Internment of Greek Catholic Clergy by Polish Authorities in 1918–1919

The history of relations between the Polish state and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church during the wars of independence fought by Poland and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic remains under-researched. These relations were difficult due to the unsolvable conflict over the ownership of Eastern Galicia. As the national Ukrainian Church, the Greek Catholic Church’s position was unequivocally in favour of building the nation’s statehood, which inevitably prompted a response from the Polish side following Ukraine’s loss in the Polish-Ukrainian War and finding itself within the borders of the Polish state. One of the controversial issues that is important to research and explain in this field is the internment of Greek Catholic priests by the Polish authorities in 1918 and 1919. Existing literature has not explored this topic thoroughly, and the figure of several hundred interned priests continues to circulate. In this article, I will therefore analyse this subject and answer the following research questions: Why did the Polish authorities decide to intern Greek Catholic priests? How many priests indeed ended up behind camp fences, and what was the timeframe of their imprisonment? What efforts, if any, were made to free them from captivity? The stories of several Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) priests will also be used to illustrate the topic.