38 Bandera followers on horses attacked Poles during a mass in the church, shot a few Poles in the choir and drove the rest of the faithful outside. They lined them up in three and headed towards the forest. During an attempt to escape, he will shoot 5 Poles, including a mother and a child. In the forest clearing, the road was replaced by a Greek Catholic priest Bereziuk from Polana, a village administrator, a Ukrainian, and local Ukrainians, interceding for the Poles. The Banderites released the Poles taking a ransom in money, horses, sleighs and food; About 90 Poles were saved. „Rakowice near Szczerca, area Lviv. On March 24 (Sunday), after the Holy Mass, the Church was surrounded and people were led out. The gang was in German uniforms, they spoke German. The Ukrainians, relatives of the taken Poles (the village is mixed), came out of the church located nearby and began to negotiate. During these negotiations, the bandits began to speak Ukrainian. They demanded 35,000 zlotys for horses, cows and pigs. They accepted 13,000 of the 4 donated horses, they chose 3. They ordered them to bring 50 loaves of bread and 5q of grain. Two women were killed, one of them Janisiowa”.

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

source: „1943 August - 1944 April - Reports and reports (selection) from PolKO Lviv-district sent to the RGO Delegate in Lviv regarding attacks and murders committed on the Polish population of the Lviv district”; in: National Ossoliński Institute, Wrocław, in: No. 16722/1, p. 45, 51, 55—63, 67—69

The father of Sigismud Jan Borcz (born in 1931) was the headmaster of the school in Rakowiec, located 20 km from Lviv. „On Palm Sunday in 1944 [mistake of the witness; the incidents he tells about took place on March 26, 1944, that is, a week before Palm Sunday] I went to church for the sum  […] My father stayed with my brother at school, they were awakened by the shots. A man with an automatic machine was standing by the window and he was shooting at people escaping from the church. They ran straight to the forest. I was in the church, in the sacristy. The priest [Błażej Jurasz] was saying the sermon and suddenly it was quiet. I see the priest running from the pulpit to the sacristy. He unlocked the door outside and I followed the priest. And there a Ukrainian stood in the snow and shot a priest. The priest fell over. Then I found out that the priest was injured. The churchman grabbed my collar and threw me back into the sacristy. I ask the churchman: «What will happen to us?». And he says: «Nothing. They'll slaughter us». I saw that there was a hole behind the altar where people were hiding, I couldn't fit in anymore. The Ukrainians stood in front of the main entrance behind glass doors with rifles aimed at the people lying on the floor. Women then wore such large scarves and everything was lying on the ground. At that moment, I saw that from the choir people go even higher. I accelerated, ran to the vestibule where the Ukrainians were standing, and opened the door to the choir. I flew up. And there they were already pulling up the ladder and shouting: «Pull up the ladder because the Banderites are following him!». However, someone lowered the ladder. I jumped up, grabbed myself, they pulled me higher. This is how I found myself in the attic. People hid on the beams. I was too young to climb. I noticed a gap between the roof slope, I entered it and went all the way to the altar. There was also a boy who could speak Ukrainian. The Ukrainians went upstairs and shot people. There was a shot and a pac! – body hitting the ground. They lit up with flashlights and wanted to go in, but you had to go in there on your stomach. And this boy speaks Ukrainian: «We have knives, we'll cut your throats». And they didn't come in. There was silence in the church after those screams and screams. After some time, I don't know how long, we heard a lady calling: «There are no more Ukrainians, they went to the forest with the people»”. .

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

source: Pękała Rafał B., „Bery kosu, bery niż i na Lacha… ”, accounts of the survivors of the Volhynia massacre; in: portal: 1943. Volhynia crime. Truth and memory. — web page: zbrodniawolynska.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]

source: Siekierka Szczepan, Komański Henryk, Bulzacki Krzysztof, „The genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists on Poles in the Lviv voivodship 1939-1947”, in: Wroclaw 2006, p. 628

On March 26, 1944, around 11 a.m., some UPA unit entered the village of Rakowiec and surrounded the church while the local Roman Catholic priest, Błażej Jurasz, was preaching. A priest and several dozen men were forced to leave, 4 people were shot and the rest were led to the forest. The village was inhabited by Poles and Ukrainians. However, the inhabitants of the village – the Ukrainians, led by the Greek Catholic priest Bereziuk (from Polana) and the head of the village head – opposed this. Fr Bereziuk, along with several parishioners, followed the UPA unit and, after long negotiations, bought the kidnapped men for 10,000 zlotys. golden and 4 pigs. Then almost all Poles left Rakowiec.

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

source: web page: piotrp50.blog.onet.pl [accessible: 2007.10.13]

The Ukrainians murdered 4 Poles.

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