According to the 1931 CSO census, the village of Hanaczów had 297 homesteads and 1388 inhabitants. Poles significantly predominated, about 70 Jews and a few Ukrainians lived there.

On 2.02.1944 bandits in the number of 500-600 people attacked the village. They burnt 65 residential houses and 163 farm buildings with livestock. Dozens of people were killed then, including women and children. After this incident, the commander of the Home Army District and the diversionary unit, Second Lieutenant Kazimierz Wójtowicz "Głóg", organised a so-called defence triangle in the centre of the village, which gave shelter for the night to around 2,000 Poles and Jews. The Jews formed their own partisan unit, which took part in the defensive fighting in this village. During the second attack by the Ukrainians, on 10.04.1944, the defence triangle was not captured. During this attack, further victims were murdered in the hamlets of Zagóra and Podkamienna, administratively belonging to Hanaczów. The third attack, which took place on 2.05.1944, ended with the murder of the Poles remaining in the village. The village was then attacked by Ukrainians from the SS-Galizien unit and German military police. The village was completely annihilated. A total of around 170 people were murdered in these attacks.

The victims were buried in Hanaczów. Their grave is located near the cemetery, under a clump of trees. A tall metal cross stood here for many years. In 2015. The Council for the Protection of Remembrance of Struggle and Martyrdom financially supported the construction of a permanent commemoration, erected by the Studio Wschód Foundation, volunteers of the campaign "Save the Grave of Praděd from Oblivion" and descendants of Hanaczów inhabitants - a concrete cross on a pedestal was placed on a concrete foundation, and plaques with the names of the victims were placed on both sides of it.