Poland calls for systematic exhumations of Volhynia victims

Volyn landscape in a 19th-century sketch: idyllic tranquility. Photo: BBC

Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) said that without systematic permits to exhume the victims of the Volhynia tragedy, “dialogue and reconciliation are impossible.” This was stated in the institute’s Facebook post.

The IPN stressed that “dialogue is necessary” and that joint academic research is important, but that “reconciliation does not begin in conference halls – it begins with truth, the dignified burial of victims, and real administrative decisions.” The institute also said it has no information about any further permits being granted for exhumations.

“Without consent for search and identification work, talk of ‘easing tensions’ sounds like wishful thinking,” the statement said. Warsaw emphasized that for a “real breakthrough” there must be “systematic permits for exhumations, identification of victims, and dignified reburial.”

The institute added that a congress of historians could be “an important element” of the process, but “without truth brought out of the ground, and without names returned to the victims, it will remain only a symbol.”

The Volhynia tragedy remains one of the most sensitive issues in Polish–Ukrainian relations, and the exhumation of victims is viewed as an important step toward historical justice.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that an MP had threatened to take two monasteries in Volhynia away from the UOC.

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