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This is an excerpt from the transcript of a long interrogation of Ivan Nestorak and his activities in the Ukrainian underground. Based on the information he provided, a female liaison was murdered by the Ukrainian insurgency. Her name was Maria Hac, and she was part of the UPA’s medical service. She had an STD and asked for money for treatment. She contacted Polish authorities MO (Citizens’ Militia) or UB (Department of Security) in Tomaszów Lubelski. She was murdered by the units of SB (Sluzhba Bezpeky) OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists). Some potential topics that can be discussed based on this source are gender-based violence in the Ukrainian underground, treatment of Ukrainian women by the Polish secret police, and the hardships of work and life in the underground.

Title:

Interrogation of Ivan Nestorak, Jaworzno, July 25, 1947

Author:
Ivan Nestorak
Year:
1947
Source:
Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, AIPN KR,110/1907
Original language:
Polish

PROTOCOL
of interrogation of a suspect

Jaworzno, July, 25, 1947

Last name and first name Nestorak Jan rel. Wladislaw Gembarowski.

Question: Please, describe a structure of the illegal organization of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in this region.

Answer: I can only describe the structure of the civilian network, rather than the military, because I had not had any relation to the hundreds in my work, and I knew little about their structure, positions, or names. But I know the civilian network. I had to report about it for the “33” and he was supposed to take due measures and eliminate that person. However, for better conspiracy among our people, the liaisons delivering mail, I had to send my reports from this work to the Chief of Propaganda and to field commanders of district V, “Shamray.” Further, he had to send it to the ”33.” I had to write the reports for the month, starting from June, 1946, including.

Upon receiving these instructions from the “33” I gave my consent to the above mentioned proposals. After that, I had been performing the function of the investigator “S-B” from the territory of the village of Verkhrata. I continued to be the deputy chief for propaganda in District V. At that time, in summer 1946, I mostly stayed at home, in a village of Mrzygłody. But I have never noticed anyone from that place, from the village of Mrzygłody, who collaborated with the Polish Army and reported to them about the gangs. That is why my monthly reports, along with the progress reports on my activities as a deputy chief for propaganda to “Shamray” had never informed about any such people.  It was only in September or October 1946, that I reported to the “33,” via “Shamray,” about Hac Maria, a daughter of Vasyl, who lived in the village of Mrzygłody, Lubacow poviat.  Hac Maria can be characterized in the following way: since 1944, Hac Maria was part of the nationalist organization of the Ukrainian insurgent army, she was a medical nurse, where she caught an STD. For this reason Maria Hac demanded from the organization the money she needed for treatment. She possibly was receiving the money for some time, but she could not recover because she needed bigger amounts that the organization might have not wanted to pay. That is why Maria Hac could contact the C.M. [Civil Militia] or S.U. [Security Unit] in Tomaszow Lubelski, And reported to them about the activities of the organization in the village of Verkhrata, and about its members. She often went to visit Tomaszow. She had been seen there several times entering the C.M or the S.U. building. In addition, this person was getting money from somewhere, she dressed nicely, which raised the suspicion that she might have received the money from Tomaszow. Moreover, there was a fact when one time Maria Hac was spotted in Tomaszow entering the building of C.M. or S.U. on the following day, the soldiers came to Mrzygłody and organized a raid to catch people in the nearby forest. They arrested several persons from Mrzygłody and from Monastyr, who where members of the UPA organization. At that time, it had been fully confirmed that Maria Hac was collaborating with the army. Regarding the latter fact, I started gathering information about this on my own, to investigate into the matter. Maria Hac lived in a house of Jan Typa in Mrzygłody. All the data about Maria Hac collaborating with the army was received from him because he knew it best. Since the findings of this investigation added to my certainty that Maria Hac was betraying the UPA organization, in September, 1946,  I reported about this to the “S-B commander” of the above mentioned “33” via “Shamray.” In this report, I mentioned that Maria Hac was betraying the UPA organization. That is why it was necessary that the “S-B” combat unit take the appropriate measures, and draw the relevant conclusions. It didn’t take long to receive the consequences following this report. In fact, in November or December 1946, Maria Hac was abducted from the village by the combat unit “S-B” of district V, and was killed. In order not to cast any suspicion and to cover all the tracks related to this murder, some person from the “S-B” organization (I do not know that person) asked Maria Hac whether she could go to the pharmacy in Tomaszow, and buy some medication for the organization. Maria Hac agreed, and on the next day she walked to Tomaszow-L. But the people from the “S-B” combat unit we’re waiting for her in the forest. They took her away, and she has never returned to the village since that time, and nobody has seen her again because she was killed. It happened on the basis of another report and the investigation conducted by another party. It was one specific fact because I was the mastermind behind that murder, and I was engaged in it. Apart from that, I have never committed any such facts since then.

 

Original 

PROTOKÓŁ

przesłuchania podejrzanego

Jaworzno, dnia 25 lipiec 1947 r.

Nazwisko i imię Nestorak Jan rel. Gembarowski Władysław.

Pytanie: Proszę podać strukturę nielegalnej organizacji UPA na danym terenie.

Odpowiedź: Ja mogę podać strukturę tylko siatki cywilnej a nie wojskową, gdyż z sotniami w pracy swej nie miałem niс do czynienia i organizacyjnej ich budowy oraz zajmowanych stanowisk ani nazwisk niewiele znam. Natomiast siatkę cywilnej znam. Miałem meldować o tym w/w „33” raportem, a on już w związku z tym poczyni odpowiednie kroki i osobę tą usunie. Jednakowoż, dla lepszej konspiracji pomiędzy swymi ludźmi czyli łącznikami którzy rozwozili korespondencję, sprawozdania swoje z tej pracy, miałem kierować do szefa Propagandy i Pol-wych. re-jonu V-go „Szamraja”, a ten już miał przesyłać to do „33”. Sprawozdania miałem pisać do miesiąc, począwszy od m-ca czerwca 1946 r. włącznie.

Po otrzymaniu tych instrukcji od „33” wyraziłem swą zgodę co do propozycji w/w i od tego czasu objąłem funkcję śledczego „S-B” z terenu wsi Werchrata, będąc nadal z-cą [zastępcą] szefa Propagandy na V-ty rejon. W tym czasie t. j. latem 1946 r. w większości wypadków przebywałem w domu w przys Mrzygłody, jednakowoż nie zaobserwowałem wtedy by z tego terenu t. j. ze wsi Mrzygłody, ktoś współpracował z WP i donosił mu o bandach, dlatego raporty moje które wysyłałem co miesiąc wraz z raportami o mej działalności jako z-cy szefa Propagandy do „Szamraja” — nie donosiły nie o takowych osobach. Dopiero w m-cu wrześniu czy październiku 1946 r. złożyłem raport do „33” poprzez „Szamraja” o niejakiej Hac Marji s. Bazylego, zam. Mrzygłody, pow. Lubaczów. Z wspomnianą Hac Marją rzecz miała się tak: w/w Hac Marja od r. 1944 należała do nac. org. UPA jako sanitarjuszka i tamże zaraziła się weneryczną chorobą. Z tego względu Hac Marja zażądała od organiz. funduszy pieniężnych na leczenie, co prawdopodobnie przez pewien czas otrzymywała, jednakowoż nie mogła się wyleczyć, gdyż potrzeba było większych sum, których organizacja nie chciała jej prawdopodobnie przydzielić i z tego powodu Hac Marja miała wejść w kontakt z M. O. czy też U. B. w Tomaszowie-Lubelskim, donosząc tam o istnieniu organizacji na terenie wsi Werchrata i o osobach należących do niej. Takowa udawała się często do Tomaszowa, gdzie wdziano ją kilkakrotnie uchodzący do budynku M. O. czy U. B. Ponadto takowa otrzymywała skądś pieniądze i dobrze się ubierała, co rzuciło podejrzenie że pieniądze te dostaje z Tomaszowa. Był nawet taki fakt, że pewnego dnia wdziano jak Hac Marja była w Tomaszowie i wchodziła do budynku M. O. czy też U. B., a na drugi dzień przyjechało wojsko do Mrzygłód i urządziło obławę w sąsiednim lesie, oraz aresztowało kilka osób z Mrzygłód i Monastyrza, który należeli do organ. UPA. Wtedy upewniono się już zupełnie, że Hac Marja z wojskiem współpracuje. Co do tego, ja od siebie począłem ściągać informacje o tym i prowadzić w tej sprawie śledztwo. Wypomniana Hac Marja mieszkała w niejakiego Typy Jana w Mrzygłodach od którego to ściągnąłem wszystkie dane dotyczące współpracy Hac Marji z wojskiem, gdyż takowy najlepiej o tym wiedział. Ponieważ wyniki tego śledztwa dały mi pewność, że Hac Marja zdradza organizację UPA, w m-cu wrześniu 1946 r. podałem o tym w mienianym sprawozdaniu do „komandira S-B” w/w „33” poprzez „Szamraja”. W raporcie tym nadmieniłem, że Hac Marja zdradza organizację UPA i że w związku z tym należy, ażeby bojówka „S-B” przy V-ym rejonie, poczyniła odpowiednie kroki i wyciągnęła z tego konsekwencje. Na wyniki tegoż raportu nie długo czekałem, gdyż w m-cu listopadzie czy grudniu 1946 r. Hac Marja wstała przez bojówkę „S-B” z V-go rejonu uprowadzona ze wsi i zamordowana. Ażeby nie rzucić na kogoś podejrzenia i ażeby zatruć ślady tego mordu, ktoś z organizacji z „S-B” kto tego nie wiem, udał się do Hac Marji prosząc czy takowa poszła do apteki w Tomaszowie i zakupiła dla organizacji lekarstw, na co w/w Hac M. zgodziła się i drugiego dnia udała się w kierunku Tomaszowa-L., jednak gdzieś w lesie oczekiwali na nią ludzi z bojówki „S-B” który zep zabrali ją ze sobą i od tego czasu do wsi już nie powróciła i nikt ją więcej nigdy nie widział, gdyż takowa została zamordowana. Stało się to, na podstawie innego doniesienia i przeprowadzonego śledztwa innej strony. To był jeden fakt konkretny, gdyż byłem inspiratorem tegoż morderstwa do którego ja sam przyczyniłem się. Ponadto więcej takich faktów nie popełniłem.

 

Related sources:

Documents (4)

Image for The decision to terminate the investigation against Janina Knobloch, liaison officer of the UPA in Poland, Warsaw, 1947
The decision to terminate the investigation against Janina Knobloch, liaison officer of the UPA in Poland, Warsaw, 1947
The notification states that the investigation into the death of Janina Knobloch (an arrested woman that the document mentions) was discontinued. She poisoned herself with strychnine in a bathroom during her interrogation. She was a liaison officer of OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) District II. The document was prepared by an investigation officer of MBP (Ministry of Public Security).
Image for Agent “Marysia’s” report about activity of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in postwar Poland, 1940s
Agent “Marysia’s” report about activity of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in postwar Poland, 1940s
This report, written by someone described as agent “Marysia,” is about Don (Wolodomyr Perezylo) and a woman identified as ‘S.’ The document discusses a romantic relationship (or perhaps an infatuation) between ‘S’ (possibly an OUN-B liaison in Poland – region V near Lublin/Zamość) and Don, a member of OUN security forces. The report was most likely written soon after the war. It is not completely clear what the purpose of writing this document was. The report was likely written in prison, quite possibly by ‘S’ in exchange for some favors from the Polish security forces. Yet the details that she provided regarding Don were not too harmful. Don appears as a person who...
Image for Vira Szot’s rehabilitation request, Warsaw-Czẹstochowa, 1994
Vira Szot’s rehabilitation request, Warsaw-Czẹstochowa, 1994
Vira Szot was a Ukrainian woman and UPA liaison. After World War II, she arrived in southern Poland, where she set up transfer points for UPA members trying to reach Western Europe. Her arrest came on June 7, 1947. She was imprisoned at Jaworzno, Mokotów, and Fordon. She received a death sentence that was commuted to fifteen years, perhaps because she agreed to collaborate. She was released in 1956. She stayed in Poland after her release and in the 1990s, after the fall of Communism, applied for rehabilitation. In a letter from 1960 or 1961, which she called a confession and which is still in her IPN (Institute of National Remembrance) file, she...
Image for Kateryna Vitko-Stakh memories, 1940s
Kateryna Vitko-Stakh memories, 1940s
Kateryna Vitko-Stakh’s excerpt is from a book of recollections of women who were members of the Ukrainian underground in the immediate postwar years, collected by Maria Pankiv in the 1990s. Pankiv is a journalist and member of the Ukrainian minority that has lived in Warsaw, Poland, since the 1990s. In those years, she worked for “Slovo,” a Ukrainian Archive in Warsaw. She interviewed a number of women who had been arrested in Poland for their involvement in the Ukrainian underground. Based on these conversations, she composed two volumes of their recollections. The chosen fragments reveal a story of Vitko-Stakh (liaison of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army under the pseudonym “Zozulya”) about her childhood, the...
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Related modules (1)

Many stories could illustrate the struggles of Ukrainian women as members of the Ukrainian underground during World War II. One is the story of Marija Savchyn, who in 1939, at the age of fourteen, joined the female youth section (iunky) of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Orhanizatsiya Ukrayins’kykh Natsionalistiv [OUN]), which spearheaded the Ukrainian nationalist movement. While in high school during the Second World War in Przemyśl, Savchyn joined the Ukrainian underground...
Worked on the material:
Research, comment

Anna Muller

Translation into English

Sviltana Bregman

Text transcript

Andriy Toporovych

Photo

Institute of National Remembrance, Poland

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