There is a couple of books written about the tragic events that took place over a long weekend in March...but this story belongs to.....
Olga was 14...she was the youngest of 11....she had to grow up very quickly...her mother and sisters children survived but they where in shock the children only 9 and 2 .....grandmother was so shell shocked Olga had to stay strong ....they huddled in the church for two days waiting for their turn to die....but it didn't happen ....they where saved...... but they would carry that pain of those days for the fallen ones?.......they would remember.....
I thought.... could I have been able to cope ...could anyone really be able to understand....the fear, the relief, the guilt of surviving.....
WHAT IS really HER THOUGHTS...
The story is told in other books of my mothers village.... I thought...there were other survivors, they are telling the story....A Memorial was erected in the village...
I thought ....now that it's been acknowledge can the healing begin......
Here is an article I found when googled "Pavlokoma"
"A Memorial to the Fallen Ukrainians in the Polish village of Pavlokoma, Petro Potichny, Professor of Canada’s McMaster University and author of the book Pavlokoma. 1441-1945: History of the Village, said it was another positive step on the path of reconciliation between Ukraine and Poland.
He described the ceremony as a “very important event” and “the first commemoration of the Ukrainian tragedy outside Ukraine.”
“Pavlokoma … is a symbol of the tragedy of not only the village but of all Ukrainians that lived in Eastern Poland,” he said.
Mr. Potichny, the eyewitness of that tragedy, opined that Ukraine and Poland must never neglect such painful issues but settle them: “I think it will help Ukrainians and Poles communicate. Some people will probably dislike this fact, but we know when such events are recognized and marked people begin to treat them differently and then reconcile.”
"Despite documented evidence and recognition by the Polish side of the fact that a crime was perpetrated in Pavlokoma by members of Polish self-defense units and the former Armia Krajowa, the Council for the Protection of the Struggle and Martyrdom did not agree to the inclusion of an appropriate text on the Ukrainian victims’ gravestone. The inscription engraved on the tombstone, made in Ukraine, was coordinated with the Polish side. It reads: “In eternal memory of 366 victims, who died tragically on March 1-3, 1945.”
Did it bring relief for Olga?.....Olga was angry...... on the monument it says that a tragedy happened here....she says; why didn't they say what really happened........A plane did not fall from the sky and kill these people......she says...
Where does the story start?
