APPALLING MASSACRES IN HISTORY

MASSACRES OF POLES IN VOLHYNIA

This genocide operation against the Polish population of Volhynia,

Ukraine was carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)in March

1943. Its aim was to exterminate all Polish males between the ages of

16 and 60. Tens of thousands of women and children were

killed too however.

WOLA MASSACRE

During the Warsaw Uprising, a systematic killing of some 40,000 to

50,000 Polish civilians and captured resistance fighters was carried out

by the Nazi German troops from August 5 to 12, 1944. The victims were

indiscriminately shot or killed in an organized mass murder throughout

the Wola district, the capital of Warsaw, Poland. These atrocities were

committed to crush the Poles’ spirit and to end the uprising without

resorting to heavy city-fighting, but ended up only stiffening

the resistance.

THE 228 INCIDENT

Also known as the ‘228 Massacre,’ this happened due to an anti-

government uprising in Taiwan, which was violently suppressed by

government troops on February 27, 1947. The number”228” came from

the following day, February 28, when 30,000 civilians were massacred

in what came to be known as the White Terror.

JEJU UPRISING

The Jeju Uprising was a revolt on Jeju island off the south coast of the

Korean Peninsula beginning on April 3, 1948. Between 14,000 and

60,000 individuals were killed in fighting or execution between various

factions on the island. The brutal suppression of this rebellion by the

South Korean army resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, the

destruction of many villages on the island and sparking rebellions

on the Korean mainland.

BODO LEAGUE MASSACRE

The Bodo League massacre was a massacre and war crime against

communists and suspected sympathizers that occurred in the summer

of 1950 during the Korean War. Estimates of the death toll vary but

most experts agree it was somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000.

HUE MASSACRE

The Hue Massacre is the name given to the summary executions and

mass killings perpetrated by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army

during their capture, occupation and later withdrawal from the city of

Hue during the Tet Offensive, considered one of the longest and

bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War. During the years that followed

the Battle of Hue, dozens of mass graves were discovered and the

estimated death toll was roughly 6,000. Victims were found bound,

tortured, and sometimes apparently buried alive.

HAMA MASSACRE

This scorched earth operation was carried out by the Syrian Arab Army

against the town of Hama to stop the uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood

in February 1982. Estimates of the death toll range from 7,000 to 35,000

and it has been described as “one of the single deadliest acts by an

Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East.”

SABRA AND SHATILA MASSACRE

This slaughter of several thousand Palestinian and Lebanese Shia

refugees in Beirut was carried out from September 16 to 18, 1982 by

the Phalange, a Lebanese paramilitary organization, in retaliation for the

assassination of newly elected Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel.