The Baligród massacre occurred on Sunday, 6 August 1944 in

Baligród Baligród ( uk, Балигород, ''Balyhorod'') is a village in Lesko County, in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (province) of south-eastern Poland. It is also the seat of the municipality (''gmina'') called Gmina Baligród. Location: 49°21' ...

, Lesko County (in the current

Subcarpathian Voivodeship Subcarpathian Voivodeship or Subcarpathia Province (in pl, Województwo podkarpackie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in the southeastern corner of Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów. Along with the Marshall, it i ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. Ukrainian nationalists with the

Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army ( uk, Українська повстанська армія, УПА, translit=Ukrayins'ka povstans'ka armiia, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan formation. During World ...

(UPA) entered the village of Baligród and killed 42 members of the Polish community.

The massacre

The UPA came from Stężnica and Huczwice, and surrounded the Polish population gathered in the church. When some people left the church, 42 people were murdered. The killings were in retaliation for the killing of 16 Ukrainians in Stężnica on 4 August 1944 in self-defense by citizens of Baligród and by Soviet partisans. Another attack by the UPA in Baligrod was made a year later. On 1 August 1945 at around 22:00, a subunit of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army attacked the police station. Polish militiamen defended the station until 5:00 in the morning, with the result that the Ukrainians withdrew, but in revenge burned seven houses.

Sources

Grzegorz Motyka Grzegorz Motyka (born 1967) is a Polish historian and author specializing in the history of Poland–Ukraine relations. Since 1992 he served at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and at the Institute of National ...

, ''W kręgu "Łun w Bieszczadach"'', Warszawa 2009, {{DEFAULTSORT:Baligrod massacre 1944 in Poland Massacres in 1944 Anti-Polish sentiment in Europe Massacres in Poland World War II crimes in Poland World War II massacres Mass murder in 1944 August 1944 events War crimes committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army