The Ukrainians murdered about 40 Poles, whole families.

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

[The Ukrainians] murdered at least 49 Poles. In one family, they hacked 6 children under the age of 15 with an ax; they burned 15 people alive in the barn. „An old Ukrainian grandpa, Kolonia Poluchno 7 km from Horochów, reached the Polish colony. This grandfather came to our grandmother Keller and says: Hania, save yourselves and right away, because my boys were taken by bandits on carts, they went to Zagaje to murder, and you save yourselves. The Ukrainian says: I am 75 years old, they can kill me right away, but I will be happy when I save you. He said this and went in the cereals. They had a warning, but as long as they let me know, here and there, whoever immediately kicked to run, passed the front, and who got tangled around the house, and hide this, and give this to the cows, no longer they managed to escape and the front caught them in the yard or in the field. Janek Keller, escaping with his wife, child and sister, cried out: come quickly. And thinking himself a military man, it will be more about men than about women. They flew out of the barn together, he, a boy in his 30s, strong, ran quickly, shouting: follow me, follow me, faster. And the weaker women fell into the crops and were unable to escape to the forest, and Janek managed to go to the forest and lay down under the bush, looking for his wife Kazia and his daughter Irenka and sister Gienia. And they are not there and they are not, and here he hears the front coming screaming and giving the command to the bandits not to shoot, but to chop with an ax, because Polish murders are a pity. He frightened in despair, but well, he wouldn't do anything without a gun, without anything. And they have sat down from exhaustion and are sitting, this front has come, but he has not noticed them in practice. They passed, and those bandits on horseback noticed them. They got off the horses and stabbed Kazia, Gienia and the 20‑year‑old girl with daggers, and the 7‑year‑old child did not move. Irenka huddled next to her mother and the Ukrainian kicked her with his foot, she did not move and told the other bandit that she was already dead and they went away. Irenka hugged her mother all evening, because my mother was still alive, but so much blood had drained that my mother died during the night, and Irenka was hugging her mother. When the day flashed, Irenka calls: mommy, mommy. And mummy does not speak, she went to Aunt Genia, but she does not speak, so she took her and went to a Ukrainian whom she knew, and with this Ukrainian there was a whole team of bandits, and then they went to murder Poles. This Ukrainian got scared and asked: where is Daddy? She replied that my mother had killed aunt Gienia, and that my father had run away. Oh, it was the Ukrainian who was deeply concerned that my dad had run away, He took the little girl by the hand and led her to the barn and tied her up in a ball of straw threshing with a flail, straight straw. He tied it and said: keep quiet here, because the bandits will come here, if you leave, they will kill you, and if you sit quietly, I will take you to your daddy. And for the night she went to her, to the barn, and his wife slept with her between her knees. This is how the Ukrainians hid little Irenka for two weeks. After that time, he informed Horochów that Janek would come to the cemetery near the town, that he would bring him his little daughter, and a little earlier he informed Horochów at the presbytery that Janek Keller's daughter was alive. But Janek did not agree to this, to meet at the cemetery, but said that if you have a daughter, bring her here to the rectory's yard. On the next day, Irenka was brought to the courtyard of the presbytery and a group of people from the crowd came out to greet the girl with tears in their eyes that God had hidden the child somehow and she returned to her alive. The front went through Poluchno, not many people managed to escape, they chased 4 families into such a valley and killed there with daggers. The Abramowicz family, both Skawińscy, both Wapiński and Ostrowscy, died there. They killed them, put them together and they lay there for 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, we managed to go there, see that the dogs ate a lot of people from the side, scratched the body with their teeth. Hania Abramowiczów, the whole buttock was eaten, a braid of light hair was lying next to her head, she held her 5‑year‑old daughter under her heart, and Mrs. Skawińska, who took a loaf of bread with her, and they were both killed, it was this loaf of bread that lay 6 weeks on a grave covered with a little earth and the dogs of that bread did not move. We went a little further to Grandma Kellerowa, what's up there, what does Grandma look like? Grandma, as this Ukrainian let me know, dressed in her clothes prepared for death and she could not leave the house anywhere, because because of this fear or the time had come, the granddaughter started giving birth. It is grandma who tells herself: would they want to kill me? I am 96 years old, I tied everyone around the navels, I saved everyone in diseases, in misfortunes, could a cow not calve, then grandma went, or a mare or a pig, grandma was needed for all things, then where would they kill me? And here this Józia also felt sorry for the delivery, it was really grandmother who could not move from the house. She sent Janek, Józia's husband, that run away, because maybe only men are killed, And if he leaves the barn, he comes back again, and he waited for them to circle around and kill Grandma. Józia gave birth, and this baby with her head against the wall was lying dry on the floor like a chick, and the other 2‑year‑old was lying on the bed and they wanted to light the bed, but it went out, and Józia was killed in her bed and a wooden peg was stuck in her belly. While we were watching it all, the horses scraped the ground from under them, they snored and pricked their ears. We helplessly got on the car, great fear overwhelmed us and rushed home to Horochów, because we were really scared of terrible”.

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

source: Wolf Józefa z. d Zawilska, „Memories”; in: portal: Volhynia pages — web page: free.of.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]