The Germans, with the participation of Ukrainians, pacified the countryside, murdering 108 Poles, including 47 children and adolescents aged 1 month to 16, 37 women aged 18 to 78 and 24 men aged 18 to 88. The gendarmes from the following posts: Garwolin, Żelechów, Sobolew, Sobieni–Jezior and Kołbiela took part in the pacification. In addition, from the County Office in Garwolin came to Wanat: a special police unit, officers Kryminalpolizei and Schutzpolizei, a branch of the auxiliary Ukrainian police stationed in the Zawady estate next to Garwolin and Polish police officers, the so–called navy blue from Garwolin. About 800 gendarmes, Schupo and The Ukrainians from Siedlce, Mińsk Mazowiecki, Warsaw and Rembertów were brought in. Only two people survived the pacification of Wanat: Julianna Olejnik and Władysław Górzkowski. Julianna Olejnik: „On that day, three The Ukrainians wearing Nazi uniforms entered the kitchen. They asked about her husband. I replied that he was in the barn. At my words that we have fulfilled the contingent, I can even show them the receipts, one of the torturers roared at me – go you! –. At this point, a bullet from his pistol hit my neck. He also shot my sister. I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I heard my mother's lamentations, who kept saying: – all my children are killed  […] When they were leaving, one of them (the Ukrainians) pulled my dress up and pinched my buttocks. We lay quietly. The Nazis set fire to the house. Meanwhile, my sister hid in the basement, but the gendarmes saw her there and shot her immediately. The fire engulfed the entire house. There was nothing to breathe. At one point, Sigismund jumped up, shouting: "Mommy, he's burning me, he's burning!" I tried to save him with the last of my strength. A shot was fired from outside the window. The baby fell dead and I passed out again. When I regained consciousness, I crawled into the hallway. Soon the kitchen began to burn. I left the house on all fours and lay down under the fence. Then I crawled to the well and hid in a pit of lime. I was terribly cold, so I got out of this pit and lay down next to the burning house. When a burning log fell on me and my dress was smoked, I made my way to the mound with turnips and beets. The next day, people from the neighboring” villages found me there. Władysław Górzkowski recollects: „Around At 7.00 in the morning a group of young people passed through the village, murdering in turn all without a choice – men, women and children. Soldiers from the next groups led out livestock and clothes. The four soldiers from the last group went from farm to farm and set fire to all the buildings. The homesteads in Wanaty stood at a distance from one another. At one point, my wife, who was in the yard that day, heard shots falling within the area of my great–uncle's farm. One of the soldiers, after leaving his house, directed his steps towards us. When he entered the hall, he shot at the terror. Then he shot my tenant Jan Boratyński and his son Zdzisław in the room on the other side of the hall. Then he came into my room and pointed the gun at me. I managed to cover my head with my hands, and the bullet passed through both my hands without breaking my bones. I threw myself to the ground. The soldier then killed my wife, then stood on my back. I heard him go around the whole apartment and after he was sure no one else was there, he left. Then I got up and tried to lift my wife, who had been shot in the head and, unfortunately, was already dead. I heard the voices of the Germans coming from my yard, so I smeared myself with my wife's blood and put it on the floor again, pretending to be dead. I lay there for about 15 minutes, then I went to the barn and took refuge there in the attic. In the meantime, the Germans entered my house and robbed it. As I left a bloody mark of my hand on the table, the soldiers guessed that someone injured had escaped from the house. I heard one of the soldiers say in Ukrainian that I will burn down anyway when they set fire to the whole farm. I realized that these soldiers were mostly The Ukrainians serving in the German army. Then I saw through a crack in the wall of the barn how another group of soldiers was taking my livestock. I also saw from there how all the farms were burning, and a fire began to approach my farm. Four soldiers lit my buildings with kerosene or gasoline. The cowshed had a connection with a residential building. The roof was covered with sheet metal and tar paper. When the heat of the fire and smoke began to suffocate me, I jumped to the ground and hid among the burning buildings. Soon I was able to enter the basement of the apartment house, which the fire did not reach. There I stayed until the evening”.

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

source: Bożek Michał, „Łaskarzew 1939—1945. History of my town during World War II”; in: portal: Unofficial website of the city of Łaskarzew — web page: laskarzew.cba.pl [accessible: 2022.04.06]