On February 12, 2001, the Canadian Polish Congress wrote to Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (Instytut Pamieci Narodowej-IPN) to initiate an investigation into a mass murder perpetrated in the village of Koniuchy (now Kaniukai, Lithuania) during World War II. According to the count of the perpetrators themselves, some 300 defenceless Poles-mostly women and children-were massacred.
The village of Koniuchy, as well as its civilian population, was obliterated on January 29, 1944. Their only crime was that they were Poles who attempted to protect their lives and property from incessant and violent raids by marauding Soviet partisans. This war crime-which is undeniable-has been amply documented in accounts written by the actual perpetrators, members of the "Death to the Fascists" and "To Victory" detachments of the so-called Lithuanian Partisans. Not only did they describe the massacre in lurid detail, but they also vilified the victims and glorified their vile deeds.
Professor Witold Kulesza, the director of the IPN's Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, announced on February 22, 2001, that there would be a formal investigation into this matter, thus bringing to fruition an undertaking commenced by the Congress' Information Services in 1996. Our findings were first published in the book The Story of Two Shtetls Bransk and Ejszyszki.
An investigation carried out by Nasza Gazeta, a Polish newspaper published in Vilnius (Wilno), has revealed important new information about the crime. Their reporter managed to locate survivors of the massacre in Koniuchy who confirmed the gruesome circumstances of the massacre and identified some of the victims by name. Soviet, German and Lithuanian archival documents confirming the massacre have also come to light.
A memorial cross was unveiled in Koniuchy in 2004, on the 60th anniversary of the massacre. The investigation of the crime by the IPN is still ongoing in 2008.
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