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
KOWALIK
forename(s)
Francis (pl. Franciszek)
religious forename(s)
Dominic of St Joseph Calasanctius (pl. Dominik od św. Józefa Kalasancjusza)
function
laybrother
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
congregation
Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools SPmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
(i.e. Piarists, Scolopi, Escolapios)
diocese / province
Pinsk diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
date and place
of death
31.10.1943
n. Liubeshivtoday: Liubeshiv hrom., Kamin‐Kashyrskyi rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.11.12]
alt. dates and places
of death
28.10.1943
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 from the monastery in 1940, along with the acting rector of the Piarist SP College and parish priest, Fr Alexander Zając, and his fellow co‐friars.
Kept under surveillance by the Russians. Harassed by taxes.
Witnessed several waves of deportations of Poles, particularly those holding various state and social positions, and their families, deep into Russia, „to Siberia”.
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.
One of the victims of the extermination of Jews was his superior, the aforementioned Fr Zając, who was murdered by the Germans, with the participation of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, for helping Jews confined in the ghetto. From then was helping the only priest in Liubeshiv and the de facto parish pastor, Fr John Borell SP.
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, i.e. Schuma, which began implementing the plan of genocide of the Polish population, which went down in history as «Genocidium Atrox» — i.e. the „Volyn” genocide. Especially after 03.1943, when, following the appeal of the political representation of the OUN/UPA, c. 50‐80%, according to various sources, of Schuma members deserted and, taking their weapons, joined the partisan UPA. After the Jews, it was the turn of the Poles, many of whom the Russians exiled earlier „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.
Additionally, the German presence in Liubeshiv was likely limited — for the town's population, which until 1942 was largely Jewish, plummeted, many buildings were deserted.
Then, during Lent of 1943 — Easter fell on 24.04.1943 — Fr Borell was assisted, especially at hearing confessions, by Fr Joseph Szostak from the Maly Holuby parish, c. 40 km away. When the latter was being driven away on 05.04.1943, by his co‐friar, Bro.
Peter Mojsijonek, both were murdered by Ukrainians from the genocidal OUN/UPA organization.
A few months later, the local UPA commander, Dmytro Klyachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”, issued an order to exterminate Poles in Volhynia. Its beginning was marked by the the so‐called „Bloody Sunday in Volyn”, 11.07.1943, when genocidal Ukrainian gangs attacked 99 villages inhabited by Poles. Within a few weeks, with the Germans remaining passive, prob. over 40,000 Poles were murdered.
On 28.10.1943, Fr Borell died. Four days earlier, while going to pray at the grave of a Pole murdered by Ukrainians, stepped on a mine planted by the OUN/UPA. The funeral Mass was celebrated by Fr Vaclav Chojecki, the parish priest from the Chervishchy parish, c. 20 kilometers away.
After the funeral, escorted him to his parish. While returning to Liubeshiv, was attacked by OUN/UPA perpetrators and brutally murdered with his coachman.
The fate of Poles in Liubeshiv, and the neighbouring the Choromeck and Rejmontówka colonies was fulfilled a few weeks 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.
In 12.2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a resolution in which it called i.a. the génocidaire Dmytro Klyachkivsky a „participant in the struggle for Ukraine's independence in the 20th century”. Monuments and commemorative plaques were erected in the honor of this Lat. „hostis humani generis” in several towns.
Lat. O Tempora! O mores
cause of death
mass murder
perpetrators
Ukrainians
sites and events
«Genocidium Atrox»Click to display the description, GeneralgouvernementClick to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description, Pius XI's encyclicalsClick to display the description
date and place
of birth
04.04.1904
Wywłatoday: Słupia gm., Jędrzejów pov., Holy Cross voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.28]
religious vows
1935 (temporary)
03.09.1938 (permanent)
positions held
1938 – 1943
friar — Liubeshivtoday: Liubeshiv hrom., Kamin‐Kashyrskyi rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.11.12] ⋄ College, monastery, Piarists SP
c. 1935 – c. 1938
friar — KrakówStare Miasto (Old Town) district
today: Kraków city pov., Lesser Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ Conventual Franciscans Order's Philosophical and Theological College, monastery (by the Transfiguration church), Piarists SP
1934 – 1935
novitiate — Liubeshivtoday: Liubeshiv hrom., Kamin‐Kashyrskyi rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.11.12] ⋄ College, monastery, Piarists SP
27.08.1934
accession — Piarists SP
others related
in death
BORRELClick to display biography John (Fr of the Incarnation), MOJSIJONEKClick to display biography Peter (Bro. Peter of the Holiest Heart of Jesus), SZOSTAKClick to display biography Joseph, ZAJĄCClick to display biography Joseph (Fr Alexander of St Joseph), CZECHOWICZClick to display biography Joseph (Fr Cassian), GANOClick to display biography Hedwig (Sr Mary Aloysia), HŁADZIOClick to display biography Steven (Bro. Silvester), OSSAKOWSKAClick to display biography Mary (Sr Andrea)
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])
Generalgouvernement: After the Polish defeat in the 09.1939 campaign, which was the result of the Ribbentrop‐Molotov Pact and constituted the first stage of World War II, and the beginning of German occupation in part of Poland (in the other, eastern part of Poland, the Russian occupation began), the Germans divided the occupied Polish territory into five main regions. In two of them new German provinces were created, two other were incorporated into other provinces. However, the fifth part was treated separately, and in a political sense it was supposed to recreate the German idea from 1915 (during World War I, after the defeat of the Russians in the Battle of Gorlice in 05.1915) of creating a Polish enclave within Germany. Illegal in the sense of international law, i.e. Hague Convention, and public law, managed by the Germans according to separate laws — especially established for the Polish Germ. Untermenschen (Eng. subhumans) — till the Russian offensive in 1945 it constituted part of the Germ. Großdeutschland (Eng. Greater Germany). Till 31.07.1940 formally called Germ. Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete (Eng. General Government for the occupied Polish lands) — later simply Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), as in the years 1915‐1918. From 07.1941, i.e. after the German attack on 22.06.1941 against the erstwhile ally, the Russians, it also included the Galicia district, i.e. the Polish pre‐war south‐eastern voivodeships. A special criminal law was enacted and applied to Poles and Jews, allowing for the arbitrary administration of the death penalty regardless of the age of the „perpetrator”, and sanctioning the use of collective responsibility. After the end of the military conflict of the World War UU, the government of the Germ. Generalgouvernement was recognized as a criminal organization, and its leader, governor Hans Frank, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and executed. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.12.13])
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])
Pius XI's encyclicals: Facing the creation of two totalitarian systems in Europe, which seemed to compete with each other, though there were more similarities than contradictions between them, Pope Pius XI issued in 03.1937 (within 5 days) two encyclicals. In the „Mit brennender Sorge” (Eng. „With Burning Concern”) published on 14.03.1938, condemned the national socialism prevailing in Germany. The Pope wrote: „Whoever, following the old Germanic‐pre‐Christian beliefs, puts various impersonal fate in the place of a personal God, denies the wisdom of God and Providence […], whoever exalts earthly values: race or nation, or state, or state system, representatives of state power or other fundamental values of human society, […] and makes them the highest standard of all values, including religious ones, and idolizes them, this one […] is far from true faith in God and from a worldview corresponding to such faith”. On 19.03.1937, published „Divini Redemptoris” (Eng. „Divine Redeemer”), in which criticized Russian communism, dialectical materialism and the class struggle theory. The Pope wrote: „Communism deprives man of freedom, and therefore the spiritual basis of all life norms. It deprives the human person of all his dignity and any moral support with which he could resist the onslaught of blind passions […] This is the new gospel that Bolshevik and godless communism preaches as a message of salvation and redemption of humanity”… Pius XI demanded that the established human law be subjected to the natural law of God , recommended the implementation of the ideal of a Christian state and society, and called on Catholics to resist. Two years later, National Socialist Germany and Communist Russia came together and started World War II. (more on: www.vatican.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.05.28], www.vatican.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.05.28])
sources
personal:
www.rp.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.12.28], www.kresykedzierzynkozle.home.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.13]
bibliographical:
„Register of Latin rite Lviv metropolis clergy’s losses in 1939‐45”, Józef Krętosz, Maria Pawłowiczowa, editors, Opole, 2005
„Biographical lexicon of Lviv Roman Catholic Metropoly clergy victims of the II World War 1939‐1945”, Mary Pawłowiczowa (ed.), Fr Joseph Krętosz (ed.), Holy Cross Publishing, Opole, 2007
„Mysterium iniquitatis. Clergy and religious of the Latin rite murdered by Ukrainian nationalists in 1939‐1945”, Fr Józef Marecki, Institute of National Remembrance IPN, Kraków 2020
„Genocidium Atrox”, GTKRK, https://www.swzygmunt.knc.pl/GENOCIDEs/15 GENOCIDUM ATROX/vPOLISH/MAINs/GENATROXsearch01.htm
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