Derman tragedy

Derman tragedy (Ukrainian: Дерманська трагедія) is a series of war crimes committed by german nazis and ukrainian nationalists in the village of Derman'.[1]

History

At the end of may 1943, columns of german troops and polish shutzmanns entered Derman. Near the monastery, about 200 people were driven out, who were forced to sit there until the evening with their hands thrown behind their heads and at gunpoint. The German officer explained to the residents who remained in the center of the village that the authorities were dissatisfied with the failure to fulfill the plan for the supply of bread and livestock, as well as the shortage of labor in the Third Reich. The Dermans were waiting for the worst, but a few hours later they were released - under the promise to immediately "improve". When they headed to their homes, they saw the distant Zaluzhye smoking, drove the inhabitants into a convoy and led them into a pit, where lime production was abandoned at that time. Poles Peter Shavronsky and Yanek Pshevosky took an active part in this bloody action[2]

During the occupation, the UPA cartographic institute, workshops for the repair of weapons and the release of mines, the manufacture of clothing, the UPA foreman school, and also the referents of the SB OUN were located in the village. In total, over 450 people were tortured and killed by the OUN in the village during the years of German occupation and in the first years after the liberation of the village by the Red Army by the invaders, Polish police and Ukrainian nationalists.

In 1957, clearing one of the abandoned wells on the territory of the Dermanskii monastery, the collective farmer of this village revealed the remains of his fellow villagers tortured with stones. In total, the remains of approximately 16 people who were killed and thrown there by Ukrainian nationalists in the period from 1944 to 1948 were identified in the well. In the remains of human corpses raised from a well, a human skull was found with an iron harrow hammered into it. The second skull was pierced through with a pin. A loop from a cable with a twist was found - a tool that employees of the Security Council of OUN usually strangled people. In the house in which the OUN security service was located, hundreds of Soviet citizens were tortured, whose corpses were then dumped into wells. In the fence of the house was another well, in which the remains of victims of terror of the population by members of the OUN(b) were found.

Mass graves of victims of terror were found in this village before, but only in the late 1950s it was possible to fully determine the causes of the Derman tragedy. What were the fears of the leaders of the nationalist underground that the existence of the economy on the liberated territory and the existence of functionaries would become known to the Soviet state security and law enforcement agencies. In this connection, additional battles of the Security Council were pulled into the village, which caused terror over people who aroused suspicion.

Court

Of the 450 tortured and exterminated residents, only 28 were members of the Red Army, the rest were civilians, children, the elderly, women. In 1959, an open trial took place in Dubno, at which the organizer of the terror, Vasiliy Androshchuk, was completely exposed by the testimonies of surviving eyewitnesses and an underground “archive” seized from bidons. Moreover, as V. Androshchuk himself admitted, he personally killed 73 people.

Literature
  • Жив'юк А. А., Марчук І. Від «Дерманської республіки» до «Дерманської трагедії»: нариси історії українського визвольного руху в Дермані на Волині. Рівне, 2011. (in Ukrainian)
  • The ukrainian review. UIS, 1965.[3]

References
  1. http://www.stalkerzone.org/a-stake-in-the-mouth-a-rope-around-the-neck-the-whole-of-ukraine-was-talking-about-the-derman-tragedy-but-now-silence/
  2. Денищук О. Злочини польських шовіністів на Волині. - Кн. 1: Рівненська область. С. 96-98. (in Ukrainian)
  3. http://diasporiana.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/books/14185/file.pdf
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