Volhynia is a region in Ukraine which borders Poland. The 1943 massacres at Volhynia, peaking that year in July and August, constituted ethnic cleansing and genocide. Most of the victims were women and children suffering at the hands of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, who were brutal in having their victims tortured and mutilated. These actions by the Ukrainian nationalists resulted in 60,000 Polish deaths in Volhynia. The killings were connected with the policies of the Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army's goal was to purge all non-Ukrainians from the future Ukrainian state.

In addition to the purging of all non-Ukrainians, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army also wanted to erase all the traces of the Polish presence in the area. The massacres led to a conflict between the Polish and Ukrainian forces in the German-occupied territories, with the Polish Home Army in Volhynia responding to the Ukrainian attacks. In 2008, the massacres committed by the Ukrainian nationalists of the Poles in Volhynia and Galicia were described by Poland's Institute of National Remembrance as carrying the distant characteristics of a genocide. On July 22, 2016, Poland's parliament passed a law to recognize the massacres as genocide.

Today Volhynia holds monuments that pay respect to the victims who were killed and affected by this terrible action committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In 2016 President Petro Proshenko visited this monument, the same one you see here, paying his respects. Many like myself have suggested that this massacre was being ignored until the 2016 law was passed recognizing it as a genocide. Not many know about this genocide, which becomes an example of the growing trend that some genocides are believed never to have happened.

Text by Andres Zelaya