After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II, left Volodymyr–Volynskyi and moved back to the Chełm region. Sources do not specify when this happened, only that it occurred after the outbreak of the war. Most likely, however, it happened in 1941, after the German attack on 22.06.1941 on their erstwhile ally, the Russians, when Volodymyr–Volynskyi found itself under German occupation — just as the Chełm region had been since 09.1939 — because until then it had been under Russian occupation.

Started to minister in a parish where the church had historically belonged to the Slavic‐Byzantine Catholic Church, also known as the Uniate Church. After the fall of the January Uprising of 1863‐1864, the tsarist, Russian authorities, ruling in the partitioned Poland, outlawed the Uniate Church in 1875, forcibly incorporating the faithful into Orthodoxy. The churches were converted into Orthodox ones. However, in 1915, during World War I, after the Russian defeat in the Battle of Gorlice by the armies of the Central Powers (i.e. German Empire and Austro–Hungarian Monarchy), the Orthodox priests and a large number of parishioners fled from Nowosiółki, as part of the so‐called bezhenstvo, i.e. the panicked flight of c. 3 million members of the Russian partitioning administration on Polish territory — officials, Orthodox clergy, military personnel, teachers, etc., along with their families — into the depths of Russia. Most never returned. In 1919, the empty and decaying church was taken over by the Roman Catholic Church.

When the World War II broke out and the German occupation begun, Nowosiółki found itself in the Germ. Landkreis Hrubieszów (Eng. Hrubieszów County) within the Germ. Distrikt Lublin (Eng. Lublin District), a part of the quasi‐state occupied and administered by the Germans, called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. The Germ. SS‐ und Polizeiführer (Eng. SS and Police Commander) in the Germ. Distrikt Lublin, and de facto deputy governor of this district, was one of the greatest criminals in the history of humanity, the Austrian Odilo Lotario Globočnik, whom one historian described as „the most vile individual in the most vile organization that has ever existed”. The Germans immediately introduced terror against the Polish population. In the Chełm region, including the Germ. Landkreis Hrubieszów, they de facto resurrected the policy of Ukrainization, which had its origins in 1918, at the end of World War I, when on 09.02.1918, the occupying Central Powers concluded a treaty in Brest‐on‐the‐Bug with the fledgling, seasonal Ukrainian state, with its capital in Kyiv, in which they granted the Chełm region to Ukraine by the law of caducus, i.e. „with disregard for the rights”, excluding the Poles. This was expressed, i.e. in taking schools from Polish hands and handing them over to Ukrainians, and expelling Catholic priests from parishes and converting churches into Orthodox. This happened i.a. in Nowosiółki, a village — comprising a farm, a Polish colony, and the village proper — inhabited in 1939 by an estimated 1,580 people, including c. 21% Roman Catholics, i.e., Poles, and c. 75% Orthodox. There, the church was taken from the Catholics and converted into an Orthodox.

In 1942, the Germans — as part of the German genocidal plan, the Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question) — liquidated the ghetto in Hrubieszów. Among the victims were i.a. a few Jews from Nowosiółki. The majority of Jews from Hrubieszów, c. 8,000, were deported to the VL Sobibor extermination camp, prob. over 1,000 were murdered in the vicinity of Hrubieszów. In carrying out the genocide, the Germans were assisted by gendarmerie units, Germ. Sonderdienst (Eng. Special Service), i.e. the auxiliary police of the GG governor, and the trainees brought in from the Germ. SS‐Ausbildungslager (Eng. SS Training Camp) in Trawniki. A significant portion, if not the majority, in all these units were Ukrainians. The fourth group assisting the Germans in the deportation of Jews to VL Sobibor was the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service). The last, large‐scale deportation from the Hrubieszów ghetto took place on 22.11.1943.

The end of the Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» in the Chełm region did not mean the end of the ordeal of its Polish civilian population. On the contrary, it coincided with the beginning of Germ. Aktion Zamość (Eng. Operation Zamość), a German displacement and pacification operation in the „Zamość region”, part of the broader Germ. Generalplan Ost (Eng. General Plan East), a German settlement and Germanization plan for the territories of Central, Eastern, and Eastern Europe. Germ. Aktion Zamość was led by the aforementioned genocide perpetrator, SS‐Grupenführer Odilo Globočnik. As part of it, the Germans displaced 100,000—110,000 Poles, including 30,000 children, intending to settle 60,000 German colonists in their place. Those displaced were taken to concentration camps, where many were murdered. Some of the children — the „racially purest” — were literally robbed and given to German families.

It is unclear whether the Polish inhabitants of Nowosiółki were displaced as part of the Germ. Aktion Zamość — rather not, although German data from 01.03.1943 indicate that 1,320 people lived in Nowosiółki at that time, which is prob. fewer than at the beginning of World War II. It is also unclear whether, as part of the Germ. Ukraineraktion (Eng. Ukrainian Operation) — a part of the Germ. Aktion Zamość — the Germans brought to Nowosiółki Ukrainians resettled from other places. They were supposed to constitute a „protective belt” for German colonists against Polish partisans (part of the Polish Clandestine State). The authors of „Liber Albus” do not know the position or attitude of Fr Holc towards these and subsequent events, of which he must have been aware.

And these followed fast, one after another. In 02.1943 Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the chief commander of the Ukrainian, genocidal OUN/UPA organisation, 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, collaborating with Germans, in some regions also referred to as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma, which co‐participated in the Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage», to desert and join the UPA. Perhaps as many as 10,000 Ukrainians did so.

The tactics of the genocidal Ukrainians were detailed in an order issued by the UPA commander in Volyn, region in the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine, neighbouring Germ. Distrikt Lublin — from 11.1943 commander of the Operational Group „UPA‐North” — Dmytro Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”. Anticipating Germany's defeat in the war with Russia, in 06.1943 explained and ordered: „We should carry out a major operation to eliminate the Polish element. When the German troops withdraw, we should use this opportune moment to eliminate the entire male population aged 16 to 60 […] We cannot lose this fight, and we must weaken Polish forces at all costs. Forest villages and villages located near forest massifs should disappear from the face of the earth”.

In the first half and summer of 1943, the OUN/UPA carried out hundreds of genocidal attacks on Polish villages and hamlets in Volyn. At the end of 1943, it decided to expand its mass genocidal operations to the German‐occupied Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galicia) and the Chełm region, both part of the GG. At the turn of 1943/44, units of the genocidal UPA began to infiltrate the Chełm region — across the Bug River from Volyn — including his parish.

The Germans did not react, focusing almost exclusively on fighting the Polish partisan forces of the resistance Home Army AK and the Peasant Battalions BCh (part of the Polish Clandestine State), active in the Germ. Landkreis Hrubieszów, and this in the context of the situation on the German–Russian front in the east, that was forcing the Germans to throw all available forces to defend the German positions — on 24.12.1943, a large Russian offensive, today known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation, began, and the front began to rapidly approach central Volyn, Rivne, and Lutsk. Moreover, Germans left internal control over the occupied territories almost exclusively to collaborationist formations, retaining only general supervisory functions for themselves. In the Chełm region, in the Germ. Landkreis Hrubieszów, this meant that the only uniformed formations engaged in maintaining internal order were de facto units consisting of Ukrainian collaborators. These were the Germ. Gendarmerie, Schuma, as well as the Germ. Galizisches SS Freiwilligen Regiment 5 – Polizei (Eng. 5th Galician Volunteer Regiment of the SS – police), i.e. SS‐GFR5P — units of the German Die Schutzstaffel der NSDAP (Eng. NSDAP Protection Squad), i.e. «SS», a paramilitary formation subordinate to the ruling National Socialist German Workers' Party NSDAP in Germany. In the area were also recruitment centers of Germ. Ersatz/Ausbildungseinheiten (Eng. replacement/training units) for the combat formations, being created, i.e. Germ. 14. Waffen–Grenadier–Division der SS – ukrainische Nr. 1 (Eng 14. Grenadier Division of the Waffen SS – 1. Ukrainian), known as «SS‐Galizien».

Since the UPA formally did not operate in the General Government until the end of 1943 — so as not to irritate the Germans — in rural centers the euphemistically called Ukr. Самооборонні кущові відділи (Eng. self‐defense unit) were formed, de facto branches of the UPA, preparing to implement the orders of „Taras Chuprynka” Shukhevych and implement «Genocidium Atrox» in the GG, including the Chełm region. Shelters were built, weapons were stockpiled, and trenches were dug. All these Ukrainian armed formations intertwined, remaining under the increasing ideological and practical control of the genocidal OUN/UPA — and in the spring In 1944, they in fact deserted to the genocidal UPA.

The resistance Polish Clandestine State observed the situation. Traumatized Polish refugees began to appear in the Germ. Landkreis Hrubieszów, recounting details of the «Genocidium Atrox» in Volyn and the unprecedented barbarity of the UPA and Ukrainians. The infiltration of UPA genocidal groups across the Bug River into the Chełm region was observed. And so, at the end of 02.1944, the Bug River was crossed by a UPA gang, commanded by the genocidal agent Miroslav Onyshkevych, nom de guerre „Orest”, then the so‐called „Chief of Staff” of Military District WO‐4 „Bug”, part of the OUN/UPA „UPA‐West” operational group formed in 12.1943, which carried out the massacre of the Polish villages of Tarnoszyn, Posadów and Podlodów, located in the Germ. Landkreis Zamość (Eng. Zamość county), neighboring the Germ. Landkreis Hrubieszów — Posadów is located barely 8 km from Nowosiółki. The increasing activity of collaborative Ukrainian formations, de facto deprived of German supervision, was observed. i.a. on 14.02.1944, Ukrainian collaborationist units — including the SS‐GFR5P unit stationed in Mircze, c. 13 km away — attacked Polish AK and BCh partisans stationed in the village of Górka‐Zabłocie, c. 6 km east of Mircze. Despite the Ukrainian advantage, the battle ended without a clear outcome. When information about a mass attack by the genocidal UPA on Polish villages in the Germ. Landkreis Hrubieszów, planned for 16.03.1944, reached the AK command a preemptive action was decided. Its execution was entrusted to the unit of Stanislav Basaj, nom de guerre „Ryś”, unit. „Ryś” was the organizer and commander of the largest BCh unit fighting the Germans and the genocidal UPA during World War II, and had experienced combat with the Germans, which led to the suppression and subsequent elimination of the Germ. Aktion Zamość (the resistance effort today known as the Zamość Uprising). „Ryś” was to be supported by the AK unit of Zenon Jachymek, nom de guerre „Victor”. From c. 10.03.10, 1944, a regular war began between Polish partisan units and Ukrainian génocidaires from various collaborationist units, logistically and strategically supported by the Germans, and de facto under the control of the genocidal OUN/UPA, marked by battles, burned villages, and murders of civilians. The war that stopped the genocidal Ukrainian rampage in the Chełm region.

It was fought mainly a dozen or so kilometers north of his parish Nowosiółki, around the road leading to Hrubieszów. But it also encompassed the vicinity of his village. i.a. on 21.03.1944, on the road between Nowosiółki and Telatyn, a skirmish took place between two platoons of the AK District in Tomaszów Lubelski, commanded by William Szczepankiewicz, nom de guerre „Drugak”, and — according to sources — the „Germans”. These Polish partisan platoons resided in the Nowosiółki colony, with a scattered network of houses around the road from Nowosiółki to Poturzyn c. 5 km away. One of the partisans and at least one „German” were killed.

The Polish defense against genocidal Ukrainian attacks caused the Polish population to move west of the aforementioned road to Hrubieszów, to areas controlled by Polish partisans. And so, e.g. Polish inhabitants of Dołhobyczów and Kryłów (11 km and 22 km from Nowosiółki, respectively) moved to Poturzyn. And it was Poturzyn that became the target of genocidal attacks by Ukrainians.

One of them took place on 01.04.1944 (the second — here sources are contradictory — on 23.03.1944 or 08.04.1944). Before World War II, Poturzyn was a mixed village. In the village, the manor farm and the manor estate, there were an estimated 2,100 people living there, including c. 60% Orthodox Christians and 30+% Catholics. On 01.03.1943, according to German sources, only 1,320 lived there. At the beginning of 1944, there were more, especially Poles, refugees from the east and north, threatened by Ukrainian genocidal gangs. And it was this village — or rather, Polish homes — that the Ukrainians attacked. Sources state that „defenseless children, women, and old people were killed in a cruel, refined way. The homes were destroyed and burned”. Another specifies that the perpetrators „verified the nationality of each person they met by their Kennkarte (kennkarte) and by conversations inititated in Polish. Anyone who did not produce a document and answered in Polish was murdered”. The conclusion of the investigation by the Institute of National Remembrance IPN No. S124/11/Zn from 07.2012 states: „The entire village of Poturzyn, together with the farm, was surrounded by Ukrainian nationalists […] The attackers entered Polish houses and murdered everyone they found”. The attackers „were wearing German, SS‐Galizien uniforms, and civilian clothes”, and prob. impersonated Polish AK partisans. In two attacks, c. 100‐162 people were murdered, including 20 Ukrainians who posed as Poles.

Little is known about his attitude towards these events. According to some Ukrainian sources, was to organize, together with a local Catholic priest, meetings with residents, during which appealed to people of different faiths and nationalities to live in harmony.

Knowledge of the massacre in Poturzyn must have reached the nearest village, Nowosiółki, where ministered. It must have reached the Polish colony of Nowosiółki. And already on 02.04.1944, the day after the genocide in Poturzyn, was detained by — according to Ukrainian sources — a Polish partisan unit. It is unknown which unit.

Apparently was tortured. His beard was cut off, and then was shot dead.

A few days later, on 06.04.1944, the aforementioned genocide perpetrator, Miroslav Onyshkevych, specified the tasks of the UPA units under his command: „I order the immediate purging of my region of the Polish element […] The purging should be carried out in the sparsely populated areas by Poles. For this purpose, a militia group composed of our members should be established in the area, whose task would be to eliminate the above‐mentioned. Larger areas will be purged of this element by our military units even in broad daylight […] The purging of the area must be completed before our Easter, so that we can celebrate it without Poles […] Fight them hard and ruthlessly. Spare no one, even in the case of mixed marriages. Pull the Poles out of their homes, but do not eliminate the Ukrainians and children in these houses […] Take out your weapons. Death to the Poles”.

On 12.10.2007, the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. In 12.2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in a resolution, recognized génocidaire Dmitry Klachkivsky as „the leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Volyn and a participant in the struggle for Ukraine's independence in the 20th century”. In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to these Lat. „hostis humani generis”, the schools were named after them.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”