The Baligród massacre occurred on Sunday, 6 August 1944 in Baligrod

Baligród

Baligród is a village in Lesko County, in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of south-eastern Poland. It is also the seat of the municipality called Gmina Baligród. Location: 49°21' N 22°17' E...

, Lesko County

Lesko County

Lesko County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, south-eastern Poland, on the Slovak border. It was created in 2002 out of five gminas which previously made up the western part of Bieszczady County...

 (in the current Subcarpathian Voivodeship

Subcarpathian Voivodeship

Podkarpackie Voivodeship , or Subcarpathian Voivodeship, is a voivodeship, or province, in extreme-southeastern Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów...

). Ukrainians with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) murdered members of the Polish population.

The massacre

The UPA came from Stężnicy and Huczwic, 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-defence 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, W kręgu "Łun w Bieszczadach", Warszawa 2009, ISBN 978-83-7399-340-2