Olchowiec o is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in the administrative district of Gmina Dukla

Gmina Dukla

Gmina Dukla is an urban-rural gmina in Krosno County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland, on the Slovak border...

, within Krosno County

Krosno County

Krosno County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, south-eastern Poland, on the Slovak border. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998...

, Subcarpathian Voivodeship

Subcarpathian Voivodeship

Podkarpackie Voivodeship , or Subcarpathian Voivodeship, is a voivodeship, or province, in extreme-southeastern Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów...

, in south-eastern Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, close to the border with Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

. It lies approximately 12 kilometres (7 mi) south-west of Dukla

Dukla

Dukla ; , Duklya] is a town and an eponymous municipality in southeastern Poland, in the Subcarpathian Voivodship. The town is populated by 2,127 people . while the total population of the commune containing the town and the villages surrounding it is 16,640...

, 26 km (16 mi) south-west of Krosno

Krosno

Krosno is a town and county in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland with 47,455 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009.Notably Krosno is the site of the first oil well in the world....

, and 69 km (43 mi) south-west of the regional capital Rzeszów

Rzeszów

Rzeszów is a city in southeastern Poland with a population of 179,455 in 2010. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River, in the heartland of the Sandomierska Valley...

.

Prior to World War II, this village was populated primarily, if not entirely, by Lemkos

Lemkos

Lemkos , one of several quantitatively and territorially small ethnic groups who also call themselves Rusyns , are one of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains...

. During the Battle of the Dukla Pass

Battle of the Dukla Pass

Battle of the Dukla Pass, also known as the Dukla / Carpatho-Dukla / Rzeszów-Dukla / Dukla-Prešov Offensive was the scene of bitterly contested battle for the Dukla Pass on the Eastern Front of World War II between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September-October 1944. German resistance was...

 in September-October, 1944, the village was totally destroyed by military operations. In the ethnic cleansing of the Lemkos

Lemkos

Lemkos , one of several quantitatively and territorially small ethnic groups who also call themselves Rusyns , are one of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains...

 by the Communist government of Poland in Operation Vistula in 1947, Olchowiec was one of a very small number of Lemko villages - perhaps only two, the other being Komańcza

Komancza

Komańcza is a village in the Sanok County, in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of south-eastern Poland. It is situated in the Bukowsko Upland mountains, located near the towns of Medzilaborce and Palota .-History:...

 - from which the Lemko population was not deported to northern or western Poland

Recovered Territories

Recovered or Regained Territories was an official term used by the People's Republic of Poland to describe those parts of pre-war Germany that became part of Poland after World War II...

.

The village has a population of 60, mostly Lemkos

Lemkos

Lemkos , one of several quantitatively and territorially small ethnic groups who also call themselves Rusyns , are one of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains...

. The Kermesz Łemkowski, an annual festival of Lemko culture is held in the village.