National Day of Remembrance of Genocide Victims in Poland Date in the current year: July 11, 2025

In September 1939, the Soviet Union occupied the Polish part of Volhynia as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Third Reich and the USSR and made it part of the Ukrainian SSR. When Germany occupied the region in the 1940s, the existing antagonism between Ukrainians and Poles intensified.

This antagonism resulted in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) carrying out a massive massacre of Poles. According to statistics, 40,000–60,000 Poles were killed in Volhynia, and 30,000–40,000 were killed in Eastern Galicia. The Polish government views the massacres in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia as genocide, but the Ukrainian government disagrees with this characterization, although it does not deny the very fact of the massacre.

In 2013, representatives from four political parties (Law and Justice, the Polish People’s Party, the Democratic Left Alliance, and United Poland) suggested that July 11 be observed as an official remembrance day. However, Sejm rejected the final version of the resolution they had drafted.

The National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Citizens of the Polish Republic Committed by Ukrainian Nationalists (Narodowy Dzień Pamięci Ofiar Ludobójstwa dokonanego przez ukraińskich nacjonalistów na obywatelach II Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) was officially established by the Sejm in 2016. The holiday honors the memory of all victims of massacres of Poles in Volhynia, Polesia, the Lublin region, and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), and the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) during World War II.

In 2025, the Sejm changed the name of the remembrance day to the National Day of Remembrance of the Poles – Victims of the Genocide Committed by the OUN and UPA in the Eastern Territories of the Second Polish Republic. On July 2, 2025, President Andrzej Duda signed a decree confirming the change.