Before the 1939 Nazi German and Soviet invasions of Poland

Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...

 Kurdybań Warkowicki or Kurdyban–Warkowicki was a village in Wołyń Voivodeship (1921–1939) near the town of Warkowicze in Dubno

Dubno

Dubno is a city located on the Ikva River in the Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Dubno Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...

 County, in the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic

Second Polish Republic

The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...

 (now Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

).

The village was a site of an OUN-UPA ethnic cleansing

Ethnic cleansing

Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....

 operation against the Polish civilians by the Ukrainian Military Group No. 02 called the "Bohun

Ivan Bohun

Ivan Bohun was a Ukrainian Cossack colonel. Close associate and friend of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, he opposed both the pacts with Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and with Tsardom of Russia ....

" during the wave of massacres of Poles in Volhynia

Massacres of Poles in Volhynia

The Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia were part of an ethnic cleansing operation carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army West in the Nazi occupied regions of the Eastern Galicia , and UPA North in Volhynia , beginning in March 1943 and lasting until the end of...

 between 1942 and 1945. The Polish self-defence unit managed to hold its position there until the arrival of the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 in 1944. The witnesses consider such survival remarkable with no German outposts and no Polish partisans in its vicinity.

Most Polish self-defence units across the province fell — unable to defend the population against the genocide. Kurdybań Warkowicki was one of the only a handful of surviving units, among them: Młynów, Lubomirka

Lubomirka

Lubomirka is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Wilków, within Opole Lubelskie County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Wilków, north-west of Opole Lubelskie, and west of the regional capital Lublin....

, Klewań, Rokitno

Rokitno

Rokitno may refer to the following places:*Rokitno, Biała Podlaska County in Lublin Voivodeship *Rokitno, Lubartów County in Lublin Voivodeship *Rokitno, Tomaszów Lubelski County in Lublin Voivodeship...

, Budki Snowidowickie and Osty.