1946 pacification of villages by PAS NZW

rdf:langString 1946 pacification of villages by PAS NZW

rdf:langString Memorial to the victims of the pacification action in Zaleszany

rdf:langString Pacification of villages by NZW

rdf:langString membership in AK and NZW, assassination of MO functionaries, assaults on the Polish and Soviet Army, attacks on the UB security outposts, killings of civilians, possession of assault weapons

rdf:langString Captain Romuald Rajs

rdf:langString Lieutenant Kazimierz Chmielowski

rdf:langString Death sentence carried out in December 1949, overturned in 1995

rdf:langString The 1946 pacification of villages by PAS NZW was the killing of 16 Polish nationals of Belarusian ethnicity in Bielsk County, north-eastern Poland, by partisans, members of the Polish Extraordinary Special Actions unit of the National Military Union (Polish: Pogotowie Akcji Specjalnej Narodowego Zjednoczenia Wojskowego (PAS NZW)). The murders took place in the aftermath of World War II. In January and February 1946, units of the PAS Special Forces burned down the villages of Zaleszany, Wólka Wygonowska, Zanie, Szpaki, and Końcowizna. They also executed 30 coachmen on 30 January 1945 near Puchały Stare, and a similar number of armed resistors in Zanie on 2 February 1946. Since 1995, the mass killing of civilians was the subject of official investigation by the government-affiliated Institute of National Remembrance. The inquiry resulted in the publication of a final report in June 2005, summarizing the case. The Commission interviewed a total of 169 persons, and analysed all documents and testimonies dating back to the 1949 show trial of Polish cursed soldiers: Captain Romuald Rajs of the PAS Special Forces, and his co-conspirator and deputy, Lieutenant Kazimierz Chmielowski from NZW. Among the individuals questioned by IPN were families of victims, as well as former soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of NZW. The IPN closed its official investigation without additional charges filed. Sentences from the Stalinist period had already been carried out. In addition, there had been extrajudicial killings of partisans by governmental authorities during the Polish anti-Communist insurrection. No living perpetrators of the atrocities committed in early 1946 have been identified. The postwar atrocities have continued to receive considerable press coverage by the media.