Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland
XX century (1914 – 1989)
personal data
surname
CZECHOWICZ
forename(s)
Joseph (pl. Józef)
religious forename(s)
Cassian (pl. Kasjan)
function
religious cleric
creed
Byzantine–Slavic Catholic Church BSmore on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.01.13]
congregation
Order of Capuchin Friars Minor OFMCapmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
(i.e. Capuchins)
diocese / province
Warsaw province OFMcapmore on
www.kapucyni.pl
[access: 2014.08.18]
date and place
of death
06.1943
Liubeshivtoday: Liubeshiv hrom., Kamin‐Kashyrskyi rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.11.12]
alt. dates and places
of death
10.12.1943
Choromecksettlement/colony
today: non‐existent, Liubeshiv hrom., Kamin‐Kashyrskyi rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
www.radzima.net
[access: 2026.07.13]
Koveltoday: Kovel urban hrom., Kovel rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.19]
details of death
After the German and Russian invasion of the Poland in 09.1939 and the beginning of World War II, after the beginning of the Russian occupation, evicted in 1940 by the Russians from the Capuchin OFMCap monastery along with all his confreres of the Slavic Mission of the Eastern Rite (a similar fate also befell the monks and monastery of the Piarist Fathers SP in Liubeshiv).
His subsequent fate is unclear. All sources available to the authors of Liber Albus are internally and mutually contradictory. The story presented below is a hypothesis, which can only be verified by newly revealed facts.
Therefore, after leaving the monastery, moved to the nearby Polish colony of Choromeck, c. 2 km from Liubeshiv, near another colony Rejmontówka, settled by the Polish military veterans of the Wars of Polish Independence. Was there, among other things, with the then 59‐year‐old, newly ordained Fr Angel Stanislav Dąbrowski, who, however, had soon after, in 09.1940, moved to Gorodnaya, c. 70 km east of Liubeshiv. From Choromeck, ministered in many parishes in Volyn on the Belarusian–Ukrainian borderland that had been abandoned due to the war by Catholic priests.
The situation worsened further after the German attack on 22.06.1941, of the erstwhile allies, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation, leading to a multi‐layered conflict in Liubeshiv and the surrounding area. The Germans occupied Liubeshiv on 26.06.1941, just a few days after the attack, and Ukrainians collaborating with the Germans immediately became active — after all, Ukrainian units also took part in the attack on the Russians on German site. And already on 30.06.1941, in Lviv, Ukrainian nationalists from the genocidal Ukrainian organization OUN announced the Ukr. Акт відновлення Української Держави (Eng. Act of Renewal of the State Ukrainian), i.e. declaration of the independence of Ukraine. And they immediately established, among others, the Ukr. Українська народна міліція (Eng. Ukrainian People's Militia).
And it was prob. a unit of this militia that on 26.07.1941, murdered in Liubeshiv 20 Jews who were accused of collaborating with the Russians.
But the Germans did not allow the creation of a Ukrainian state, and created the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galicia) and incorporating it into the German‐run occupation entity called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), while Volyn was incorporated into the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng. Reich Commissariat Ukraine), and then arresting some of the OUN leaders — thus saving their lives, as it turned out. Earlier, however, created the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police) — in Volyn, in Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine, known rather as Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Team), i.e. Schuma — which included part of the disbanded People's Militia. And it was members of this police that participated in the creation of the ghetto in Liubeshiv, and elsewhere, in 04‐05.1942, which housed a maximum of about 2,000 Jews. On 10.08.1942, the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei participated near the town in the mass murders of most of the remaining Jews. The last Jews from the ghetto were murdered in 11.1942.
The liquidation of the Jews — i.e. Germ. Endlösung der Judenfrage (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), as German dignitaries euphemistically called it — meant the activation of the Ukrainian partisans of the OUN/UPA, supported by the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, which began implementing the plan of genocide of the Polish population, which went down in history as «Genocidium Atrox» — i.e. the „Volyn” genocide. After the Jews, it was the turn of the Poles, most of whose leadership was deported by the Russians deep into Russia in 1940 — i.e. exiled „to Siberia”. At the same time, Soviet Russian partisans emerged, initially consisting of remnants of the Russian army, which had fled the Germans in 1941, reinforced by Russian collaborators and escapees from German captivity. They evolved into large partisan groups near Liubeshiv, including the Molotov group, formed in 04.1943, and others commanded by Major General Alexei Fyodorov.
The monastery of the Capuchin Fathers OFMCap was occupied by the Germans — prob. used i.a. as a grain warehouse — so was unable to return to Liubeshiv. It seems remained in Choromeck, from where continued to carry out his pastoral ministry.
However, on 05.04.1943, the murder of Fr Joseph Szostak, parish priest of the Mali Holoby parish, c. 30 km away, who was invited to Liubeshiv by Fr John Borell SP, acting parish priest of the local parish, to assist with Lenten confessions (Easter that year fell on 25.04.1943). On the way back, Frf Szostak and the monk accompanying him, Bro. Peter Mojsijonek SP, were cruelly murdered by members of the genocidal OUN/UPA.
Decided then to take action and went to Kovel — the railway line to Kamin‐Kashyrskyi and further on, to Kovel — where intended to persuade the OUN/UPA to stop the murders of Poles ran nearby. It is unclear how he planned to do this; how knew who and where to meet, etc. In Kovel, however, was supposedly handed over by the Ukrainians to the Germans, who released him.
Prob. returned then to Choromeck and was captured there by the OUN/UPA.
Murdered — prob. drowned — in the floodwaters of the Stokhod River, a right tributary of the Pripyat, which flows through Liubeshiv, near that town.
His body was never found.
The fate of Poles in Liubeshiv, the Choromeck colony and Rejmontówka was fulfilled a few months later. Threatened by attacks by the genocidal OUN/UPA, some Poles joined the Russian partisans, which probably at some point, took control of Liubeshiv — the German post there was not very large, c. 40 people — and fought against the OUN/UPA. Some left the area and went west, to the larger towns of Volyn. The rest were murdered on 09.11.1943. The UPA group, which included the perpetrators of the genocide: Danylo Yurko, Constantin Sholomitskyi, a man named Duna, Ivan Yurko, Andriy Yurko, Arkhip Harasj, Yakov Yurko, and others, slaughtered c. 100 Polish residents of Rejmontówka and over 183 of Liubeshiv that day.
Liubeshiv and the surrounding area became a stage of special testimony of the Polish Catholic Church. In the region, which in 1939 had a population of c. 3,500, including c. 1,300 in Liubeshiv itself — c. 40% Poles, 45% Ukrainians and 15% Jews, although Jewish sources indicate that in Liubeshiv itself, where Jews lived and constituted the majority of the community, there could have been as many as 1,500 Jews, which would mean different population proportions — at least nine Catholic clergy, including two nuns, were selected from among Poles and murdered, mainly by Ukrainians.
Today, a forest grows on the site of the Rejmontówka colony, while the Choromeck colony has been turned into farmland, and then an airstrip was built. The buildings of the former Capuchin OFMCap monastery house i.a. a regional unit of the Ukrainian police.
alt. details of death
According to other versions, after leaving Liubeshiv in 1940, was supposed to have resided in Mali Holoby, or in Horodno, or in 1941 might have returned to Liubeshiv and there — outside the monastery — was to reside. From there was to go to Kovel, where was murdered by Ukrainians.
Was supposedly drowned in a well or thrown from a bridge into the river. The monastic Mortuology records: „On the bridge spanning the river, an execution took place among a large crowd: throwing into the Styr River. A cloak and a cap were hung on the bridge railing”. It is unlikely though that this took place on the Styr River, as the Styr flows c. 40 km east of Liubeshiv. The Turya River, another right tributary of the Pripyat, flows through Kovel.
cause of death
murder
perpetrators
Ukrainians
sites and events
«Genocidium Atrox»Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
16.01.1912Birth certification on:
www.familysearch.org
[access: 2025.10.15]
Białaczówtoday: Białaczów gm., Opoczno pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.29]
parents
CZECHOWICZ Francis
🞲 ?, ? — 🕆 ?, ?
PODLEWSKA Catherine
🞲 ?, ? — 🕆 ?, ?
baptism
19.01.1912Birth certification on:
www.familysearch.org
[access: 2025.10.15]
Białaczówtoday: Białaczów gm., Opoczno pov., Łódź voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.29]
St John the Baptist RC church
religious vows
15.08.1931 (temporary)
15.08.1934 (permanent)
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
11.07.1937
Lublintoday: Lublin city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20]
positions held
1940 – 1943
resident — Choromecksettlement/colony
today: non‐existent, Liubeshiv hrom., Kamin‐Kashyrskyi rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
www.radzima.net
[access: 2026.07.13] — from c. 1940 ministered several abandoned parishes of the Lutsk diocese — as a result of the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 1939 and repressions — in the vicinity of Manevychi, Karasyn, Kamin‐Kashyrskyi
1938 – 1940
friar — Liubeshivtoday: Liubeshiv hrom., Kamin‐Kashyrskyi rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.11.12] ⋄ OFMCap „Slavic Mission of the Eastern Rite”, St Ciril and St Methodius monastery, Capuchins OFMCap
till 1938
student — Lublintoday: Lublin city pov., Lublin voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.08.20] ⋄ Theological Study (higher theological seminary), St Peter and St Paul the Apostles monastery, Capuchins OFMCap — in 1937‐1938 prob. specialised studies in the field of Eastern rite
c. 1933 – c. 1934
student — Zakroczymtoday: Zakroczym gm., Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ Philosophical Study (higher theological seminary), St Lawrence the Martyr monastery, Capuchins OFMCap
c. 1931 – c. 1933
student — Łomżatoday: Łomża city pov., Podlaskie voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28] ⋄ Philosophical Study (higher theological seminary), Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows monastery, Capuchins OFMCap
1930 – 15.08.1931
novitiate — Nowe Miasto nad Pilicątoday: Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą gm., Grójec pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28] ⋄ St Casimir the Prince and Confessor monastery, Capuchins OFMCap
14.08.1930
accession — Nowe Miasto nad Pilicątoday: Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą gm., Grójec pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28] ⋄ St Casimir the Prince and Confessor monastery, Capuchins OFMCap
1926 – c. 1930
pupil — Łomżatoday: Łomża city pov., Podlaskie voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28] ⋄ St Fidelis of Sigmaringen College, Capuchins OFMCap
others related
in death
BORRELClick to display biography John (Fr of the Incarnation), GANOClick to display biography Hedwig (Sr Mary Aloysia), HŁADZIOClick to display biography Steven (Bro. Silvester), OSSAKOWSKAClick to display biography Mary (Sr Andrea), ZAJĄCClick to display biography Joseph (Fr Alexander of St Joseph), MOJSIJONEKClick to display biography Peter (Bro. Peter of the Holiest Heart of Jesus), SZOSTAKClick to display biography Joseph, KOWALIKClick to display biography Francis (Bro. Dominic of St Joseph Calasanctius)
sites and events
descriptions
«Genocidium Atrox»: In 1939‐1947, especially in 1943‐1944, independent Ukrainian units, mainly belonging to genocidal Ukrainian organizations OUN (political arm) and UPA (military arm), supported by local Ukrainian population, murdered — often in extremely brutal way — in Volyn and surrounding regions of pre‐war Poland, from 130,000 to 180,000 Poles, all civilians: men, women, children, old and young. Polish‐Ukrainian conflict that openly emerged during and after World War I (in particular resulting in Polish‐Ukrainian war of 1918‐1919), that survived and even deepened later when western Ukraine became a part Poland, exploded again after the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. During Russian occupation of 1939‐1941, when hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported into central Russia, when tens of thousands were murdered (during so‐called Katyń massacres, among others), this open conflict had a limited character, helped by the fact that at that time Ukrainians, Ukrainian nationalists in particular, were also persecuted by the Russians. The worst came after German‐Russian war started on 22.06.1941 and German occupation resulted. Initially Ukrainians supported Germans (Ukrainian police was initiated, Ukrainians co—participated in extermination of the Jews and were joining army units fighting alongside Germans). Later when German ambivalent position towards Ukraine became apparent Ukrainians started acting independently. And in 1943 one of the units of aforementioned Ukrainian OUN/UPA organization, in Volyn, started and perpetrated a genocide of Polish population of this region. In mere few weeks OUN/UPA murdered, with Germans passively watching on the sidelines, more than 40,000 Poles. This strategy was consequently approved and adopted by all OUN/UPA organisations and similar genocides took place in Eastern Lesser Poland (part of Ukraine) where more than 20,000 Poles were slaughtered, meeting however with growing resistance from Polish population. Further west, in Chełm, Rzeszów, etc. regions this genocide turned into an extremely bloody conflict. In general genocide, perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists, partly collaborating with German occupants, on vulnerable Polish population took part in hundreds of villages and small towns, where virtually all Polish inhabitants were wiped out. More than 200 priests, religious and nuns perished in this holocaust — known as «Genocidium Atrox» (Eng. „savage genocide”) The nature and purpose of genocide is perhaps best reflected in the song sung by the murderers: „We will slaughter the Poles, we will cut down the Jews, we must conquer the great Ukraine” (ukr. „Поляків виріжем, Євреїв видусим, велику Україну здобути мусим”). This holocaust and conflict ended up in total elimination of Polish population and Polish culture from Ukraine, in enforced deportations in 1944‐1945 of remaining Poles from Ukraine and some Ukrainians into Ukraine proper, and finally in deportation of Ukrainians from East‐South to the Western parts of Polish republic prl by Commie‐Nazi Russian controlled Polish security forces („Vistula Action”). (more on: www.swzygmunt.knc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.06.20])
Ribbentrop‐Molotov: Genocidal Russian‐German alliance pact between Russian leader Joseph Stalin and German leader Adolf Hitler signed on 23.08.1939 in Moscow by respective foreign ministers, Mr. Vyacheslav Molotov for Russia and Joachim von Ribbentrop for Germany. The pact sanctioned and was the direct cause of joint Russian and German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. In a political sense, the pact was an attempt to restore the status quo ante before 1914, with one exception, namely the „commercial” exchange of the so‐called „Kingdom of Poland”, which in 1914 was part of the Russian Empire, fore Eastern Galicia (today's western Ukraine), in 1914 belonging to the Austro‐Hungarian Empire. Galicia, including Lviv, was to be taken over by the Russians, the „Kingdom of Poland” — under the name of the General Governorate — Germany. The resultant „war was one of the greatest calamities and dramas of humanity in history, for two atheistic and anti‐Christian ideologies — national and international socialism — rejected God and His fifth Decalogue commandment: Thou shall not kill!” (Abp Stanislav Gądecki, 01.09.2019). The decisions taken — backed up by the betrayal of the formal allies of Poland, France and Germany, which on 12.09.1939, at a joint conference in Abbeville, decided not to provide aid to attacked Poland and not to take military action against Germany (a clear breach of treaty obligations with Poland) — were on 28.09.1939 slightly altered and made more precise when a treaty on „German‐Russian boundaries and friendship” was agreed by the same murderous signatories. One of its findings was establishment of spheres of influence in Central and Eastern Europe and in consequence IV partition of Poland. In one of its secret annexes agreed, that: „the Signatories will not tolerate on its respective territories any Polish propaganda that affects the territory of the other Side. On their respective territories they will suppress all such propaganda and inform each other of the measures taken to accomplish it”. The agreements resulted in a series of meeting between two genocidal organization representing both sides — German Gestapo and Russian NKVD when coordination of efforts to exterminate Polish intelligentsia and Polish leading classes (in Germany called «Intelligenzaktion», in Russia took the form of Katyń massacres) where discussed. Resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands of Polish intelligentsia, including thousands of priests presented here, and tens of millions of ordinary people,. The results of this Russian‐German pact lasted till 1989 and are still in evidence even today. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30])
sources
personal:
nawolyniu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], nawolyniu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], www.familysearch.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2025.10.15], tomaszowmazowiecki.naszemiasto.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04]
bibliographical:
„Genocidium Atrox”, GTKRK, https://www.swzygmunt.knc.pl/GENOCIDEs/15 GENOCIDUM ATROX/vPOLISH/MAINs/GENATROXsearch01.htm
original images:
www.naszeopoczno.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.06.11], www.isakowicz.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.12.04]
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MARTYROLOGY: CZECHOWICZ Joseph
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