In 1939 was released from the Capuchin Order OFMCap and was incardinated in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv.

7 days after the German attack on Poland on 01.09.1939 — the Russians attacked Poland 17 days later — and the start of World War II, became a vicar in Zymna Voda, c. 10 km west of the center of Lviv. Just 5 days later, motorized units of the spearhead of the German army entered Zymna Voda and began the attack on Lviv. After the Russian attack on Poland, the Russians approached Lviv two days later, on 19.09.1939, and the city was surrounded. On 20.09.1939, the Germans began their retreat and handing over their positions to the Russians. Lviv and the surrounding area — pursuant to the genocidal German–Russian agreement of 23.08.1939, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, confirmed on 29.09.1939 by the so‐called „Treaty on the Borders and Friendship between Germany and Russia”, also known as the Second Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which enabled the German–Russian attack on Poland — were to fall to the Russians. Lviv fell on 22.09.1939, and the Russian occupation of Zymna Voda began at that time.

The Russians subjected Poles in particular to repression — in the village of Zymna Voda, Poles constituted c. 88% of the population, and in 1938 his parish had 4,894 faithful — arresting Polish intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, foresters, policemen, and families of Polish military personnel. At least one Polish policeman, Michael Pachołek, is known to have been arrested by the Russian genocidal NKVD and murdered in Tver, as part of the so‐called Katyn genocide. Many other Poles — also from Zymna Voda — became victims of four large waves of deportations „to Siberia”. Accounts often mention that „they came at night, without warning, and took away entire families, from infants to the elderly”. „When we went out into the yard, they allowed my mother to look into the chest — unfortunately, it was empty, because our neighbors had already emptied it. We took practically nothing, because they did not allow us to move around the house […] There were large snowdrifts and heavy frost”. In the first large deportation alone, on c. 10.02.1940, c. 140,000 Poles were deported „to Siberia”, including 15 Polish families from his Beneva. In addition, 150,000–200,000 men were conscripted into the Russian army, and c. 100,000 were forced to work for Russian industry, mainly in the mines of the Donets Basin, in heavy industry plants in the Urals and in Siberia. It is known that prob. in 1939, a forced labor camp for prisoners of war operated in Zymna Voda, where prisoners slaved on the Lviv–Przemyśl road. As one witness reported, the Russians' attitude toward Poles was „very hostile. They called us Polish masters, that we, Poles, were ploughing the Ukrainians, peasants, workers. They spread communist propaganda that nowhere was as good as under the Soviets, and used terror to force people to join their side, otherwise they wouldn't let them go home. They spread false information that Poland would never rise again and that they would conquer the world”. „Medical care was nonexistent”. Then, the surveillance of priests and monks began. High taxes were imposed on the clergy, and religious education was removed from schools.

After the German attack on 22.06.1941 on its erstwhile ally, the Russians, and after the beginning of the German occupation, in 05.1942 became the administrator of the parish of Markova, c. 15 km south of Pidhaitsi and c. 60 km from Ternopil, on the Zolota Lypa River. In 1939 in the village of Markova, then in the Polish district of county, Tarnopol Voivodeship, was inhabited by an estimated 1,400 people, of whom Roman Catholic Poles and Greek Catholic Ukrainians constituted c. 48% each. In addition, there were several Jews living in the village and in 1938, the Roman Catholich parish had 1,307 believers.

Markova found itself in the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Berezhany (Eng. Berezhany County), within the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng District of Galicia), part of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG, expanded by East Galicia.

Arrived at the parish a few months after the Germans began implementing the genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which in the GG was codenamed «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt). The local center of the Jewish community was the county town of Pidhaitsi, where in 1939 c. 3,400 Jews may have lived, i.e. c. 55% of the inhabitants. Already in 07.1941, the Germans established — in accordance with the German regulations in force in the GG — the Germ. Judenrat (Eng. Jewish Council), responsible for the Jewish community, assisted by the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service). Later, they de facto forbade Jews to leave the town without permission, because from 25.10.1941, a decree issued by the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the GG, Hans Frank, came into force, according to which „Jews who leave their assigned district without authorization are subject to the death penalty. The same punishment applies to persons who knowingly provide such Jews with a hiding place”, and „Instigators and accomplices are subject to the same punishment as the perpetrator; an attempted act will be punished as a completed act. In less serious cases, hard labor or imprisonment may be imposed”. On 21.09.1942 Germans, with the support of the Ukrainian, collaborationist Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), also operating as Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Security Battalions), i.e. Schuma — which was to take part in all such Germ. Aktion (Eng. operation) — as well as the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst, herded c. 1,000 Jews to the railway station, from where they were deported to their deaths, to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Belzec. Incidentally, c. 50 Jews were murdered in the Jewish cemetery. Immediately afterwards, a ghetto was formally established in Pidhaitsi, initially of an „open” nature, without a boundary fence. On 30.10.1942, the second Germ. Aktion took place. Over 1,200 Jews were deported to VL Belzec, and several dozen were murdered during the roundup. At about the same time, Jews from the surrounding villages were brought to the ghetto, including prob. from Markova, and in 12.1942 the ghetto — c. 2,500 people — was „closed”, i.e. surrounded by a wooden fence topped with barbed wire. On 12.04.1943, c. 40‐50 sick Jews were murdered in the Jewish cemetery. The liquidation of the ghetto took place on 06.06.1943. The Germans and the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei murdered c. 1,070 Jews in two ditches dug in the part of Pidhaitsi called the Old Town. On 08.08.1943, c. 750 Jews were lured out of hiding, under promise of transfer to Ternopil. All were taken out of the town and near the village of Zahaytsi, c. 2 km away, the Germans and Ukrainians murdered them. Over the next few months, the Germans and the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei systematically searched the ghetto hunting for Jews. C. 300 were captured and murdered in the Jewish cemetery. The Germans could declare that Pidhaitsi and the surrounding area were Germ. „Judenfrei” (Eng. „free of Jews”).

Helped and hid several Jews. E.g. in the summer of 1943, Jews who had managed to hide outside the ghettos and thus avoid death, appeared in Markova. In particular, helped a certain Eve Trauenstein‐Turzyńska and her 2‐year‐old son Leo from Rozvadiv near Lviv. Knew what was at stake. After all, the aforementioned decree of 25.10.1941, was in force in the GG, and from 10.11.1942, in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien, as well as a restriction, prob. identical in wording to the announcement published a few days earlier for the Germ. Distrikt Warschau (Eng. District of Warsaw), in which in §3, p. 2 and 3 the Germans informed that „[the death sentence] shall be imposed on anyone who […] knowingly gives shelter to a Jew, i.e., who in particular places a Jew outside the Jewish residential district, feeds him or hides him. Anyone who receives information that a Jew is illegally staying outside the Jewish residential district and does not report this to the police will be subject to police security measures (e.g. placement in a concentration camp)”. Is said to have told the woman in hiding: „I know I am in danger of death — but I am a messenger of God and I would not know peace if you refused to give me shelter”. The Jewish woman was introduced to his flock as „the wife of his murdered friend, a lieutenant, who "died during the war" […] and her son, Leo, was introduced as brother of her "murdered brother", was baptized and […] took seats in the front pews during services for safety”. In 2014, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Institute in Jerusalem honored him with the title of „Righteous Among the Nations”. He is not the only person from Markova who helped Jews. In this small village, where everyone knew everything about each other, Jews were also hidden by the Polish Rafalski family — Paul and Angela and their daughters Marie and Bronislava — who in 1990 were also honored with the titles of „Righteous Among the Nations”.

At the same time, i.e. in 02.1943, in Volyn, c. 150 km to the north, Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the chief commander of the Ukrainian, genocidal OUN/UPA organisation, who in 1941 was a member of the Ukrainian Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall (Eng. Special Group Nightingale) — a unit of the Germ. Wehrmacht (Eng. Armed Forces) that took part in the German attack on Russians in 1941, accused of participating in the Jewish pogrom in Lviv in 1941 — and later a member of the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201 (Eng. 201st Protection team Battalion) — responsible for the murder of Jews and civilians in the territory of Belarus — issued an order: „The extermination operation should be carried out according to the following principles: Polish villages are to be burned, and their populations massacred. Attacks on towns will take place in broad daylight, not at night. In mixed villages, the Polish population alone should be liquidated, and farmsteads should be burned only if they are 15 meters away and when there is no risk of the fire spreading to neighboring Ukrainian buildings. The Ukrainian population will receive instructions as to where to gather during the attack […] For every Ukrainian murdered, whether by Poles or Germans, 100 (one hundred) Poles will be executed”.

It was the de facto signal for the commencement of the «Genocidium Atrox» — i.e. the genocide perpetrated by Ukrainians, known as „Volyn genocide”.

Immediately thereafter, in 03.1943, the UPA issued an appeal to members of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei to desert and join the UPA ranks. Perhaps as many as 10,000 Ukrainians did so.

Volyn was drenched in Polish blood. Tens of thousands of Poles were murdered by the Ukrainians — with German passivity — in an extremely barbaric manner. Hundreds of villages were burned.

Although Shukhevych's order was not formally addressed to units of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien — there, in 1943, the genocidal OUN did not establish an armed wing under the name UPA, but formed armed units under a euphemistic name, to „confuse” the Germans, of Ukr. Українська Народна Самооборона (Eng. Ukrainian National Self‐Defense), i.e. UNS — but de facto also there the Ukrainian génocidaires, „unemployed” after the end of the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt», deserted and joined the UNS. But in 12.1943 — when it became clear that the Germans were losing the war in the East, i.e. on 24.12.1943, the great Russian offensive called the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation began — the UNS was formally transformed into a „UPA‐West” unit of the genocidal OUN/UPA. In 01.1944, its commander was another of the Ukrainian „trainees” of the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall and the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, the degenerate Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest”, who almost immediately ordered „to strike continuously at the Poles until they are completely destroyed from these lands”. The «Genocidium Atrox» began in Germ. Distrikt Galizien.

The UNS/UPA had nothing else to do at the time, because — as even the Ukrainian Wikipedia confirms — „during the last months of 1943, UNS units did not conduct military operations in connection with the introduction on 02.10.1943, by the Germans in Galicia of the system [of collective responsibility] of executing 10 hostages for the murder of every German soldier or official”. The Poles remained though a target for were not among these „officials”. And the Germans behaved passively towards the genocidal acts of the UNS/UPA, essentially not undertaking any major operations against Ukrainians.

In the vicinity of Pidhaitsi, the orders of the génocidaire Sydor were carried out by another degenerate, the commander of the UPA Military District WO‐3 „Lysonya”, Emilian (Omelian) Polowy, nom de guerre „Ostap”, whose „career path” was identical to that of his superiors — i.e. through the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall and the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, where they gained experience in the extermination of Jews. One of the Ukrainian inhabitants of the village of Bilokrynytsya, c. 15 km from Beneva, recalled years later — after escaping to emigration in Canada — that „in mid‐1943, UPA [i.e. UNS] units began to be formed. From them, a sotnia was formed solely from the inhabitants of the Pidhaitsi county […] In November–December 1943 and January 1944 [they underwent] military training in Volyn in the village of Derman”, in the same village where the OUN/UPA murdered c. 190 of its Polish inhabitants in 1943.

The murders of Poles began already in the last quarter of 1943 and intensified at the beginning of 1944. And so, on 20.07.1943, in Zaturyn, c. 2 km north of Markova, „Ukrainians murdered Marie Nenycz”. In 12.1943, in Zastavche, c. 6 km north of Markova: „It was Saturday, the father [i.e. 31‐year‐old Michael Plaifer] drove a wagon with two boys, Joh Koźlak, 15, and Francis Hertman, 15, to the forest to get wood. In the forest, Banderites caught them, ordered the father to lie down on the sleigh, covered him with a military Germ. Zeltbahn (Eng. tarp), sat on him and, beating him with rifle butts, drove him deep into the forest. After stopping there, they started torturing him – they cut out both his calfs, and while he was screaming, they cut out his tongue, then gouged out his eye, cut the skin around his head, and removed it from his skull. After these tortures, they hanged him from a tree. Together with my father, John Koźlak died in a similar manner […] For a long time, no one had the courage to remove the hanging body. After removing the father, knife marks were also found on the back of his neck”. And in Zavadivka, c. 2 km to the south, „At the beginning of January 1944, a woman, a Polish woman, was kidnapped”.

And it was then, at the end of 1943, in the vicinity of Chortkiv and Monastyryska, that the UPA kuren, i.e. battalion, commanded by certain Ivan Klymyshyn, nom de guerre „Raven”, arrived from Volyn — where it had participated in the murder of Poles — and became part of the WO‐3 „Lysonya”. And began genocidal attacks on Polish villages.

On 15.01.1944, one of his units attacked Markova. One witness recalled: „I was 12 years old then. We lived with my mother and grandmother in Zavaliv… One frosty Sunday, while going to Mass with my mother and grandmother, I saw a group of parishioners talking. The women were crying. It turned out that, about 6 km from us, in the village of Markova, Bandera supporters had murdered […] the parish priest. The Poles were debating whether to go to the funeral, which was to take place in three days, or whether it would be too risky. My mother and grandmother decided to go, but they didn't want to take me with them. Finally, they were convinced and we went with a small group to the funeral in Markova.

The funeral took place on the day when the Eastern Rite Church celebrated the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, known as Jordan. We entered the house of the murdered. In the middle of the room stood a catafalque on which three victims lay. An older man lay in the middle, and on either side two young men. It was a father and two sons. Heads chopped off with axes were placed next to their bodies. Stains of blood were visible on the whitewashed walls and ceiling. Orphaned women were lamenting.

In the rectory, in the main room, on the catafalque, lay the body of the parish priest. A cross was carved into his forehead, the arms of which were about 1 cm wide. Sobbing could be heard in the room full of people. One woman, perhaps the priest's housekeeper, said to those who gathered:

«The priest might have lived because the Ukrainian priest sent his deacon three times, begging him to come to him because he was in danger».

Unfortunately, this request was unsuccessful. The third time, he transmitted through the deacon:

«The entire village is surrounded. Please save your life. I will shelter you. You will be safe with me».

But the parish priest from Markova replied:

«I cannot abandon my parishioners. Let what awaits them not pass me by».

And it happened just as he wished. He thanked the Ukrainian priest for caring for his life. He may have even suffered more than the other victims”.

According to various sources, was shot in bed; received three revolver bullets and an axe blow that severed about 8 cm of neck tissue; was hacked to death with axes and stabbed.

In total, during the attack, the Ukrainian génocidaires murdered c. 33‐57 Poles. The aforementioned Ukrainian housekeeper was wounded.

The Jews he was hiding survived.

The Greek Catholic priest who tried to help was Fr Michael Shchurovski.

On 12.10.2007, the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. On 10.12.2017, on behalf of the „Coordination Council for the Commemoration of Decorated Knights of the OUN and UPA”, génocidaire Vasyl Sydor was posthumously awarded in Lviv the Silver Cross of Military Merit of the UPA, 1st Class (No. 009). The degenerate Emilian Polowy was also supposed to receive, on 14.01.1945, the Bronze Cross of Military Merit UPA. In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected, books written in memory of these Lat. „hostis humani generis”.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”