Huta Pieniacka massacre

Huta Pieniacka was a village of about 1,000 ethnically Polish inhabitants in 200 houses, located in the Tarnopol Voivodeship, Poland. In 1939, following joint German and Soviet attack on Poland, the voivodeship was annexed by the Soviet Union, becoming part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. After the 1941 German attack on the Soviet Union, it fell under German occupation. The village was a major Polish resistance centre, fighting against German forces and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In January and February 1944, Soviet troops were frequent visitors, and this was noticed by both the Ukrainians and the Germans. An armed stronghold, Huta Pieniacka had fought off several attacks in 1943 and early 1944. ==Massacre==

On 23 February 1944, a patrol of the 4th SS Police Regiment composed of Ukrainian volunteers, approached Huta Pieniacka. There was a skirmish with the local Polish self-defense in which two SS soldiers were killed. A unit of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army came to the aid of the patrol and the SS was able to withdraw. The German occupation force therefore ordered the "pacification" of the village. The weekly publication of the Polish Home Army – the Biuletyn Ziemi Czerwienskiej (Land of Czerwien Bulletin) for 26 March 1944 (№ 12) [216, p. 8] stated that during the Battle at Pidkamin and Brody, Soviet forces took a couple of hundred soldiers of the SS Galizien division prisoner. All were immediately shot in the Zbarazh castle on the basis that two weeks earlier they had apparently taken part in the killing of the Polish inhabitants of Huta Pienacka, and as a result could not be categorized as prisoners of war. ==Investigation==

The Warsaw branch of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) started an investigation into the massacre in November 1992. The investigation was subsequently suspended between 1997 and 2001, and as of 2008 is being conducted by the Kraków branch of the Institute. Following international criticism, including from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota apologized on the 24th for inviting the veteran stating "I have subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision [to honour Hunka]. I wish to make clear that no one, including fellow parliamentarians and the Ukraine delegation, was aware of my intention or of my remarks before I delivered them". He resigned as Speaker on the 26th while remaining an MP. ==See also==