The Ukrainians murdered 2 Polish women, the grandmother and sister of Barbara Bittner–Saramak from Siedlisko.

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

The Ukrainians murdered 2 Poles.

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

The Ukrainians murdered 21 Poles / incomplete list /.

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

The UPA and The local Ukrainians murdered an unspecified number of Poles, several or a dozen families, 21 are known to have died, and burned the entire Polish colony of 52 farms. Kazimierz Sidorowicz: „Stanisław Nalepko's father was an inhabitant of our settlement in Siedlisko, he is now dead. after the war, he told me about his experiences in Volhynia. Their family lived near Rivne. One time Nalepko was driving a wagon and then he was met by a Ukrainian acquaintance who warned in the following way: «Everyone run away from the village to the city, because there is going to be an attack on Poles and they are going to kill you all!» Nalepko immediately took his family and they all fled to Rivne the same day. Meanwhile, that same night, right after their departure, the Ukrainians attacked their village and murdered all the inhabitants, and they burned down the buildings by”. Mr. Kazimierz: „Mieczysław Pilczuk, an inhabitant of Siedliska, told me in our village in April 2003 that he saw a well in Volhynia, filled with children murdered by the Ukrainians during bloody events!”.

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

source: Roch Sławomir Tomasz, „Recollections of Kazimierz and Antonina Sidorowicz née Turowska from the village of Dominopol in the district of Włodzimierz Wołyński in Volhynia 1930-1944”; in: portal: Volhynia, in: Zamosc, May 1, 2003 — web page: www.wolyn.org [accessible: 2022.04.06]

The village between Huta Stepańska and Wyrka had about 70 farms. Attacked on the night of July 16–17, 1943, it completely ceased to exist. After the war, it was plowed, orchards were cut, old roads closed, oaks cut, the Czapelka river straight and the marshes drained. Only the pond at the Minkiewicz house and „White Cross” at the end of the village remained. Mikołaj Fedorowicz Zchorujko, the first idyllic Huta Stepańska after the war. He had the skeletons of Poles found in the fifties and bushes collected and secretly carried to the cemetery in Wyrka. He told me this personally, when I asked: what were you supposed to do? He replied: „bury deeper than the plows plow”. Were there a lot of these bones? „answered oh, it was”, I didn't ask again. Mikołaj lives his old age in Huta Stepańska.

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

source: „The Trail of the Volhynia Crosses. Around Huta Stepańska with Janusz Horoszkiewicz”; in: portal: Fr Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski — web page: isakowicz.pl [accessible: 2021.04.11]

„The apparent peace lasted until July 16, 1943. Around midnight, the church bells sounded the alarm to immediately leave their homes and head towards Huta Stepańska. Nearby villages were already on fire, such as: Soszniki, Wyrka, Ostrówki, the beginning of Siedlisko. Since «there was something in the air» during the day, everyone was prepared to leave immediately, where there was stronger self–defense and hoped to survive there. My father quickly took us to a wagon, including food supplies and livestock, and headed towards Huta. It was easier for us to get to the road as we lived behind «the river» and we didn't have to cross any bridges. Some of them failed like the Onuchowski family. From our family, the grandmother Teofila Rosińska née Sawicka, the wife of Adam Rosiński, remained in the village, who was sick and wanted to stay in the place near her pen, asking her grandchildren to take her with the bed into the corn and hide her there, not yet believing that she might be murdered. We happily reached Huta without any major obstacles, hearing continuous shots behind us  […] We learned about the fate of my grandmother Teofilia Rosińska and her family after the war, when families began to find and visit each other, returning to the experiences of 1943. In 1955, at the age of 19, I visited my mother's uncle / brother Jan Rosiński in Godków – West Pomeranian Voivodeship and their son Czesław and daughter–in–law Genowefa née Brzozowska. They told me their story of how they survived this nightmare: «Well, there was an order to leave Huta Stepańska to Rafałówka on 17/18. 07.43 at night, everyone was still together, i.e. Jan Rosiński with his wife Helena and sons: Eugeniusz, Czesław, Konstanty. Szczepan was with his wife Genowefa with a 1‑year‑old daughter Zuzanna. In Huta there were also Genowefa's parents with siblings, Gracjan Brzozowski with his wife Filipina and sons: Piotr, Ignacy / not included in the list of missing persons /, and the elders, ‹lost› somewhere. Passing through Siedlisko during the general commotion, when the Ukrainians started shooting, then Jan Rosiński and Szczepan disappeared, and Helena, Jan's wife, with their son Czesław, and their daughter–in–law hid in the bushes near their farm. When it calmed down a bit and the Ukrainians left Siedlisko, they went to see what was happening with grandma Teofila, who was hidden in the crops in Siedlisko. 18.07.– Grandma was still alive. She told them that the Ukrainians found her but did not kill her, claiming that she would die of starvation anyway. /she was sick, did not go / They said it very ironically that ‹will fall›. The daughter–in–law with her grandchildren brought her food and left her there. Genowefa nieokojna for her husband Szczepan, together with Czesław / Szczepan's brother / went to look for him. Walking next to the cemetery in Wyrka, at the so–called Pawłowa Górka, she came across the body of her parents Gracjan and Filipina Brzozowski with their sons Piotr and Ignacy. They looked macabre, cut with a saber. They probably wanted to wait for their older sons on the outskirts of Siedlisko, and the Ukrainians caught up with them there. Stephen was not found. As they were already tired of all these experiences and despairing after the loss of their loved ones, they decided to stay overnight, that is on 18/19. 07. After the night they went to the fields to visit grandma, taking food for her, but grandma was already murdered. / not included in the list of missing persons / It was difficult for them to leave, leaving so many dead bodies, so they decided to stay until the next day. While penetrating the area, the Ukrainians discovered their hideout / their dog betrayed them / and murdered: Helena Rosińska, Jan's wife with her son Konstanty. Czesław with Genowefa and the child were in a different place and thus they stayed alive. As the Ukrainians penetrated the area every day, they were afraid to come out of their hiding places and they stayed in these crops and bushes for about 1 month. Until one day, exhausted physically and mentally, hearing an approaching car, they decided to go out on the road. It turned out that it was the Germans with Poles checking the area to see if anyone else was alive. They took them with them. They learned from the Poles about the fate of Jan Rosiński, Czesław's father and Genowefa's father–in–law. Uncle Janek, after the commotion at the border crossing in Soszniki, lost sight of his family and ran away towards Rafałówka, because it was the final stop for escapees. As he realized that there was no family in Rafałówka, he returned to search for Siedlisko along with a few more people looking for their families. The Ukrainians caught them in front of the Police, shot the others, and as he did not die from the bullet, they stabbed him with bayonets 18 times. He lost consciousness, so the Ukrainians thought he was dead and they left him there. After regaining consciousness, a Pole who found him took him to Rafałówka, and then he was taken to the hospital in Sarny, where he stayed for 2 months, recovering from the wounds he had suffered. Czesław and his sister–in–law Genowefa decided to stay in Sarny and wait there for his recovery». Bronisława Kaszuba, Stefan Bitner's mother–in–law, also died in Siedlisko, I don't know under what circumstances. I got the message from Barbara and Leokadia Bitner / they live outside Poland / Not included in the list of missing”. April 2013. Lodz. Halina Poros née Gutkowska was a resident of Siedlisko. „We lived at the end of the village. When Wyrka was on fire, all the inhabitants of Wyrka and Siedlisko focused on the road that led to Huta Stepańska. The roads were crowded, lots of wagons, bridges not quite passable, so my parents took me and my younger sister Jadzia on a cart / older siblings: Marian and Alina, ran away with the Home Army group / decided that they would cross the bridge / there were two bridges that could be used to get to the main road towards Huta Stepańska / from Stanisław Gutkowski. We hardly got there but when the Ukrainians started to burn the first houses in Siedlisko and shoot at us, we left our cart with the horses behind the bridge and ran away on foot across the ford towards Styrka. There we hid in the bushes and decided to wait out the night. The habitat was on fire. At dawn, we left the bushes and saw that Stanisław Gutkowski's house had not been burned down, and that our car was standing on the other side of the river. Then my parents decided that we would go get our cart and continue to run away in a cart. It turned out that in your home the Ukrainians made a place for «temporary rest» after the massacres they committed. When we left our hideout and were halfway to the bridge, the Ukrainians saw us and started chasing us on horses. Me and my sister managed to escape and hide in nearby potatoes, and they caught my parents and murdered in this field”.

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

source: Poros Halina nee Gutkowska, „Testimony of Wacław Onuchowski, son of Franciszka née Rozalsk and Jan Onuchowski, inhabitant of Siedlisko, on his experiences on 16-17. 07.1943”, 03/2011

source: Komański Henryk, Seredyński Mieczysław, „Memoirs of Volhynia from 1938-1943”, part II; in: „Borderlands Information Service”, in: No. 7/2013

I did not ask for details. I sensed that he would prefer not to come back to it and that should be respected. After all, as children, they were eyewitnesses of how their parents died.

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

source: Komański Henryk, Seredyński Mieczysław, „Memoirs of Volhynia from 1938-1943”, part II; in: „Borderlands Information Service”, in: No. 7/2013