Editorial standard
Crime, rescue and reprisal. No collective blame
The anti-Polish campaign was organised and carried out by concrete political structures, commanders, units and participants. Ukrainians also warned, hid and rescued Polish neighbours, sometimes at the cost of their own lives. Polish defensive and retaliatory actions killed Ukrainian civilians. A complete account must hold these facts together without turning nationality into guilt.
Organisation and individual participation
Documents and research identify OUN-B political structures and UPA commands as organisers of the anti-Polish campaign in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. The violence was carried out by regular units, local underground networks and, in some places, mobilised civilian auxiliaries. Responsibility is not identical at every level: issuing policy, commanding an operation and directly committing a killing are different forms of participation. Good records therefore preserve the formation and wording found in each source.
Ukrainians who rescued Poles
IPN publications document people who warned neighbours of planned attacks, hid families, supplied food, guided escape routes or openly opposed killing. Some rescuers were threatened or murdered for helping Poles. Their choices disprove the idea that ethnic identity determined behaviour. Local histories should record assistance alongside violence when both are documented.
Polish defence and reprisals
Polish self-defence centres and underground units protected threatened communities, escorted refugees and fought UPA. Some Polish operations also became retaliatory attacks in which Ukrainian civilians were killed and villages were burned. The scale, chronology and strategic purpose were not identical to the organised anti-Polish campaign, but civilian victims cannot be omitted for that reason. Each event should be described according to its own evidence, perpetrators and victims.
No symmetry, no collective guilt
Rejecting collective guilt does not require pretending that all forces acted with the same scale or purpose. It means assigning responsibility precisely and refusing to treat contemporary Poles or Ukrainians as inherited perpetrators. Historical comparison should examine plans, command structures, target selection and outcomes. Reconciliation is stronger when it is based on accurate distinctions rather than silence or mutual accusation.