I know very little about my Polish/Ukrainian family, who I descend from Paternally. My grandfather Jan Kuta was born on the 18th January 1924 in Katerynychi, Lviv Oblast, Poland, which is now a part of Ukraine, the area fell into the hands of Nazi Germany between 1941 to 1944.
This period was extremely volatile for anyone Polish, Jewish, Gay or anyone who were deemed less of a person by the dictators of that time.
My grandfather Jan or John (as he is known in England) was forced into a Nazi Labour camp and he lost contact with many of his family members, his parents Michal and Katarzyna Kuta and his siblings fled their homeland and ended up, possibly as refugees in Bethune, Pas-de-Calais, France where many of them remain today. They never returned to the area they once lived.
I am aware of the massacre of the Poles in Ukraine which began in 1941 and I am sure my family were victims of this in one way or another.
Below is a list of the Ukrainian massacres.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Ukraine
Every now and then I always search the internet for new information about my paternal family and today I stumbled upon something very interesting.
Below is a link to a website regarding one of the massacres.
This massacre occurred in Kuta village (Kosovskiy region IvanoFrankivsk, West Ukraine.
Why haven’t I ever heard off Kuta village before?
Where exactly is it?
I searched the area on Google maps and could only find a small village called ‘Kuty’, could this be it?
Below is a screenshot of Google maps, showing the distance between Kuty and Katerynychi, Lviv Oblast, the distance is roughly 230 KM or 4hrs in a car.
Could there be a connection with this area and my family, the name certainly points to a connection, although the massacre that occurred in this area was too far from where my family were living at the time. It’s the name which interests me more.
(If anyone can help, please, please do)
Below is a sequence of images, I do warn you they are very shocking and at times so is the description. These massacres were committed not only by soldiers, but very often by local civilians, even their neighbours. Please do not read further if your easily offended, I have sourced these images from the website; Voice of Sevastopol, some images I have decided not to include.
All I can say, is that after seeing these images I can see why my family who were Polish born fled their homeland, what I don’t know is how this affected my family and were they victims too.
Shocking what some people are capable off.
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