June 23, 1945, Sanok — Report of the commission on the mass murder in Sieniawa of the Ukrainians on the night of June 20–21, 1945 by bandits from neighboring Polish villages:
„Report of the commission on the trip to the Sieniawa community, Rymanów commune, Sanok district office on 23.6.1945 r.
The committee composed of: Fr Borowiec Marian, chairman of the Provincial National Council, Józef Wróblewski, inspector of the State Control Office at the National Court Register, Misztal Alfons, head of the Social and Political Department, Miąsik Marcin, head of the WRN Presidency, Lieutenant Kołacz Michał from the Provincial Public Security Office, Capt. Janczak Antoni from the Provincial Civic Militia
The reason for the Commission's departure was a robbery and murder of the inhabitants of this village.
A clear day, a beautiful place, situated in a valley — large forests everywhere on the hills. The village was destroyed during the last war. 113 out of 220 houses burned then, which is more than a half. The population is 90% Ukrainian. They show anxiety at the sight of oncoming cars. Deputy mayor (Pl. sołtys) lives on the outskirts of the village, slightly wounded in the head and in the hand during the last attack. However, he is not lying in bed, but works near the farm. With him and several inhabitants of the cluster, the Commission goes to the place where the gangs made the first attack. It was a house on the edge of the village, not far from the mayor's house. At the scene of the crime, the ruins are already extinguished, including burned iron from agricultural machinery. Inside, the remains of a charred horse's corpse — human corpses cleared away. As the shadows of murdered husbands the wives appear with the tears in their eyes — three women.
Sudomir Dmitri's wife testifies first:
«A about midnight, on 20‑21st, armed men, about 15 (others present here claiming more), surrounded our house. Four of them, after breaking the glass and tearing the window frames, entered the house through the windows. I started screaming loudly. Then, under the threat of shooting me, they ordered me to stop screaming and lie down on the ground. They searched my husband for a gun. Finding nothing with him, they began to plunder the apartment. They took all the better clothes, underwear and shoes. Then they led my husband out of the house and led him to his brother, Sudomir Piotr, who lived in the neighboring house»:
As the wife of the same Piotr, Maria, testifies, the attackers entered their house through the door opened by the husband himself at the call of Brother Dmitri. For he cried out from the field:
— «Pietrek, open the door!»,
which, according to his wife, the attackers forced him to do, under the threat of using weapons. Well, Peter, suspecting nothing, opened it for his brother. Three people burst into the apartment with weapons ready to fire. The house was plundered in the same way as before, and 2,000 zlotys were also taken. cash. After the robbery had been committed, they led Dmitri and Piotr Sudomir away and dragged them to their neighbor Korłacz. Korłacz was called to open the house by both Sudomir brothers. After the bandits entered, their screams could be heard
— «Give the money back!»,
then shots and silence. After a while, flames burst out of Korłacz's house. A house was on fire surrounded by terrible figures of armed people, and inside it lay the bodies of three murdered men, a woman and a child. In the stables, the tethered horse screamed and beat its hooves. Nobody could put out the fire, because the bandits were firing heavily from the automatic machines.
The Commission then goes to the scene of other murders in the middle of the village. The bandits started there from the house of Bek Andrzej. As his wife Anna testified, someone from the field shouted:
— «Andrzej, open the window, I'll tell you something!»
However, they did not reply. On a repeated call, the Beks recognised the voice of the village mayor Bolanowski (from Sieniawa). Then Bek replied that he would not go out today, because of the night, if it has anything to do with him, let him come tomorrow. The mayor asked where he was sleeping. Bek replied that in the attic. (How the bandits forced the mayor Bolanowski to follow them, the Commission could not find out, because during the on‑site inspection carried out by the Commission he was in Rymanów). Now Bek's woman opened the attic door (windmill) to see who was downstairs and saw an individual in the uniform of a Polish soldier. She then wanted to close the door and was knocked down and injured by a grenade blast. The explosion, apart from her slight wound, injured the hand of 6‑year‑old daughter Maria. Suddenly they saw that the house was on fire. All its inhabitants went down to the hall. Grenades fell through the window, shots through the door. Terrified, confined to one corner of the hall, a group of people had two alternatives: to burn alive in a crackling house, or to try to escape through the bullets — maybe a life could be saved? They chose the latter and opened the hall door, trying to escape. Then the bandits started shooting. Anna Bek's married sister Sudomir Zofia and her two small children and her two unmarried sisters Helena and Eugenia all fell dead. Andrzej Bek, his wife Anna, their children Mikołaj and Maria and mother Maria Bek managed to leave the hall. At that moment the shots stopped. Then the grandmother Maria Bek, wanting to save the only peasant property, which is cattle, entered the stable to release them. The grandchildren went with her. The cattle were released, and then someone threw a grenade into the stables — grandmother dies from its fragments and her grandson Mikołaj, severely wounded in the stomach, dies during the day on his way to the hospital. All the buildings burned down with everything.
In the next house of another Sudomir, Piotr, the attackers shoot through the doors and windows. His 21‑year‑old son Antoni leaves the house and collapses in front of the threshold. He is followed by his 12‑year‑old sister Maria — she was also not spared. The gang lights the house, and then the father runs out of it, and just miraculously escapes with his life, because everyone is shooting after him. He rushes to the nearest shed, from there he runs away into the fields and, like a chased hare, he sews himself into the crops. When the bandits were busy with their father, his wife Zofia escaped from the burning house with two children — son Eugeniusz and daughter Antonina. They are sheltering in an off‑the‑beaten‑track basement.
Neighboring houses, such as Wacławski's, Kuzymek's, Paweł's and Kuzymek Teodor's, caught fire from these already burning. Here the bandits did not shoot anyone, they even allowed the cattle to be released. They then set fire to Andrzej Łusik's house — they took him out into the yard and shot him. His nephew, Mikołaj, was wounded during the flight, and his sister Anna was seriously injured. She dies a moment later.
This is how a gang murdered 19 people in a truly bandit manner and injured 9, 2 of whom die later as a result of wounds, i.e. a total of 21 people died. Nine houses, and 2 barns were burnt.
Sieniawa is a quiet, peaceful village, never having any quarrels, never received any warnings from anyone, until suddenly, in the depth of a night saturated with the scent of pine trees from the surrounding forests, this real beautiful red night — at sleeping quiet inhabitants — the village was hit by treacherous robbery, murders, looting, screams, chaotic shootings.
How long is it going to last? The village has already gone through its tragedy. After all, more than half of the village was burnt down during the hostilities — today add to this another 10%. Who is it useful to? The enemy has ravaged the country far and wide. They murdered right and left — today our own are doing it. When will reflection come? Our own are doing it. After all, after examining the matter and consulting the language, the Commission came to the conclusion that the murder and looting were carried out on a planned basis. This was done by local gangs with companions selected from other areas and military deserters. The murders betray [the illegible word – B.H.] of revenge against the background of earlier scores.
The first news that the bandits came to the village by truck is not confirmed, as none of the inhabitants of Sieniawa saw the car or heard it run (the rumble).
Four illegible handwritten signatures”.

source: „Report of the Commission on the trip to the Sieniawa community, Rymanów commune, Sanok County on June 23, 1945”; in: Institute of National Remembrance IPN Rzeszów, in: Acta OAIPN Rz 0057/19, vol. 1, sh. 172—173

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 an account by Oleksandr Kyryczuk and Stepan Nyszczuk about the murder of Ukrainians in Sieniawa by the inhabitants of neighboring Polish villages:
„«I, Maria Andrijiwna Bek, born in 1940, a Ukrainian, describe everything that happened. We heard gunshots at night. Our house was surrounded, shots rang out. The house started to burn, everything started to rain. Then it went quiet… We opened the door and wanted to run away. Suddenly there was a gunshot and everyone in the hall fell down. I was injured in my left arm, and so was my mother. Grandma looked out of the stables and they shot her. Hal's father's sister came back from Germany a week ago from forced labor to become fascists, she wanted to run away with the suitcases, but burned with them. Our entire farm burned down, along with grandmother and her three daughters: Hala, Zosia and Yevhenija together with 2 children. My 13‑year‑old brother was injured in the stomach… They took him to the hospital, but died on the way. This is how 7 members of our family died in one day. Only dad, mom and me were left alive».
The bloody orgy in Sieniawa did not end there. The next victims were the families of brothers Petr and Dmytro Sudomir. The plunder in both houses followed the same scenario.
«The Polish gang broke the windows and jumped into the house», — recalls Maria Mykhailivna Sudomyr. — «I started screaming, and they turned on the machines and hissed: ‹Be quiet, or I'll shoot!›. They forced the husband Peter and his brother Dmytro to lie down on the floor under the guns of the automatic machine, while they themselves robbed and destroyed wardrobes and a clock»  […]
They took both Sodomers with them.
After some time the Korwacz's house caught fire. Sofia Hryhorivna Sudomyr rushed to the neighbors to help, but the bandits saw her figure in the rye and started shooting. She lost consciousness, lay in the field until morning, leaving two scared children at home. In the morning she found out that the body of her husband Dmytro was burned in Korwacz's house. His brother Petro died with him. His wife, Maria Mykhailivna, was unable to save him.
«I ran into the burning house, grabbed my husband by the hands and dragged him out into the yard. At that time, they started shooting at our house. I ran to my children and left my husband. In the morning, the neighbors helped me bring his body home. The bullets pierced him three times: once in the chest, the second time lower, the third — higher than the knee»…
They demanded money from Korwacz. They found nothing, so set fire to the house. Two little children were left there: 3‑month‑old Yevhen and 2‑year‑old Dozia. They miraculously managed to save them. And the farmer and his neighbors died in a burning house.
Over a dozen people lost their lives in Sieniawa in one night, half of them children”.

source: Kyryczuk O., Nyszczuk S., „v. Syniawa”; 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. 385—386

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 local Ukrainians murdered the farmer Paweł Surowiak, 30.

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

[The UPA] burned down the village and murdered 5 Poles.

source: Żurek Stanisław, „Calendar of the genocide – December 1946 and in 1946”; in: portal: Volhynia — web page: wolyn.org [accessible: 2022.02.28]