In 09.1939, when the Germans and Russians attacked Poland and World War II broke out, ministered in the village of Oliiv in the Zboriv county of the Ternopil Voivodeship. According to the agreement between the two allies, ratified by the genocidal Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 23.08.1939, the Ternopil Voivodeship fell to the Russians. The Russian occupation began.

In the fall of 1939, arrests of the Polish intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, and the families of Polish servicemen began. In 1940‐1941, many other Poles fell victim to four large waves of deportations „to Siberia”. 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. Then the surveillance of priests and monks began. High taxes were imposed on the clergy. The fate of the residents of Oliiv mirrored this Polish fate.

On 22.06.1941, Germany attacked its erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the German occupation began. Became then the administrator of the Penyaky parish, which the German occupier incorporated into the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Złoczów (Eng. Zlochiv County), which was part of the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galicia) of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. In 1939, the village of Penyaky was inhabited by c. 1,250 people, including c. 27% Roman Catholic Poles, c. 72% Greek Catholic Ukrainians, and a dozen or so Jews — a similar national structure was present in the rural communal settlements of the Brody County, to which Penyaky belonged at that time.

The period 1941‐1943 was marked in particular by the extermination of Jews. From the beginning of 1942, the Germans implemented the genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which in the GG was codenamed Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt). Units of the Ukrainian, collaborative Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), also operating as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma, took a significant part in it. The Jews from Penyaky were prob. initially transported to Pidkamin, c. 12 km away, and then to Brody. In 1941, there were c. 9,000 Jews in Brody. Already on 17.12.1941, several „larger groups” of Jews were transported to „slave labor camps”, from which no one returned. The main extermination operations began on 19.09.1942, when agents of the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service) managed to catch c. 2,500 Jews from the ghetto, who were then led by the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei to the railway station and transported to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. Extermination Camp) VL Belzec, where they were all murdered in a gas chamber. Already on the way to the station, the Germans and Ukrainians murdered c. 300 Jews. The second group of c. 2,500 Jews to VL Belzec was transported by the Germans from Brody at the end of 11.1942. And then, on 02.12.1942, Jews from the surrounding area, e.g. from Pidkamin, were brought to Brody, including prob. Jews from Penyaky, and eight days later the Germans established a closed ghetto in which c. 5,000 Jews were held. In the winter of 1942‐1943, c. 1,000 of them died of hunger and diseases, especially typhus. On 21.05.1943, the final liquidation of the ghetto began. Most of the Jews were prob. deported to the German extermination camp KL Lublin (Majdanek). The rest were murdered by Germans and Ukrainians from Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei in the ghetto, till 06.1943, when the town was finally declared by the Germans as Germ. „Judenfrei” (Eng. „free of Jews”).

And it was then, in 02.1943, when 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.

In 1943, the UPA formally operated only in Volyn, on the territory of the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng. Reich Commissariat of Ukraine), so Shukhevych's order did not cover — it would seem — the Ternopil region, which was located in the GG. However, Shukhevych — in order not to „annoy” the Germans — founded another group in the GG, operating under the euphemistic Ukrainian name Ukr. Українська Народна Самооборона (Eng. Ukrainian National Self‐Defense), i.e. UNS, reinforced by deserters from the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and Schuma, seasoned in the genocide of Jews. Its main goal, like the OUN/UPA, was the extermination of the Polish population, although its internal documentation and reports ostentatiously stated „defense against the terror of the German authorities”. In 08.1943, another Ukrainian genocide perpetrator, Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest”, became the commander of the Lviv district of UNS, which included the Ternopil region. When at the turn of 1943/1944 it became clear that the Germans were losing the war in the east — on 24.12.1943, a large‐scale Russian offensive began, known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation, which in 04.1944 reached a line c. 80 km east of Lviv, i.e. e.g. to Brody — the OUN/UPA decided to extend the «Genocidium Atrox» to the GG the Germ. Distrikt Galizien. And then Shukhevych liquidated the fiction and transformed the UNS units into the OUN/UPA genocidal units. In 01.1944, the commander of the OUN/UPA operational group „UPA‐West”, covering the Ternopil region, was the aforementioned Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest”, who ordered „to strike continuously at Poles until they are completely destroyed from these lands”. In the Brody and Penyaky region, the execution of the order was the responsibility of either the UPA Military District WO‐2 „Bug”, commanded by Ostap Lynda, nom de guerre „Yarema” or UPA Military District WO‐3 „Lysonya”, commanded by Emilian (Omelian) Polowy, nom de guerre „Ostap” — the ambiguities result from the fact that the area around Brody, Pidkamin and Penyaky is located on the border of the historical Ternopil region and the Lviv region, and the responsibilities of various OUN/UPA formations in that early period were not clear. Both Sydor, Lynda and Polowy followed the same path of honing their genocidal craft — from the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall, through the German Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, to «Genocidium Atrox» — as did their commander, Shukhevych.

Attacks on his village began. One survivor described it this way: „Bandits had been raiding the village of Penyaky every night for a month, robbing Poles and taking the men with them”. Attacks are known to have taken place, among others, on 17.10.1943, when Ukrainians murdered three Poles; in 12.1943, a forester and soldier of the underground Home Army AK (part of the Polish Clandestine State), George Żelazny, was kidnapped from a neighboring forest called Rabana — when found his body had tongue, ears, and eyes cut out; on 21.12.1943, another Polish resident of Penyaky was kidnapped and murdered.

But the OUN/UPA was particularly targeting another village, Huta Pieniacka, c. 5 km to the west, located in the middle of a large forest. C. 1,000 Poles lived then, though in 01.1944 many refugees from Volyn, traumatized by the Ukrainian «Genocidium Atrox» genocide, also found shelter there. Jews who managed to escape with the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt», were also hiding there. In Huta Pieniacka there was an c. 40‐strong self‐defense unit, de facto belonging to the AK, and a 60‐strong unit of the Directorate of Diversion of the Main Command, i.e. Kedyw AK. The Ukrainians were too weak to attack Huta, so they took advantage of the fact that a detachment of Russian partisans had appeared in the village. They were allowed into Huta and then a Ukrainian with the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, who had not managed to desert, reported it to the Germans.

On 23.02.1944, the Germans sent c. 40 policemen from the 6th company of the 2nd battalion of the Germ. Galizisches SS Freiwilligen Regiment 4 ‐ Polizei (Eng. 4th Galician SS Volunteer Regiment ‐ Police) to Huta, consisting of Ukrainians who, for various reasons, were not accepted into the Germ. 14. Waffen‐Grenadier–Division der SS — ukrainische Nr. 1 (Eng. 14th Waffen Grenadier Division ‐ 1st Ukrainian), commonly known as «SS‐Galizien», a criminal frontline unit fighting alongside the Germans. The Polish Wikipedia page states that „Members of the self‐defense initially did not engage in combat, observing the enemy's actions, and opened fire only in response to Ukrainians firing at the Polish population, which fled, thinking that there had been a UPA attack”. Two Ukrainians were killed, and the Ukrainian policemen were saved from being routed by a the genocidal UPA sotnya, which attacked the Poles from the side — according to some sources, it could have been the kuren „Siromantsy”, i.e. „Poor‐Gray Wolves”, prob. commanded by Gregory Lebida, nom de guerre „Krub”. The Ukrainians withdrew.

On 27.02.1944, the Germans sent a full battalion of the Ukrainian Germ. Galizisches SS Freiwilligen Regiment 4 ‐ Polizei ‐ c. 500‐600 policemen ‐ prob. commanded by a German captain, to Huta.

And it was then that he was murdered.

For some time he had been friends with the Greek Catholic priest — in Penyaky, besides the Roman Catholic parish, there was also a Greek Catholic parish — Fr Vasil Obershyn, a married priest eight years his senior with two children. Sources say, „The Greek Catholic priest was initially a bit reluctant towards Poles. With the approach of the front, came to his senses, and even the Polish priest would come to him overnight”. Therefore, on 27.02.1944 — it was the first Sunday of Lent — after celebrating the Passion Service of Pl. Gorzkie Żale (Eng. Bitter Lamentations), intended to visit Fr Obershyn.

On the veranda of his rectory, was kidnapped by „Banderites dressed in German uniforms”.

Taken to an unknown destination. According to most sources, was prob. taken to the nearby village of Markopil, 8 km to the southeast, on the Seret River. Held in the basement of a farm c. 1 km from the center of the village.

Murdered there. The witness said: „Father Pikota was taken to a neighboring village, to the house of the Polish Gworek family, and there, in the basement, the priest and four members of the Gworek family were murdered”. However, according to most sources, the Gworke family — the father of the family prob. worked as a watchman, i.e. a fisherman, at the local ponds — had been murdered earlier, on 12.1943.

In the early morning of 28.02.1944, the Germ. Galician SS Freiwilligen Regiment 4 — Polizei surrounded Huta Pieniacka. Supported by a unit of the OUN/UPA — prob. the aforementioned „Siromantsy” kuren, and the local Ukrainian peasants who joined the operation, brutally murdered 1,100‐1,300 Poles.

The aforementioned Gregory Lebida, nom de guerre „Krub”, was prob. not effective enough as a commander, since in the spring of 1944 was dismissed by the genocidal OUN/UPA from his position as commander of the „Siromantsy” kuren for „drunkenness and robbery”.

The Greek Catholic priest Vasyl Obershyn survived the war. In 1945‐1946, already under Russian occupation, refused to apostatize and convert to Orthodoxy. Evicted from his parish, worked as an accountant in Lviv. In 02.1953, was arrested by the Russians and sentenced to 25 years of slave labor in Russian Gulag concentration camps. Released in 1956. Died in 2002 in Lviv.

On 12.10.2007, the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. On 10.12.2017, on, the Ukrainian Supreme Court ruled — confirmed also [nefās!] by 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). In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to these Lat. „hostis humani generis”, the schools were named after them. And on 21.09.2020the ukr. Український інститут національної пам"яті (Eng. Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance) —that the symbols of «SS‐Galizien» was not associated with German National Socialism and therefore could not be banned. Even though in 1945‐1945 the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg recognized the formations of the genocidal Germ. 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 — including «SS‐Galizien» — as criminal.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”