ground one by one. The snow turned red with blood. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. I couldn't believe it was really happening. I was in horror. Then the torturers took up the Poles. They started lining us up in threes. There were moans, sobs and screams. Begging. Now we knew what awaited us. There was no help. And there was no pity. We were going to die. There was a crowd of Poles in the meadow, I found out later over three hundred and fifty people. It is not easy to kill such a large group of people. So the shooting took a long time. We had to watch our neighbors and friends die. Machine guns, screams of the murdered, curses of executioners. Truly Dantesque scenes. When our turn came, my parents were silent. I was sitting in a scarf all the time, clutching at my mother's back. The people standing directly in front of us began to fall to the ground, the roar of the shots became deafening. The bullets began to whistle beside us. Suddenly the sky swirled over my head and I felt a powerful blow. I realized that I was lying on the ground, crushed by my mother's body. Mom had her hands spread out to the sides. She wasn't moving. I heard a terrible groaning next to me. It was my dad moaning. I peeked out from under my mother's fur and began to plead with him in a whisper: – Dad, Daddy quietly. quietly. I asked him, I swore, but he moaned more and more. He was badly injured. Then the Ukrainians heard him. One of them stood over my father. He aimed his rifle and finished it in front of me. The bullet hit the head. Thick blood gushed from ear and mouth, flooding his entire face. I hid deeper under Mommy's fur. I lay still, pretending to be a corpse. One leg was sticking out from under my mother's body. I was afraid to change my position, because it seemed to me that the Banderites remembered me lying there. If they see that something has changed – they'll find out I'm alive and they'll murder me. I prayed mentally all the time. I refused «Beneath Thy Protection, O Holy Mother of God» and «my Guardian Angel»… Because that was all I could. When I finished one, I started the other. And so on over and over again. How long it could take – I don't know. In the end, the Bandera followers left a meadow strewn with the bodies of shot people. After a few hours, I dared to peek out of the hiding place. Even though it was already evening, it was as bright as day. It was the Palikrów which was on fire. Against the background of the raging flames, black figures were visible, jumping like tiny imps. It was the Ukrainians who plundered the countryside. I stood on my feet and started yanking my mother's hand and screaming: – Mommy, get up! We have to go, run! Get up. I was never aware that my mother was dead. Then I found out that she was shot straight in the head, in the back of the head. Her hands were spread out like on a cross. Probably at the last moment of my life she wanted to save me from the incoming bullet. Suddenly I noticed two men walking towards the pasture. They probably heard me screaming. I quickly crawled back under my mother – I tried to recreate the position in which I had been lying before. And I froze. Two Banderites started shooting at the wounded. Apparently not only I survived the massacre. They finally stood over me. I was terrified. My heart was pounding madly. I was afraid to move, twitch, breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut as I waited for the bullet to roar. Waiting to die. One of the Bandera followers said, looking at me, «Cartridge is a waste. She's dead anyway». And to confirm this, he kicked me hard in the protruding leg. I didn't move, and I let my leg limp. This confirmed the UPA's belief that I was dead. They went on. I breathed a sigh of relief. I will live.
To this day, I do not know where it came from in a small childso much brain. I lay motionless for a long time. I was afraid the murderers would come back again. Finally, I heard a soft cry: – Józia, Józef! Are you alive? Józia! – it was Miss Róża, our neighbor. She must have heard me call my mother earlier. She also survived, though she was seriously injured in the back. I spoke to her. I wanted to get up but couldn't. My body was stiff from the cold. But somehow I dug myself out and began to crawl, crawl over stiffening corpses. They stared at me with wide, dead eyes. The immortal terror froze on their faces. It turned out that my brother had somehow survived the massacre as well. It was lying under the pile of corpses, and now it has buried itself to the surface. Together with Miss Róża, they helped me go. I was smeared with blood from head to toe. Together with my brother, we didn't know what to do with ourselves. So we did the only thing we could think of – we went home. It was a sad return. The more that we found out on the spot that all the people who hid in our basement survived. The Banderites did not find them. So it turned out that this hideout was safe. If we all took refuge in the basement – our parents would have survived. The house without mom and dad was strange, empty. Foreign. From then on, we were on our own. It all happened so suddenly! Overnight we became orphans, and overnight our well–ordered world fell into splinters. Now two things were most important: salvation from Ukrainian nationalists. And avoid starvation. We were terribly hungry. We only found a few eggs in the farmyard, and we ate them raw right away. We searched the cabinets for food in vain and even in garbage. All we found were dried bread crusts. Some vetch, grain. This could not satisfy our hunger in the long run. When one of us was looking for food, the other was watching over the window. We were afraid that the Ukrainians might suddenly show up and kill us. How long we stayed in our ransacked home, I cannot say. Maybe a week, maybe two. We ate whatever we could, we were afraid to leave. We were on the alert all the time to escape to the basement in case of danger. We did not meet the Banderites anymore. Instead, the Soviets came”.

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

source: Herbich Anna, „She was saved from the field of death” — web page: superhistoria.pl [accessible: 2018.07.08]

Jan Lis: „I lived with my parents in the village of Palikrowa, Podkamień commune, Brody county, province. Ternopil in Podolia. / / It was Sunday, March 12, 1944. This day started with beautiful sunny weather. The snow had already melted, there were only remnants in the ravines and ravines. The sun warmed the black fertile soil, and the heated air vibrated in the absence of wind. Our village was surrounded by a line of rizuns along with SS men from Galizion Tarnopol. In the direction of the village, two cannon shots were fired from the road leading to Podkamień. After these shots, the armed residents of our village decided that they were German troops, regular front troops. The order was given to hide the weapons, because fighting the army is futile. We fell into the clutches of a bandit horde of Ukrainian rizuns. God, such a mistake. We hid at our Ukrainian neighbor in a dug hole covered with a straw stack. This hideout was made in great secret. On that terrible day, 24 people hid us, together with this Ukrainian's wife, who still fed us with bread. We stayed here until the evening. When night fell, we emerged from hiding and saw the glow of the burning buildings of Polish families. The buildings of our dear friend, Jaś Jurczenko, were also on fire. He had a hiding place under one of the barns. It was a masked cellar, in which another secret entrance was made, and the real entrance was covered and covered up. My Uncle Krompiec Piotr, knowing that they were hidden there in the basement under the rubble of the barn, opened it with great difficulty, because the heat of the fire made it difficult to get close. He opened it and called out, but no one spoke. They all suffocated, including the children of twelve. Me and my sister Józia went to hide there too, but Jasio Jurczenko met us in his orchard and said that he had already hidden everyone there and masked the hatch and would not go in there either. Go home, kids, he said. In the evening we found out that he too is among the strangled ones. I say the angel turned us back. The grandmother of my school friend, Tadzia Dańczuk, came crying and saying: my children have no reason to hide, your father and grandfather were murdered. Everyone, the whole crowd walked down the street and cried loudly. The terrible roars of burning cattle echoed their despair. At dawn we escaped to the village of Maliniska, where uncle Stanisław Siczyński lived. We got there early in the morning. Everyone was still asleep. Terrified, they prepared breakfast for us and heard about our terrible experiences. It didn't take long, and here a cannon shot signaled the Rizun gang to complete the lap. It was time to run away again. This time back to our village. They fired after us for a long time. Fortunately, none of us were hit. A group of children fled with us, siblings – six people, the oldest girl was in the seventh grade. Their parents were murdered. We returned to our village. A neighbor, a Ukrainian woman, hid us in her cellar, the entrance to which was in the stable under the cows' manger. We were hiding there until the Russians entered. I do not remember how many days passed from the murder of Poles (maybe two weeks) in our village to the invasion of the Russians. From that day on, we stopped hiding, and that day I met my friend Kazik Moczara. He was dressed in a thin gray coat and was walking very slowly, leaning on a stick found somewhere. He was very pale. I ran up to him and asked: Kazik, what's the matter with you? He replied: I am wounded, I was in the meadow and after the action was over I got out from under the dead bodies. I was at my grandmother's house, but no one is there. I ate everything that was there and now I go to my auntie, she doesn't know I'm alive. I asked: where did they hurt you, he showed me a rust stain on his stomach with his finger. It hurts here, but the bullet did not come out because it doesn't hurt me anywhere else. He went to his aunt. He was alive for a few more days. Kazik's parents and his two younger brothers were also murdered. Janka Kobiakowska, (today married to Wasylinka). Maryna Dyszluk, an old Ukrainian, Kutniak, and several other Ukrainian women, on March 12, during the selection, indicated who the Pole was in the meadow, and the torturers immediately put them in a separate group to be shot. Two machine guns were set up, the torturers crossed themselves and murdered all the Poles. Then they searched among the murdered, the living and the wounded, killing them with arrows. My grandfather, Jan Krompiec, was also murdered there, he is not on the list of the murdered. My teacher Naked and her husband were killed. I don't remember their names. Poles from Volhynia who lived in our village also died. There were many of them. Taken in after the tragedy in Volhynia. The perpetrators ripped better clothes and shoes from the dead. Then, before the Polish houses were burnt down, they robbed them, loaded them on carts and took them away for their families. Plunder worthy of UPA torturers. On the monument, which stands in the place where the Poles from my village were murdered, it says that 367 people died, with the indication that they died during the war. Many more were murdered, but today their names are difficult to establish. After the war, I heard Stefania Dajczak's mother tell how in Podkamień in the Monastery of the Dominican Fathers after the murder had ended, there was a rizun meeting summarizing the result of the murder. To decorate the meeting, Mrs Dajczak was hung on her woolen shawl in the door of the meeting room in the Monastery. The frenzy broke off after a while, and she fell. One of the torturers pierced her breast with a bayonet. The one, left on the cold floor in the room with broken windows, lay for several days. On the day when the bodies of the murdered were transported from Kasztor OO. Dominicans to the common grave, after removing her from the wagon before placing her body in the common grave, it turned out that Mrs. Dajczak was alive, before placing her body in the common grave, the lady sat down. She was helped. The consequence of hanging was loss of sight. Today, The Ukrainians call their rizuns, criminals, soldiers of the insurgent army. Who are these soldiers who killed little children with axes?”.

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

source: Lisjanek Janek, „My sad memories of Palikrów”, Gorzów Wlkp., 2009.12.07; in: portal: Podkamień n. Brody — web page: www.podkamien.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]

H. Komański et Sz. Siekierka  […] state that the name of the murdered teacher was Janina Nowak, they do not mention her husband.

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

source: Komański Henryk, Siekierka Szczepan, „The genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists on Poles in the Tarnopol Province 1939-1946”, in: Wroclaw 2004, p. 78—83

Kazimierz Wilczyński was born in Palikrów in the Brodzki county on April 6, 1927.
„On Sunday, March 12, 1944, a roundup of SS men dressed in white masking frames over their uniforms began.
«I ask one of my neighbors what is going on, and he
— ‹the Banderites are setting a roundup›».
First, they attacked 2 houses in Kolonia, 500 meters away from Palikrowy.
— «One of the Ukrainians used to go to his girlfriend there. Nothing helped. The old, old, grandmother and three daughters were killed, one person was thrown into a well, and the buildings were set on fire. They tormented my friend, a real Pole — Piotr Bieguszewski, and wanted to force him to give out the names of those commanding the defense of the village. They hailed an eagle on his breast, then cut off his ears and tongue. Finally, it was dragged to the Dajczak's barn and burnt there. Before he was mutilated and burned, however, he cried
— ‹Ukraine was not here and will not be here. Poland was Poland will be›.
He worked in a shop, was a tailor and belonged to TSL [People's Cooperative Society]».
In Palikrowy, people fled between burning houses and hid wherever they could. A few people were saved thanks to excavations in sheds and stables. Others, trying to escape to the forest, were shot on the spot. Wilczyński's friend, Bronek Jurczenko, hid in the cemetery.
— «Part of the family with their mother ran away from home and hid with 12 people with a neighbor in the basement under the woodshed. I hid behind the woodshed next to the lying harrows. We saw 10–12 Bandera followers entering the yard. Among them was my father's friend — Pasieka. Thanks to him, my father could hide in the shed, and the Banderites took the rest outside the village. Most of the palikrovians were caught and dragged to a nearby meadow, where the Ukrainian SS sub–unit ‹Galizien› prepared machine guns to fire. First, the documents were reviewed. Then: Janka Kobiakowska, Maryna Dyszluk, Ukrainian Kutniak and several other Ukrainian women during the selection indicated who was Polish and was to pass aside. Then the Ukrainians were released and the Poles were shot. The wounded were finished off with single shots from the pistol».
On that day, Wilczyński killed 3 people in the family.
— «My cousin — Franek Piątkowski, who was 12 years old, fell into the cold river and hid under the wicker. He said that he saw the Banderites murdering, robbing corpses, and killing those who were still breathing. Only in the evening, cold and half conscious, he crawled to the Tereszek's barn. After a while, people found him and took care of him».
The sight of the burning houses was terrifying. Kazimierz Wilczyński recalls:
«Houses were on fire and the Ukrainians were loading everything that was useful on carts. The burned houses were burning the fastest (house insulation was usually made of straw and leaves). A lot of houses were burning 200 meters behind the church. Then the trumpet and vice versa. They pulled a pile of sleighs towards Brody».
In the morning he met his friend Edek, known as 'Fedio', who hid in the corner of the cellar in the potatoes with the farmer's son, Kubernyk, and told him what he saw:
«Behind the TSL building, by the river, there were a lot of disassembled bodies. Bare butts, barefoot, it's scary to look at. Frightened people started to come out of hiding. They were looking for their loved ones. Everyone was lamenting. In despair, they collected rags to cover the murdered. They loaded the massacred bodies of their relatives onto carts and took them to the cemeteries»”.

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

source: Szymczyna Arkadiusz, „Kazimierz Wilczyński - the murder in Palikrowy”; in: „Borderlands Information Service”, in: No. 7/2012

After fierce defense, the gangs massacred, killing 30 Dominicans and 500 lay people. In the nearby village of Palikrów, 800 Poles were murdered.

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

source: prof. Sowa Andrzej Leon, „Polish-Ukrainian relations 1939-1947”; in: Society of History Supporters, in: Krakow 1998, p. 238

source: „Bulletin”, in: No. 17, 27.IV.1944

Jurczenko Józef. Murdered in Palikrów in autumn 1944.

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

source: Świętojański Czesław, Wiśniewski Aleksander, „List of murdered in Podkamień (and its vicinity) by the UPA in 1943—1945.”; in: portal: Podkamień n. Brody, in: 10.05.2014 — web page: www.podkamien.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]