77 years have passed since the pacification of the village of Huta Pieniacka, located in what is now Ukraine, carried out by the 14th Waffen SS Grenadier Division and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. According to findings of historians from Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, about 900 Polish men, women and children were murdered there in just one day. In order to honor these victims, a holy mass was performed on Sunday at a Polish Army field cathedral. Polish President Andrzej Duda wrote a letter commemorating the anniversary of the crime in Huta Pieniacka.
“I join your fervent prayer. I pay tribute to our compatriots who were murdered only because they were Poles. An Independent Poland will never forget about the victims of the crime in Huta Pienacka or all the victims of genocide during the Wołyn massacre. On behalf of the Republic of Poland, I would like to express my great appreciation and sincerely thank the members of the Huta Pieniacka Association for their tireless pleading for historical truth, for guarding national remembrance, and for their commitment to commemorate the martyrdom of Poles.” wrote President Duda.