Janowa Dolina massacre

The town was destroyed during World War II by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army who murdered most of its Polish population including women and children.

[1] Janowa Dolina was a very modern settlement; houses had access to electricity and plumbing and its layout was based on a specially designed grid plan.

The quarry sponsored its own sports club called Strzelec Janowa Dolina, which had several departments — soccer, boxing, wrestling, swimming.

In Janowa Dolina all trade was controlled by the national “Społem” company, inhabitants were able to purchase all desired products but alcohol, which was not sold in the settlement.

In September 1939, Soviet troops, following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, attacked the eastern part of Poland, which was not guarded by the Polish Army, as at the same time the Poles were fighting the Germans in the West.

Eastern Poland (Kresy) was quickly occupied, together with Janowa Dolina, which, like the entire Volhynian Voivodeship, became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Together with Soviet rule came mass deportations to Siberia and other areas of the country; between September 1939 and June 1941 Janowa Dolina lost hundreds of inhabitants.

As Volhynia was the area of activity for various Ukrainian nationalist groups whose aim was to cleanse the land of Poles and Jews, the settlement's fate was inevitable.

Poles, unprepared and caught by surprise, were hacked to death with axes, burned alive, and impaled (including children).

The date "23 April 1943" was removed and now the inscription says only "In memory of Poles from Janowa Dolina", without giving further information of their fate.