At least 48 Ukrainian families, 57 Polish families and 61 Jewish families lived in the town of Kisielin (the Jews were murdered in 1942). The estate was owned by Count Andrzej Olizar.

During the Second World War, the Poles in Kisielin were repeatedly attacked by the Ukrainian upholders. The biggest attack took place on Sunday 11.07.1943. The Poles had gathered in the church for mass. When the mass was over and people started to leave the temple, they were attacked by the Ukrainian army. Unable to defend themselves, most people surrendered and were murdered. After the execution, the victims were dragged to a ditch under the fence in the park of the Olizar counts and covered with earth. However, some people did not surrender and decided to fight back against the attackers. A dozen or so men spontaneously organised a defence. They were commanded by Włodzimierz Sławosz Dębski. After 11 hours of fighting, the attackers gave up. According to witnesses, around 100 people were killed during the attack.

After 3 days, the Ukrainians dug up the corpses of the victims, temporarily buried in the park of Count Olizar, and moved them under the bell tower. Some Poles buried their loved ones in the Catholic cemetery. Others were buried in the church grounds, but did not manage to complete the burial as they noticed the arrival of the carts with the Volscians, so they all dispersed.

In 1977 the mass grave of the murdered was found and arranged. A monument-tablet was erected with an inscription in Ukrainian, commemorating "those killed by Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists". The unveiling of the monument was accompanied by a rally, and a minute's silence was held to honour the murdered Poles. On the 50th anniversary of the crime, in 1993, gravestones in the form of crosses were erected on the grave on the initiative, design and execution of Włodzimierz Dębski.

The memorial area is fenced with a 75-metre-long chain stretched between 25 metal posts. At one end of the fenced area is a large vertical rectangular black slab, set on a low pedestal, with an inscription in Ukrainian. At the other end of the site stand two low (1.7m) concrete crosses, each with an attached shield-shaped surface bearing an inscription commemorating the fallen and the dead - on one cross the names of those murdered (75 names), on the other the names of those killed in defence (4 names). A pavement of concrete slabs, overgrown with grass, leads from the obelisk with the Ukrainian inscription to the crosses.

The inscription on the Ukrainian monument: "Buried here are citizens of Polish nationality / shot by Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists / on 11 July 1943". Inscription on the first Polish cross: "Unarmed fighting saved / 83 human lives / fallen in unequal combat / 11 July 1943 / Garczyński Zygmunt aged 35 from Zabary / Kraszewski Władysław aged 45 from Kisielin / Krupiński Jan aged 20 from Warszawka / Ziółkowski Stanisław aged 20 from Kisielin". Inscription on the second Polish cross: "D.O.M. / Unarmed fathers mothers brothers / and sisters our murdered / in Kisielin church / 11 July 1943 / [hereinafter list of names]".

Repair and renovation work was carried out on this memorial in 2008 and 2011.