page_title: 1946 pacification of villages by PAS NZW
hierarchical_section_title: 1946 pacification of villages by PAS NZW
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Pomnik ku czci zamordowanych mieszkańców Zaleszan.
context_page_description: The 1946 pacification of villages by PAS NZW was the killing that year of 79 Polish nationals of Belarusian ethnicity in the area of Bielsk County, north-eastern Poland, by partisans, members of the Polish Extraordinary Special Actions unit of the National Military Union. These murders took place in the aftermath of World War II.
  In January and February 1946, units of the PAS Special Forces from the National Military Union burned down the villages of Zaleszany, Wólka Wygonowska, Zanie, Szpaki, and Końcowizna. They also executed 30 coachmen on 30 January 1945 near Puchały Stare, and a similar number of armed resistors in Zanie on 2 February 1946.
  Since 1995, this mass killing of civilians was the subject of official investigation by the government-affiliated Institute of National Remembrance. The inquiry resulted in the publication of a final report in June 2005, summarizing this case. The Commission interviewed a total of 169 persons, and analysed all documents and testimonies dating back to the 1949 show trial of Polish cursed soldiers: Captain Romuald Rajs of the PAS Special Forces, and his co-conspirator and deputy, Lieutenant Kazimierz Chmielowski from NZW.
context_section_description: The 1946 pacification of villages by PAS NZW was the killing that year of 79 Polish nationals of Belarusian ethnicity in the area of Bielsk County, north-eastern Poland, by partisans, members of the Polish Extraordinary Special Actions unit of the National Military Union (NZW) (Polish: Pogotowie Akcji Specjalnej Narodowego Zjednoczenia Wojskowego (PAS NZW)). These murders took place in the aftermath of World War II. 
  In January and February 1946, units of the PAS Special Forces (Pogotowie Akcji Specjalnej) from the National Military Union (Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe) burned down the villages of Zaleszany, Wólka Wygonowska, Zanie, Szpaki, and Końcowizna. They also executed 30 coachmen on 30 January 1945 near Puchały Stare, and a similar number of armed resistors in Zanie on 2 February 1946. 
  Since 1995, this mass killing of civilians was the subject of official investigation by the government-affiliated Institute of National Remembrance. The inquiry resulted in the publication of a final report in June 2005, summarizing this case. The Commission interviewed a total of 169 persons, and analysed all documents and testimonies dating back to the 1949 show trial of Polish cursed soldiers: Captain Romuald Rajs of the PAS Special Forces, and his co-conspirator and deputy, Lieutenant Kazimierz Chmielowski from NZW.
  Among the individuals questioned by IPN were families of victims, as well as former soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of NZW responsible for the deaths of 79 Polish nationals of Belarusian ethnicity from several villages in Bielsk County. The IPN closed its official investigation without additional charges filed. Sentences from the Stalinist period had already been carried out. In addition, there had been extrajudicial killings of partisans by governmental authorities during the Polish anti-Communist insurrection. No living perpetrators of the atrocities committed in early 1946 have been identified. These postwar atrocities have continued to receive considerable press coverage by the media.
caption: Memorial to the victims of the pacification action in Zaleszany
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