The Irish-British Member of Parliament, Edmund Burke once said that: “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it”.
That is why this July 11-th, we Polish-Canadians commemorate the 81-st Anniversary of the National Day of Remembrance, when on July 11-th, 1943, Ukrainian Nationalists commenced the largest extermination of Poles in Wolyn, Eastern Poland, by a synchronized attack on 99 settlements inhabited by ethnic Poles, in what became known as the “Wolyn Bloody Sunday” with about 2,580 being killed on that day alone – with the goal of purging all non-Ukrainians from a future Ukrainian state.
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In total by the end of World War II at the hands of fighters from Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), SS Galicia division and other Ukrainian formation, 120,000 Poles and 30,000 Ukrainians opposed to the ethnic cleansing, were bestially massacred, with the cruelest methods torture, even worse than the German Nazis, e.g., dismemberments, impalements and mutilations like gouging out eyes.
My own family were victims of this tragedy, with my aunt and her two very young children being shot in cold blood, and a third child Piot Unger surviving miraculously, only to later recall his story for others to know the truth (see www.podkamien.pl -Remembrance of Piotr Unger), so that future generations will be warned.
We, Polish-Canadians remember this tragedy especially in Canada this year, because our federal politicians have forgotten or not paid enough attention to learn about mankind’s sometimes brutal history. Our Members of Parliament in Ottawa, shockingly paid homage recently on September 22, 2023 to a former Ukrainian-Nazi soldier, Mr. Yaroslav Hunka in the House of Commons – who most likely was also a former Ukrainian Nationalist, since they were the main source of volunteers to the German SS Galician division he fought in.
We, all Canadians from different original nations should also remember July 11-th, as it will remind us of the evil ideology people can be brainwashed into believing, realizing that we in this country are really no better as a nation than those in the past. Every year in Canada we murder through some one’s so-called “choice” about 100,000 innocent unborn children through abortion, with the total being 4 million killed since 1969 when abortion was legalized in Canada.
Yes, let us all not forget all those innocents murdered during WWII at the hands of Ukrainian Fascists, German Nazis, Soviet Union’s Communists, but let us also remember the millions of unborn whose lives were cut short by paid medical executioners, who chose to ignore the Silent Screams of the unborn – when they were either chemically burned alive, or dismembered in cold blood in their mother’s wombs.
As Poland’s most eminent poet Adam Mickiewicz wrote long time ago in his famous story “Dziady”: “If I forget about them, You God in heaven, forget about me.”
Dr Andrzej Caruk
Past Member International Black Ribbon Day Committee
and Friends of Solidarity (Solidarnosc) Canada
July 9, 2024
