Uroczysko Baran killing fields

The Uroczysko Baran killing fields (Polish: miejsce zbrodni Uroczysko Baran), often referred to in Poland as the "Little Katyn" or the "Second Katyn", was the location for secret executions of soldiers and officers of the Polish Underground State carried out by Communist forces on behalf of the NKVD, SMERSH, PUBP, and (the Soviet-formed) Second Army of Ludowe Wojsko Polskie in the later stages of World War II.[1][2]

Honor guard at the Uroczysko Baran monument to fallen soldiers of AK, WiN, and BCh, shot into mass graves at the communist killing fields of Kąkolewnica in 1944–45

The killing fields at the Uroczysko[3] Baran – also known as the Baran Forest (baran means "ram" in Polish) - [4] are located on the outskirts of Kąkolewnica village in eastern Poland, near Radzyń Podlaski. It is estimated that up to 1,200[5] or 1,800[6][7] wartime members of the Home Army (AK), Freedom and Independence (WiN), the Agrarian Battalions of BCh, as well as Polish defectors drafted to the Communist armies, and alleged enemies of the people, were murdered there, with hands tied behind their backs, over execution pits, from late autumn 1944 until February 1945, .[8] The forensic examination of twelve exhumed bodies revealed multiple bone fractures: broken hands, limbs, hips, and cracked skulls indicating extreme beatings in detention, before execution.[5][6][7] The President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski came to Uroczysko Baran on June 20, 2013, for a solemn ceremony of laying flowers and wreaths at the monument.[9] The killings are the subject of a monograph by Jan Kołkowicz published in 2007.[10]

History
One of the mass graves of Uroczysko Baran

The killing fields were known to the local people in Kąkolewnica from the beginning.[5] In July 1944, the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front under Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky was stationed in Kąkolewnica, removing cattle and plundering food supplies, throwing people out of their homes to make way for military lodgings, and setting up SMERSH and NKVD interrogation dungeons in the basements.[5] Soon, General Świerczewski with his LWP soldiers joined the fray. The Polish partisans from AK, WiN and BCh, captured in the vicinity – but also transported there from afar – like the soldiers of the 27th Home Army Infantry Division,[6] were executed across the vast area of the forest spanning well over a dozen hectares.[5] Mass graves were planted over with small pine trees by the killers. A symbolic cross was erected on site by some people in the summer of 1945. Removed by the Communist officials, it was often replaced by the locals under the cover of night.[5]

The number of people murdered at Uroczysko Baran is unknown. Even the number of mass graves has not been established to this day.[6] After fifty years of Communist rule in Poland, the closely guarded site is now overgrown with mature trees. Partial documents found in the archives of the Polish Army prove only 43 official executions, and 144 military court convictions, but the Soviet archives are either inaccessible, or no longer existing.[2] Soon after the end of totalitarianism in Poland, the Institute of National Remembrance interviewed 110 witnesses.[8] There was only one forensic exhumation conducted at Uroczysko Baran. The human remains were reburied at a local cemetery in Kąkolewnica in 1990.[2] The IPN branch in Lublin states that some 2,000 anti-communist resistance fighters were detained in local prisons by the Stalinist security forces between 1944 and 1956, including 450 of the most prominent so-called "cursed soldiers".[1]

Józef Franczak witnessed some of the killings. After Soviet troops entered the area, he was conscripted into the Polish Communist 2nd Army stationed in Kąkolewnica, where the military court was located. Franczak deserted in January 1945 and became a cursed soldier. He was shot dead in 1963.[11] At Kąkolewnica, and at the Uroczysko Baran, hundreds of detainees died without a trial. According to witnesses, military trucks covered with tarpaulin travelled back and forth between the two locations until November 1945, day in and day out.[8]

Notes
  1. Małgorzata Kołodziejczyk (January 9, 2017), "Are we going to learn the secrets of Uroczysko Baran? – Interview with Dariusz Magier, director of IPN Lublin" [Czy poznamy tajemnicę uroczyska Baran? – rozmowa z Dariuszem Magierem, dyrektorem IPN w Lublinie], Czego dotyczył rekonesans na uroczysku Baran? Jakie będą jego efekty?, RadzynInfo.pl, archived from the original on August 14, 2017
  2. M.Ł. (November 30, 2016), "Uroczysko Baran in Kąkolewnica – Location of communist murders" [Uroczysko „Baran” w Kąkolewnicy – miejsce komunistycznych zbrodni], Źródło: ipn.gov.pl, Portal Niezalezna.pl: Słowo Niezależne Sp. z o.o., archived from the original on August 14, 2017
  3. "Uroczysko" is the Polish term for a geographical location of arbitrary type, typically within a forest, somehow identified among its surroundings
  4. Anna Wasak (June 14, 2016), "Commemorations at the Uroczysko Baran: Living lesson of history" [Uroczystości na Uroczysku Baran: Żywa lekcja historii], Apel Poległych, Serwis internetowy Urzędu Miasta Radzyń Podlaski, archived from the original on August 14, 2017
  5. Staff writer (June 18, 2014), "The Secrets of Uroczysko Baran" [Tajemnica Uroczyska Baran], Oddano hołd żołnierzom AK, NSZ, BCh oraz WiN, Międzyrzec.info, archived from the original on August 14, 2017
  6. Lublin112.pl (January 10, 2015), "Uroczysko Baran in Kąkolewnica: the Second Katyn" [Uroczysko "Baran" w Kąkolewnicy: Drugi Katyń], Materiał Dziennikarza Obywatelskiego, Lublin.NaszeMiasto.pl, archived from the original on August 14, 2017
  7. Karolina Bogudał (2017-07-20), "At Uroczysko Baran known as Little Katyn, new exhumations to begin" [Uroczysko Baran: trwa poszukiwanie szczątków ludzkich], W Uroczysku Baran w Kąkolewnicy, zwanym Małym Katyniem, rozpoczęły się prace poszukiwawczo - ekshumacyjne, archived from the original on 2017-08-14
  8. Anna Wasak, Doomed Soldiers (2009), Kakolewnica, "Little Katyn" near Radzyn Podlaski: Unsolved Communist Crimes In Poland [Kąkolewnica, podlaski Katyń] (in English and Polish), DoomedSoldiers.com, source: Nasz Dziennik, It is estimated that, between 1944 and 1945, some 1,300 to 1,800 Polish underground soldiers from the Home Army, NSZ, WiN and other patriotic organizations were murdered in the Kakolewnica forest known as Uroczysko Baran. The perpetrators were never brought to justice.
  9. Michał Maliszewski (June 21, 2013), "Poland's President visits Uroczysko Baran near Kąkolewnica" [Prezydent odwiedził Uroczysko „Baran” koło Kąkolewnicy], Hołd przy pomniku pomordowanych żołnierzy AK i WiN, IleDzisiaj.pl - Radzyń Podlaski, archived from the original on August 14, 2017
  10. Jan Kołkowicz, ed. (2007). Uroczysko Baran : w kręgu zbrodni. Imprint, Radzyń Podlaski: Radzyńskie Stowarzyszenie Inicjatyw Lokalnych. 141 pp. ill. ISBN 978-8391163313. See also: book review by Wiesław Charczuk in: Radzyński Rocznik Humanistyczny, Nr 5, 2007.
  11. Andrzej Solak, Ostatni z Wyklętych., archived from the original on 2006-06-26 Also in: Gazeta Wyborcza, Oddano hołd ostatniemu żołnierzowi podziemia niepodległościowego., archived from the original on 2013-04-16 IPN, Podziemie zbrojne na Lubelszczyźnie w latach 1939–1956 wobec dwóch totalitaryzmów., archived from the original on 2007-09-26 And: TVP, Józef Franczak "Lalek"., archived from the original on 2007-09-30
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