The Ukrainian police denounced 4 villagers that they had weapons, which resulted in their arrest by the Gestapo and death in the camp in Oświęcim – they were 3 Poles and 1 Ukrainian, favoring the Poles.

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

As a result of denunciation by local Ukrainians, Ukrainian policemen from Jawornik Ruski arrested 9 Poles (7 men and 2 women), who disappeared without a trace.

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

Ukrainian policemen from Jawornik Ruski arrested 2 Poles, whose traces were lost.

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

Myrosław Onyszkewycz „Orest Karat” gave the order: „I order you to purge your area immediately from the Polish element and Ukrainian–Bolshevik agents. The purge should be carried out in riverside hostels sparsely populated by Poles. To this end, create a militia near the area, composed of our members, whose task would be to eliminate the above–mentioned. Our larger hostels will be cleared of this element by our military units even in broad daylight  […] The clearing of the area must be completed before our Easter so that we can celebrate it without Poles. Remember that when the Bolsheviks find us with Poles in our territory, they will slaughter us all  […] Make a hard, ruthless fight with them. Not to spare anyone, even in mixed marriages. To take Lachs out of their houses, but The Ukrainians and children in these houses should not be liquidated  […] Get the gun. Death to the Poles. Stop, April 6, 1944. Glory to the heroes! Orest, Karat” This order is in the files of the investigation against Myroslav Onyshhevych.

source: Miszko Przemysław, Matkowski Krzysztof, „Crimes of genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists in Eastern Lesser Poland in 1939—1945 against persons of Polish nationality - in the light of investigations by OKŚZPNP in Wrocław”; in: „Crimes of the past, studies and materials of IPN prosecutors”, in: Warszawa 2008, vol. 2 — web page: ipn.gov.pl [accessible: 2021.02.04]

[The Ukrainians] abducted 12 Poles (including a woman) and 1 Ukrainian woman, and no trace of them was left, which led to the subsequent retaliation of Poles.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – January 1945”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

Excerpt from a field report by an OUN clerk about the murders of Ukrainians in Pawłokoma by former Home Army units:
„On February 28, 1945, Poles made the first attack of Pavlokoma. They came from the side of Dynów and Dylągowa. The group from Dynów did not kill people, but raided cattle, farm equipment and clothes, and broke windows. The group from Dylągowa killed 18 people. Older farmers and their wives came with them, robbing cattle and all the household goods, and then taking them towards Dylągowa”.

source: „Wisti z terenu”, b.d.; in: Institute of National Remembrance IPN Rzeszów, in: Acta OAIPN Rz 072/1, vol. 2, sh. 287

source: Huk Bogdan with a group of friends, „Murders of the Ukrainian population 1944-1947”; in: portal: Ruthenian apocrypha — web page: www.apokryfruski.org [accessible: 2021.09.30]

Excerpt from a field report by an OUN clerk about the murders of Ukrainians in Pawłokoma by former Home Army units:
„On 2 March 1945, a Polish gang, including women, came from the side of Dylągowa. They robbed about 20 houses and killed 6 people”.

source: „Wisti z terenu”, b.d.; in: Institute of National Remembrance IPN Rzeszów, in: Acta OAIPN Rz 072/1, vol. 2, sh. 287

source: Huk Bogdan with a group of friends, „Murders of the Ukrainian population 1944-1947”; in: portal: Ruthenian apocrypha — web page: www.apokryfruski.org [accessible: 2021.09.30]

Polish partisans retaliated against the Ukrainians. IPN Rzeszów: „Investigation in the case of: the murders on March 3–5, 1945 in Pawłokom, province. Podkarpackie Voivodeship at least 109 Polish citizens of Ukrainian nationality  […] . The investigation was discontinued on March 19, 2010. against the deaths of the perpetrators Józef B., Kazimierz S. and Józef K., against the legally valid proceedings in this case against Tadeusz O. in the past, against the failure to detect the remaining perpetrators of this crime”.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – March 1945”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: „The investigation initiated on September 20, 2001 into the murder of over 360 Polish citizens of Ukrainian nationality in Pawłokom on March 1-3, 1945, probably by Polish partisan units”; in: Institute of National Remembrance, IPN Rzeszów, in: ref. No. S 52/01/Zi

A series of Polish self–defense actions against Polish citizens of Ukrainian nationality during World War II, in the village of Pawłokoma.
The climax was the crime on March 3, 1945, committed by the unit of Józef Biss and the Polish self–defense from nearby towns on the Ukrainian population of Pawłokoma. As a result, according to various calculations, most likely from 150 to 366 people were killed.
The village of Pawłokoma was situated on the right bank of the San, surrounded by villages with a vast majority of Polish population: Dylągowa, Dąbrówka Starzeniaska, Bartkówka and Sielnica. According to the data of the Roman Catholic diocese of Przemyśl from 1938, it was inhabited by 273 Catholics of the Latin rite, and the Szematism of the Lemko Apostolic Administration from 1936 is also given by 898 Greek Catholic faithful. During the war, as a result of deportations to forced labor in the Third Reich and to the USSR, the number of inhabitants decreased. In January 1945, the village administrator made a new census, according to which 366 Poles and 735 The Ukrainians lived in Pawłokom. At the same time, the list of Ukrainian inhabitants of the village was prepared by the Greek Catholic priest Volodymyr Lemcio, who gives the number of 655 The Ukrainians in total, including 70 working,
The inhabitants of the village used the Ukrainian language on an equal footing with the Polish language in everyday contacts. The division into Catholics of the Latin and Byzantine rites did not always coincide with the national division. There was a Greek Catholic parish church in the village, covering the area of Pawłokoma, Bartkówka and Sielnica. Roman Catholic inhabitants of the village belonged to the parish in the village of Dylągowa. In addition, there was a Ukrainian People's House in Pawłokom. Taras Shevchenko, the reading room of the Prosvita society, a Ukrainian shop and a tile factory, and a training school.
Zdzisław Konieczny claims that the beginning of the Polish–Ukrainian conflict in Pawłokoma should be seen in the parcelling of Aleksander Skrzyński's farm carried out after 1918. The Ukrainian population of the village was omitted when the land was divided, and new land was transferred mainly to Poles from Pawłokoma, Dylągowa and other neighboring villages. The same author points to the participation of the Pavlokoma unit in the Polish–Ukrainian fights of 1918–1919 (on the Ukrainian side) and to the lively propaganda activity of Greek Catholic priests, mainly through sermons. The priests, together with a group of The Ukrainians with clear nationalist views around them, disseminated the provisions of the first OUN congress in the village, and in 1938 they organized an academy in the Proswity clubhouse in honor of Vasyl Biłas and Dmytro Danylyshyn and erected a commemorative cross in memory of Olha Basarab with the inscription „To the brothers for the freedom of Ukraine 1925”. The day–room was closed for organizing the academy.
Later, secret meetings of local OUN members and supporters were held in Pawłokom, for which four of them were arrested. Anti–Polish propaganda materials were found in the home of Mikołaj Lewicki's teacher, where the meetings were held. The village was also a place of rivalry between the Roman and Greek Catholic clergy to attract new believers, mainly from mixed families. All these events caused a negative attitude towards The Ukrainians among the inhabitants of Pawłokoma and the neighboring villages, inhabited mainly by Poles, concentrated around the Strzelce club in Pawłokoma and the Union of the Farm Nobility.
In 1939, Pawłokoma was under German occupation for two weeks before the Nazi troops withdrew in accordance with the arrangements for the border between the Third Reich and the USSR. During the September campaign, Polish–German clashes took place in the vicinity of Pawłokoma, while the retreating soldiers of the Polish Army left some of their equipment in the village. Poles supported the escapees by donating civilian clothes. In turn, the part of the Ukrainians that supported the OUN welcomed the entry of the German troops. There were even cases of reporting on Poles who were helping Polish soldiers or shooting at the German village crew. On the basis of such a report, the Germans arrested 5 people, but – according to the recollections of the villagers – they released them after other Poles denied the truth of the report.
The entry of Soviet troops into Pavlokoma was received with distrust by the Ukrainian population and decidedly badly by the Poles. The new authorities organized a series of propaganda meetings during which it was announced that the Ukrainian lands would be annexed to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and that The Ukrainians would be liberated from the oppression of „Polish” lords. All religious institutions were forbidden to operate, and on February 10, 1940, 40 Poles were deported from the village. According to the accounts of a group of Polish residents of Pavlokoma, the local Ukrainian population contributed to the deportations, and the local Ukrainian nationalists demanded from the Soviet commander permission to kill Polish neighbors. In 1940, 9 inhabitants of the village were incorporated into the Red Army, including 6 The Ukrainians and 3 Poles.
Soviet troops withdrew from the village in June 1941 due to the Nazi attack on the USSR. The return of the Germans made it possible for Ukrainian nationalists to act freely, including Mikołaj Lewicki returned to Pawłokoma (he had lived the previous two years in Dynów) and again started organizing Ukrainian youth around anti–Polish slogans. The Ukrainians were also favored in access to offices and in conducting educational, cultural and sports activities. OUN activists came to the village, a group of at least 10 young men from Pavlokoma volunteered to the SS „Galizien”. The Polish population also blamed the Ukrainians for deporting 3 Poles and 1 Ukrainian woman (pro–Polish) to Auschwitz–Birkenau and for the shooting of Józef Michalik, probably a member of the Home Army.
In the area of Pavlokoma and its vicinity there were clashes between Ukrainian nationalist organizations and the Polish underground, which began to form in the region around the fall of 1940. a commemorative cross erected by the Ukrainians in honor of the Battle of Kruty, a place of regular nationalist demonstrations; the Polish underground issued and executed four OUN activists – Mikołaj Lewicki, Ivan Karpa, Eugenia Trojan and Ivan Szpak. The first of them was shot on October 14, 1942, the second in May 1943, and the last two in 1944. These actions prompted the Ukrainian nationalists to act less openly. At the same time, there were cases of threats by the Ukrainian population against Poles,
A further deepening of anti–Ukrainian sentiments among Poles took place after the Ukrainian police arrested a group of Poles belonging to the Home Army, and an attempt to rescue them from the police station in Jawornik Ruski ended with the capture of the building, but not the release of those arrested, who were no longer there. Their fate has not been explained, but the residents took it for granted that they were murdered by the Ukrainians. In retaliation for the attack on Jawornik, the Germans, together with the Ukrainian auxiliary police, pacified the village of Dylągowa, killing one Pole.
In 1944, in the area of Brzozów county, after the Red Army entered the structures of new authorities dependent on the USSR. The encroaching troops treated the area east of the San as belonging to the USSR; 5 The Ukrainians from Pavlokoma were conscripted into the Red Army. A military unit specialized in training telegraphists and radio operators was located in Pawłokom, which protected both the Ukrainian population against possible retaliatory attacks by the Polish underground, and the Polish population against a possible UPA attack.
The Ukrainian partisan was active in the area of Brzozów county, along with the UPA there was the Bezpeky Service and the SKW. On July 21 and 22, 1944, priests Jan Mazur and Józef Kopeć, parish priests of Tarnawatki and Borownica, respectively, were killed by the Ukrainian partisans. The UPA also attacked the villages of Jabłonica Ruska, Ulucz, Poręby, Siedliska, Kotów, Bachów, Piątkowa, Żohatyn, Jawornik and Sufczyna. As a result, Polish self–defense forces were established in Dylągowa and Sielnica. The Poles also asked for protection of the Home Army units, which avoided being broken up and arrested after Operation Storm. In Pawłokom, due to the presence of the Soviet unit (until January 1945), and then due to the presence of the Home Army units and the Peasants' Battalions, the inhabitants felt safe.
The Home Army units operating in the vicinity of Pawłokoma knew the events of the Volhynia massacre and were therefore unfavorable towards the Ukrainians. This was exacerbated by subsequent cases of the UPA and SKW attacks on Polish villages. In Pavlokom itself there was also a conspiratorial structure of the OUN, with at least 50 of its members and sympathizers known by name.
After the Soviet unit left Pavlokoma, on January 21, 1945, an armed unit with a force of about 60 people appeared in the village, taking with it seven Poles and one pro–Polish Ukrainian woman, including Kacper Radoń, the mayor and Ignacy Wilk, a delegate to the National Council. Z. Konieczny, following the Polish inhabitants of Pawłokoma, claims that it was a branch of the UPA, Eugeniusz Misiło, relying on Ukrainian reports, proves that it was an NKVD unit, which, in his opinion, is indicated by the uniform uniform of the entire group and the fact that in the first months In 1945, there were no such strong UPA units in the Brzozów county, which retreated to the mountains or were disbanded due to the great numerical superiority of the Soviet units. The same author points out that
Due to the fact that the traces of the abductees were lost, their families considered them murdered and appealed – also through the Greek Catholic priests from Pawłokoma and Dynów – to reveal their burial place. These actions did not bring any results. Therefore, the Citizens' Militia arrested February 22, 11 (or 17). Ukrainians, in order to obtain information about the fate of Poles during the investigation. Their fate is not clear. At the same time, the Home Army issued an order to liquidate Jerzy Prokop, the Ukrainian mayor of Dynow, who was killed along with his entire family. Two Polish brothers abducted on January 21 took part in this crime.
Poles from Dynów and Pawłokoma appealed to the starost of Brzozów to send troops to force information about the missing. The meetings in the starosty turned into anti–Ukrainian rallies, during which the residents recalled all the previous activities of Ukrainian nationalists and crimes in neighboring towns. The refugees from Volhynia contributed particularly to fueling these sentiments. Finally, Polish residents left Pavlokoma after a previously held conference on the action against the Ukrainians. Based on the memoirs and documents of the branch of Józef Biss, pseud. „Wacław” that it took place in Dynów at the end of February 1945 with the participation of Poles from Pawłokoma, members of self–defense from nearby villages and representatives of the Home Army. During the trial of members of his division, Biss testified that that at the conference it was decided to participate in his unit, Polish self–defense from Dynów and „local self–defense”, a total of 250 people. He also claimed that the gathered inhabitants of Pavlokoma informed about the presence of a UPA unit in the village, and therefore it was decided to capture and kill all men over 15, except for the infirm. Z. Konieczny states that only the men of the Ukrainian underground were to be shot and the women and children were to be handed over to the UPA.
Based on the testimony of witnesses, it was established that several attacks were carried out before the main attack on Pavlokoma to check how much the Ukrainian population would defend itself. The first one took place on February 27 or 28, Eugeniusz Misiło reports that 13 people fell victim to it. On March 1, Zahora (the upper part of Pavlokoma) and its hamlets were attacked; in the accounts of the surviving Ukrainians, there is information about the murder of between a dozen and several dozen people that day. After this attack, Polish troops already knew that there was no UPA unit in the village. Z. Konieczny states that the attacks on 1 and 2 March were the work of units heading towards the planned grouping site in Dylągowa, where the staff of Lieutenant Józef Biss, pseud. „Wacław”, appointed by the leadership of the Rzeszów District of the Home Army to manage all activities. The next day, „Wacław” assigned tasks to the platoon commanders. Polish troops entered Pawłokoma around 4 am on March 3, 1945.
In the memoirs of J. Fedak, there is information that after the events of March 1, The Ukrainians from Pavlokoma chose 10 young men who were to go for help to representatives of the OUN and the Bezpeky Service in Jawornik Ruski and Piątkowa. A meeting with a representative of the OUN and the Security Service took place, but according to the same memories, help was refused due to the superiority of Polish forces.
According to E. Misiła, Pawłokom was completely surrounded, and the soldiers approaching its center shot at every person they met, including women and children, the number of whom the author estimates at around 50. After finding out about the situation, Ukrainian residents tried to hide or to resort to church. People whose hiding places were discovered were either killed on the spot or driven to a church or a people's house. According to the reports of Ukrainian witnesses, men, women and children over 7 (or 10) years of age were separated from the rest in these places and shot at a closed Greek Catholic cemetery. The testimonies of these witnesses also mention the beating of men with flails, twirling with barbed wire and cutting a cross on the chest of one of them. This is denied by soldiers from „Wacław”'s unit, who say that only men were shot, after repeating the question of where the Poles abducted from the village were buried. Soldiers named Kowal and Hayduk claimed that a unit of 40 people covered the local self–defense activities, which caught The Ukrainians belonging to the UPA or SKW, and also arrested several armed The Ukrainians while trying to escape. Hayduk claimed they were deserters from the German auxiliary police who later became UPA members. The attackers were also to find weapons and ammunition in the church and in neighboring houses. and also detained several armed The Ukrainians in an attempt to escape. Hayduk claimed that they were deserters from the German auxiliary police who later became UPA members. The attackers were also to find weapons and ammunition in the church and in neighboring houses. and also detained several armed The Ukrainians in an attempt to escape. Hayduk claimed they were deserters from the German auxiliary police who later became UPA members. The attackers were also to find weapons and ammunition in the church and in neighboring houses.
According to Polish reports, soldiers of the „Wacław” unit did not take part in the shootings, but only covered the activities of self–defense members. E. Misiło points out that during his hearing at the hearing on July 30, 1953 Czesław Sputa pseud. „Żelazny”, the commander of the team in Józef Biss's unit, testified that the soldiers from this unit were directly involved in checking the nationality of the inhabitants of Pawłokoma who were sent to the church, as well as in shooting together with members of Polish self–defense. The same author states that soldiers of the Home Army from Tadeusz Kowal's platoon pseudonym „Gray”. There are conflicting testimonies about the method of killing – the Home Army soldier Roman Tworzydło testified that The Ukrainians were shot with the MP submachine gun, in which he was to personally participate. Another soldier, Marian Sputa, in 1952 he testified in turn that the victims were killed by shots to the back of the head. E. Misiło also states that Józef Biss himself took part in the crime, he was supposed to be present at the church and participate in the selection of the population, go to the cemetery, and then eat lunch in the village.
Only a group of women and children survived from Pawłokoma, and they were escorted to Bircza or Gdyczyna. „Wacław” was to say goodbye personally and announce that he was changing the name of Pawłokoma to Wacławówka.
Various sources give numbers from 80 to 500 killed in Pavlokom. An indisputable decision on the number of victims is practically impossible, as the bodies were not fully exhumed from the graves. Publications (leaflets). The UPA in the fall of 1945 estimated the number of killed The Ukrainians at around 300. According to the soldiers involved in the crime in Pavlokom, such a number of bodies was not able to accommodate the pits they dug; they claim that at most 120—150 The Ukrainians were shot. Józef Biss himself maintained that at most 80 people were killed.
The name list of the victims is given by Petro Poticznyj in his work Pavlokoma 1441—1945. Istoria seła, which indicates 366 people killed, based on the memories of his mother Olena and on research extending them. The above–mentioned list, however, includes not only those killed on 3 March, but also 22 people who died a few days before and after the crime, and 19 inhabitants of the area murdered after returning from forced labor. Following Poticzny, Misiło also writes about several dozen people killed in hamlets, whose bodies were thrown into a bunker near the village. Z. Konieczny questions the credibility of this census, comparing it with the census of the Ukrainian population made by the parish priest before the war, pointing to unequal numbers of people with the same surnames on both lists (sometimes clearly higher in the list of victims).
.

source: „The crimes in Pawłokoma”; in: portal: WikipediA — web page: pl.wikipedia.org [accessible: 2022.02.28]

Excerpt from a field report by an OUN clerk about the murders of Ukrainians in Pawłokoma by former Home Army units:
„On 3 March 1945, the village was surrounded early in the morning and at 5 o'clock the work of the militia from Dynów and civilian Poles from the neighboring villages of Sielnica, Dylągowa, Bartkówka, Dąbrówka started. Women and children were with them, helping to rob the village. A Mass was just being celebrated in the church. Poles began to drive people to the church. The men were killed on the spot. In the church they separated women and men separately. They led the last women and girls to the church, saying:
«From this church there will be [end of note]»”.

source: „Wisti z terenu”, b.d.; in: Institute of National Remembrance IPN Rzeszów, in: Acta OAIPN Rz 072/1, vol. 2, sh. 287

source: Huk Bogdan with a group of friends, „Murders of the Ukrainian population 1944-1947”; in: portal: Ruthenian apocrypha — web page: www.apokryfruski.org [accessible: 2021.09.30]

1945 March 29, Brzozów — Fragment of the situational report of Stanisław Bućek, elderman of Brzozów for the Provincial Office in Rzeszów for March 1945 regarding the murder of Ukrainians in Pawłokoma:
„In recent weeks, the case of Ukrainians living in communities beyond the San has come to the fore. And so, according to reports on March 3, 1945, about 200 armed people, probably in military uniforms, attacked the Ukrainian village of Pawłokoma. After a prolonged shooting, part of the population and cattle were to be kidnapped to the east”.

source: State Archive in Rzeszów, in: UWRz sygn. 373, sh. 14

source: Huk Bogdan with a group of friends, „Murders of the Ukrainian population 1944-1947”; in: portal: Ruthenian apocrypha — web page: www.apokryfruski.org [accessible: 2021.09.30]

October 10, 1945, typescript — Fragment of the indictment of Poles guilty of murdering Ukrainians in Pawłokoma prepared by 'Sokol' — 'Bohdan', a member of the administration of the District I of the Zakerzonya Region:
„Ukrainians from Pawłokoma, who died at the station in Dynów by Polish bandits: Mudryk Iwan, Trojan Jarosław — murdered in the village of Bartkówka near the pond; Poticzny Wołodymyr — caught and murdered in Pawłokoma— was caught by Pyrda Karol and handed over to Łach Tadeusz and Rudewski Tadeusz, who took him to the forest and shot him in the Pawłokoma forest; Nestoriwski Kyryło, caught in Dynów near the station; Mudryk Wołodymyr, captured in Bartkówka by Ludwik Krzysztof from Bartkówka; Waciak Olha, caught in Chodorówka; Łańczak Wolodymyt, caught in Dynów and shot in the Pawłokoma forest; Costowski Osyp, Mudryk Andrij and two unknowns, caught in Dynów at the station — they were taken to the Pawłokoma forest and murdered there; Roman Starling murdered in the village of Bartkówka, Mudryk Stepan murdered in Dynów, Sajjha Wołodymyr and Kuraż Lubomyr murdered in Ryszów (a hamlet of the village of Dąbrówka), Basarab Marija, caught in the village of Bachórz, and murdered in Dylągowa”.

source: „Akt obwynuwaczennia polakiw pryczetnych do znyszczennia ukrajinciw”; in: Wiatrowycz W. (ed,), „Polśko-ukrajinśki stosunky w 1942—1947 rr. u dokumentach OUN ta UPA”, in: Lviv 2011, vol. 2, p. 892, in: orig. Ukrainian

source: Huk Bogdan with a group of friends, „Murders of the Ukrainian population 1944-1947”; in: portal: Ruthenian apocrypha — web page: www.apokryfruski.org [accessible: 2021.09.30]

Polish translation of Aleksandra Poticzna's account of the murder of Ukrainians in the village of Pawłokoma, included in the collection „Peremyszl zachidnyj bastion of Ukrajina” from 1961:
„After the departure of the Germans in 1944, a commune council was elected in Pawłokoma, consisting of only Poles, who live in the Polish colony Kaczmarzówka. The Ukrainians, the majority of whom were in the village, accepted this fact calmly, though with regret. The Poles immediately began to introduce their order. First, they forbade the burying of the dead in the new cemetery, located on Polish (former farm) grounds, and closed the road to it. Funerals had to be directed to the old, long overcrowded and therefore closed cemetery. The policemen from Dynów came constantly, but instead of keeping order in the village, they persecuted the Ukrainian population for, for example, keeping Ukrainian portraits and paintings in the room: Taras Shevchenko, Bohdan Khmelnytsky's entry into Kiev, etc. So, bilateral attacks, attacks on the village by bands from Bartkówka began and Dylągowa, looting began in the village. The first victims were killed. Andrij Aftanas from Stawiska was murdered, Ivan Szpak was taken to Bachórz, there he was murdered and thrown into the San.
At that time, the following were arrested by the police (without giving reasons): Wojtko Aftanas, Fedko Aftanas, Mykhailo Steć, Iwan Kril, Josyp Fedak, Mykola Trojan, his son Stefan Watciak with his son Włodek, Antko Trojan, Sewerko Romanyk, Josyp Sadżuga. They were taken to the prison in Brzozów and released after the end of Pawłokoma.
The attacks on Pawłokoma intensified in December 1944. The Bolsheviks then conducted military exercises in Pawłokoma. This to some extent prevented the Poles from taking more action, although there were not many Bolsheviks in the village. At the Epiphany of 1945, the Bolsheviks left. Soon a unit in Bolshevik uniforms came to the village from Dąbrowa. Little — about 60 people. At that time, Poles from Dynów, Gerula and his brother‑in‑law Gąsecki, who was to marry Antek Trojan, were passing through the village, they were bringing flour to the wedding. The aforementioned unit took both of them and, additionally, other Poles: Radoń Kacper, Ignacy Wilk, Antek Trojan from Sczyna, Diabel and Katarzyna Costowska. They drove everyone towards Jawornik. Later, Poles claimed that it was a UPA unit that shot those gathered in the Jawornik forest. It should be assumed that it was a Bolshevik unit and that false news was spread for provocation purposes. We didn't have to wait long for the effects. Mothers from Dynów, Gosecko and Gerulów, visited the Pawłokoma Orthodox priest several times to appeal for the surrender of the bodies of the murdered. It did not make sense, because Jawornik is far from Pawłokoma  […] Then the 'resentful' mothers went to the district office in Brzozów. The County Office reportedly told them: You can do whatever you want with Pavlokoma. All Poles from Pawłokoma and its vicinity gathered on Sunday, at the end of February 1945, in Dynów for a confidential meeting. The next day, all Poles from Pawłokoma left the village and went to the neighboring villages. After their departure, the surrounding villages began a series of attacks on Pawłokoma, including Dylągowa, Bartkówka, Sielnica, Bachórz, Bachórzec and the town of Dynów. Organized gangs surrounded Pavlokoma, they walked around the huts and robbed what was lost. On the news of the approaching gangs, people would go to hiding places or run to the church, the apartments were left empty. The first house that was burnt down was the house of Antek Costowski. The first victim was Zofia Szpak. An attacker from Dylągowa shot her, to which she managed to shout:
— «Staszek, what are you killing me for?»
Her mother, Rozalia Szpak, heard it, and she snatched her grandson from the hands of the Dylągowa attacker, because he wanted to kill him as well. She bought the child and herself for 600 rubles, which she received from the Bolshevik for a horse.
On March 3, 1945, at 4 am, these bandits together with the Poles who left the village on Monday and had already returned, surrounded the village on all sides and began to destroy it. They were chasing people to church, beating terribly on the way. Pregnant women and women with children up to 4 years old were left in the church, the rest were driven to the cemetery, placed over the pits dug at night, shot and buried immediately. On the way to the cemetery they were also beating mercilessly. They wrapped barbed wire around naked Sewerek (from Waciak's homestead) and beat them with stakes so that the blood ran in a trickle. Orthodox priest Wołodymyr Łemć — according to the reports of women who were in the church — the inhabitants of Bartków and Dylągowa took to the cemetery. They came to the church and shouted to the priest who was blessing people:
— «Drop it, because we don't need it anymore!»
They led him outside the church under the linden trees, beat him there with stakes and flails, then took him to the cemetery and shot him. His mother, wife and children were sitting in the church on the stairs in front of the iconostasis. Later, they were driven with other women through Bircza, from where the UPA took everyone to Przemyśl.
My boys: Mykhailo (20), Julko (17), Iwaś (15), Bohdan (7) sneaked into my grandmother's house, and Lubko (19) was in Petr Nestorowski's hideout. There was also Piotr's 6‑year‑old son, Oleh. They heard the following conversation:
— «Do not touch this cottage, because there are no Ukrainians here».
In the attic of Ivan Mudryk there were: Antin Basarab, Izydor Strejko Petro and Iwan Mudryk (owner of the cottage) Bohdan Dziwik. They heard how the son of a local Pole, Władek Kowal, Józef boasted:
— «When I gave the uncle two shots, only his feet twiched».
Uncle, i.e. Petro Nestorowski, hidden under a shed, which was attacked by Kowal and his gang.
My sons, who escaped to their grandmother, took them to the cemetery and shot them there. I was with my husband and Katrusia in a hideout in my shed–stable. There was straw lying on the wall and we slipped under it. From here you could not only see but also hear how the Pole, Ludwik Potoczek, along with others, led our cattle out of the pigsty. Then Ludwik said:
— «Look here, they are hidden somewhere here».
When they finally threatened to throw incendiary grenades, my husband said to me:
— «Let's go out, or we'll get burned».
We left, the attackers from Sielnica took us. I couldn't go, so I was taken to the cart and my husband sat down too. They brought us to the church. I am put aside. Then Rózia from Bartkówka joined me and took the scarf off her head. When I asked:
— «What are you taking this for?»
she replied:
— «You don't need anything anymore, the end has come».
They led my husband to the Waciak's shed. They searched him there, and after the rest of the people were taken to the cemetery, they drove me to the church, where there were already women with children. Even outside the church, I knew that my husband had joined the last group led to the cemetery. This group was led by Ivan Karpa, without a shirt, with a cross cut out on his chest, from which blood was bleeding.
Later Aleksandra Fedaczek told me that my husband and Pavlo Poticki were filling the pits in the cemetery. Rózia Dziaczyńska née Romanyków told me that she had heard from Katarzyna Bułdys that she had seen my husband shot in the cemetery but not yet buried. The murdered and not yet buried people had to be buried by those Poles who remained, such as Stach and Wawrzko Ślączka and Pantoł. They were forced to take the dead bodies from the village. They threw all the corpses from Karpówka, Nesterówka and Ślączkówka into the bunker in the fields of Nesterowka. They were also ordered to clean the church of blood.
There were many corpses in individual cottages, because the ravaged gang fired mercilessly. Local Poles were murdering together with gangs from nearby villages. They had a managerial role — they showed the strangers where to look for Ukrainians. Almost all the locals and their families, including minors, murdered neighbors and even relatives. Chauvinist rage led to the fact that the husband snatched his own child from his wife, and gave her — a Ukrainian — to death! Here are the 'leaders' in killing Polish families from Pawłokoma: Władysław Kowal, brothers Kaszyckis, Ulanowskis, Ślączka, Teodor Rudawski (his son later died in the UPA) and from Dylągowa a whole group of pupils of the parish priest Styliński, mad inhabitants of Bartkowice, Dynów, converts from Sielnica and local natives. — stray ones from Dylągowa. They are to blame for the shed blood that has soaked into the soil of the Ukrainian Pavlokoma”.

source: „Finishing Pavlokoma”; in: Siwicki M., „The history of Polish-Ukrainian conflicts ”, in: Warszawa 1994, vol. III, p. 288—292

source: Huk Bogdan with a group of friends, „Murders of the Ukrainian population 1944-1947”; in: portal: Ruthenian apocrypha — web page: www.apokryfruski.org [accessible: 2021.09.30]

Fragment of Stefania Kohut's memoirs about the murder of Ukrainians in Pawłokoma by a branch of the DSZ under the command of Józef Biss 'Wacław' and the inhabitants of neighboring Polish villages:
„In the middle of the week, certainly on Thursday, [the Poles] threw a grenade into the house of Teodor Fedak. His wife and two daughters were seriously injured. The younger one, Minodora, around 14‑year‑old who did not live to see the evening and died  […] Soon, another action on the village  […] [Minodora's] mother and her sister were murdered by the executioners in the beds  […] The clothes stolen from the house were brought by the bandits to Bielec, to whom they brought the children of Wołodymyr Trojan from Pidływka  […] whose mother was murdered  […] Behind the house Bielec killed some people, incl. Koszowskis, Anna, Josyp and their daughter Marysia, grandfather and grandmother, wife of Ivan Fedak, their two daughters Marysia and Hania, mother and sister of Andrija Fedak.
The Polish gang surrounded the entire village on March 3, 1945, on Saturday morning. They started rushing into houses, taking whole families away, killing whoever they wanted on the spot, and chasing others to the reading room, some to the reading room, if the church was too far away  […] That day, my father got up early and came back saying that from Sokołyk everything is black — a band was coming. Sokołyks lived right behind us, a bit on the hill, so the gang immediately reached our basement and started pounding furiously on our door. There were double doors. The first ones were opened after some time, but the second ones were not. So they went to the other side, to the dungeon for storing potatoes. They make a hole and say:
— «You have to throw in a grenade!»
Papa says:
— «Move against the wall»  […]
Those above did what they said. They threw something in, but nothing happened to us. The flame exploded, but then it went out, only the little dog started squeaking hard, so they started knocking on the door again, shooting through the door, injuring my mother's leg above the knee. Mom said:
— «I feel very hot».
The gang couldn't open it, but finally they opened the door and yelled,
— «Get out!».
They were furious, they started to push us outside. Volodymyr did not want to, so they started to hit him on the head with a bayonet, cut his legs and cut him up. I was run near one house called 'On the gallery', where they ordered me to look for rifles. I entered that house, but there was no one there, only one old man, covered in blood, was lying dead in the middle of the house  […] Dad was gone, because he was killed by Kopacki from the neighboring Sielnica. Mom recognized him. Volodymyr my bloodied brother was barely walking. When we got to the church, I saw Rudawski walking with his wife and around 4‑year‑old boy (known in the village as Todyria). Then Rudawski took the boy in his arms and they murdered her because she was a Ukrainian.
The bandits chased everyone, rushing everyone to the church through the small door leading through the sacristy. The great doors were closed. In front of this small door there was a puddle, which froze during the night, and now in it, trampled by people, in water and mud lay Volodymyr Petrovych (called in the village Dopolny). He came back from Germany from work and suffered from consumption. He was so weak that he couldn't walk, so it is unknown if someone brought him and threw him in a puddle in his shirt and pants, so he was sliding in the mud, unable to get up. Nobody remained from Petrovych's house, and there were six of them: father, mother, this Volodymyr, Marijka, Mirko and Orest.
They drove us inside when there were already many people there. The priest celebrated the Holy Mass. People prayed, they lay crosswise, Brother Volodymyr fell behind the pews and lay there. The priest gave him communion, and then they took my brother from the church and took him somewhere, he did not move his legs anymore  […]
They started sorting people. First, they selected the men and led them outside, where they beat them and inflicted torment in various ways, twisted them with barbed wire, beat them with flails, cut out crosses. There they tormented priest Łemcio.
Then they started working on single women. They put girls over ten years old and boys over eight years old separately in pairs, and then herded them to the cemetery. As they were about to choose me, they approached mother and asked,
— «How old is she?»
Mom said eight and they left me. Stepan and Kateryna Waciak's son Sewerko they beat so badly that he could no longer walk on his own legs. Two [bandits] took him by the armpits and led him through the church. Sewerko barely screamed
— «Mother! Dad!»,
He fell again, but they picked him up right away and carried him away”.

source: „Spohad Stefaniji Kohut (diwocze prizwyszcze Fedak) narodżenoji 1934 roku w Pawłokomi Bereziwśkoho powitu”; in: Huk Bogdan (ed,), „1947 Propamiatna Knyha”, in: Warszawa 1997, p. 452—454

source: Huk Bogdan with a group of friends, „Murders of the Ukrainian population 1944-1947”; in: portal: Ruthenian apocrypha — web page: www.apokryfruski.org [accessible: 2021.09.30]

Excerpt from Andrij Łemcio's account of the murder of Ukrainians in Pawłokoma by a branch of the DSZ under the command of Józef Biss 'Wasław':
„I am the son of Volodymyr Josyf Łemcio, killed by Poles on March 3, 1945 in the village of Pawłokoma near Dynów, where we lived and where my father performed his duties the chaplain. At the beginning of March 1945, Poles attacked our village for the first time and plundered its inhabitants. They took cows, pigs and household goods from people. Just at that time, I was in the house next door with my peer, Andriy. His younger sister and grandmother were at home. We watched through the window as Poles with automatic guns were loading pigs onto the cart. One of them didn't like it and fired at the window. The bullet went through the frame and hit Grandma in the head. Grandma screamed and, bloodied, fell on the bed  […]
On March 3, at dawn, the Poles again attacked the village. We stayed overnight with one Polish woman then, because my father thought it would be safer there. Poles bade all people to the church, shooting was heard. When they were all in the temple, [the attackers] ordered the father to say the Holy Mass and the people to prepare themselves for death. Then they divided us into two groups. Men to the left and women to the right. They ruffled the men, took off their better clothes and led them to be shot. On the other hand, women were taken to the sacristy, where Polish women searched them, and then led them to be shot. I saw all this, I was sitting scared in the corner. They loaded all the things taken from the people on three sleighs drawn by gray horses.
In this way, the attackers worked until five o'clock in the evening. They led my father out of the church and led him home. They beat him and asked where he hid his fortune. They brought his mother. She asked them in Polish what they were beating her father for. Grandma cried and showed the Poles where some clothes were buried in the basement. Then they brought bloodied father in underpants and a shirt to say goodbye to his family.
A little earlier, the local Poles had warned my father to leave the village with his family. but he did not do it, saying,
— «Where my faithful are, there I will also be».
He carried out his duties to the end”.

source: Łemcio A., „v. Pawłokoma”; in: Sływka J. (ed,), „Deportaciji. Zachidni zemli Ukrajiny kincia 30—ch – poczatku 50—ch rr. Dokumenty. Materiały. Spohady.”, in: Lviv 2002, vol. 3: „Memoirs”, p. 96

source: Huk Bogdan with a group of friends, „Murders of the Ukrainian population 1944-1947”; in: portal: Ruthenian apocrypha — web page: www.apokryfruski.org [accessible: 2021.09.30]

The Ukrainians from SKW murdered Karolina Kaszycka returning from forced labor from Germany and plundered her modest property. In the archives of „Chołodnyj Jar”, found in 1983 near Bircza, there was a note made on July 11, 1945 by the SKW „Śmich” shooter. „applies to: SKW Rifleman, 1st Cane, chota area 3 «Czarnomore». Case: Liquidation of Kaszycka Karolina, a Pole, from the village of Pawłukomy, who was returning from Germany and on 7 July 1945 was liquidated by SKW «Śmicha» and «Jastrub» shooters on the order of Kuszczowego «Jara». Testimony: Kuszczowy «Jar» gave the order to «Jastrub» and me that we both liquidate Kaszycka Karolina. On leaving, I remembered the order given to «Jastrub» that if there were textiles and underwear, then «Jastrub» can take them. We left right after that. In the cottage, where the above–mentioned Polish woman was staying, there were the following people: Iwan Mudryk, Dmytro Sokił and anna Potoczniak – the wife of a Pole from this cottage. after collecting the things that could be shirts, we returned to our quarters. On the way, «Jastrub» took these things to one Polish woman in the village of Kotów, so that she could make shirts.
Leaving Kaszycka Karolina, we told her to leave the village in an hour. after arriving at headquarters, «Jastrub» reported to «Jar» that he had taken the fabrics for shirts from her, which he had given him to sew. after an hour «Jar» told us to go, lead the Polish woman to the forest and liquidate (by shooting) «Jastrub» led her out of the hut, handed her over to Mudryk Iwan to escort her to the forest. We stopped her in the forest and liquidated her: we shared the things she had with her. «Jastrub» took things for himself: a sheet, a meter and a half of linen, a ladies' blouse, a sweater, a scarf, stockings that he gave to Kushna Tanya. I took the following things for myself: sweater, dress, scarf, socks. These things were not reported to «Jar». Two days later «Jar» asked «Jastrub» where the things were and how many there were. «Jastrub» only reported «Jar» such things: two sheets and stockings”.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – July 1945”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

source: Prus Edward, „UPA Atamans”, in: Wrocław 1996, p. 91

The UPA murdered 5 Poles and burnt the village down.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – October 1945”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.02.04]

In the village of Pawłokoma, poviat In Brzozów, the UPA kidnapped 13 Poles, 8 of whom were tortured and murdered in the area of the village of Wola Wołodzka. „On February 12, 1946, at night, an UPA group kidnapped 13 people from Pawłokoma. From this group the Fedzug family of four was released, and one person, Emil Michalik, managed to explain that his father was Ukrainian and survived. The remaining eight people: Jan Marszałek (37 years old), Józef Pantoł (25 years old), Władysław Ulanowski (24 years old), Andrzej Żańczak (45 years old) and four people with unknown identity were murdered in the area of Wola Wołodzka. After the Banderites had escaped, Emil Michalik testified that «they were tied with ropes and driven together through the Dylągów forest to the hamlet of Huta in the village of Poręba, on the way they were kicked with boots and beaten with rifle butts. After arriving at the hamlet of Huta, the four–person Fedzug family was released. The remaining nine men were driven on as far as Wołodża and were held tied there all day long. In the evening, they were escorted to Wola Wołodzka, where were interrogated with various tortures, for example, had bodies mutilated with knives and sprinkled with salt. After the interrogation of all eight half–dead men, they were taken to the field and murdered there. He was the last to be interrogated, and when he said that his father was Ukrainian, he was released, and told to stay at home all the time, because when the time was right, he would be called up to serve in the UPA». However, after interrogation, he escaped and took refuge in Przedmieście Dynowskie”.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – February 1946”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.06.10]

source: Fr Nabywaniec Stanisław, Fr Jan Rogula (Rzeszów Uniwersity), „Over the blue San. And so it was in Polish-Ukrainian relations until 1947.”; in: Krupa Jan (ed.), „Sustainable tourism as an opportunity to protect the natural environment, cultural heritage and economic development of the communes of the Dynowskie Foothills”, in: Dynów 2014, p. 203—226 — web page: www.pogorzedynowskie.pl [accessible: 2021.06.10]

In the village of Pawłokoma, poviat Brzozów the UPA massacred 3 Poles who went to their farms in Pawłokoma for potatoes — temporarily they lived on the western side of the San.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – March 1946”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2021.06.10]

The UPA shot Ludwik Potoczny and his children of 11 and 12 drowned in the San River while escaping from them.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – October 1946”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: www.wolyn.org [accessible: 2022.02.26]