In 1934 was prob. a student at the Ukrainian Academic Gymnasium. At that time, the so‐called „Revolutionary Tribunal” of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists ‐ i.e. the genocidal OUN ‐ issued a death sentence on the school’s director, Ivan Babij. The father of one of the students, a well‐known lawyer, Stephen Shukhevych (uncle of the future leader of the OUN/UPA, the mass murderer Roman Shukhevych), „appeared at a parents' meeting and delivered a "programmatic" speech […] Openly declared to Babij that it would be better if the Polish authorities closed all Ukrainian gymnasiums, and that Ukrainians did not need university education ‐ vocational training would suffice. Because the gymnasiums «spoil the Ukrainian language with Ciceros», and the director was trying to turn the youth into informers and traitors to the Ukrainian nation”. As a result, the students of the gymnasium "warned" director Babij twice ‐ the first time by slapping him in the face, and the second time by beating him with sticks in the auditorium. On 25.07.1934, an OUN fighter murdered Babij. At that time, the Greek Catholic Metropolitan of Lviv, Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky, issued a proclamation in which he wrote: „Director Babij has fallen victim to Ukrainian terrorists; a shudder of horror has shaken the entire nation […] They murder without any reason, apparently only because they did not like the educational work of the deceased. That work was an obstacle to the criminal action of drawing secondary school youth into underground activity. If that is the case, then all deserving and wise Ukrainians will fall at the hands of assassins, because there is no wise Ukrainian who would not oppose such a criminal action. There is no pedagogue or teacher who would not claim that whoever tears youth away from work and draws it into the underground commits a grave crime against that youth. There is no father or mother who would not curse the leaders leading youth onto the paths of crime. If you want to treacherously murder those who oppose your work, you will have to murder all teachers and professors who work for Ukrainian youth, all fathers and mothers of Ukrainian children, all directors and guides of Ukrainian educational institutions, all politicians and social activists. And above all, you will have to remove by assassination the obstacles that the clergy, together with the episcopate, place in the way of your criminal and foolish work”.

After the German and Soviet attack on Poland in 09.1939 and the beginning of the World War II, found himself — under unknown circumstances — under German occupation, i.e. on the territory of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. Lviv, where was born and where had studied at the Greek Catholic Theological Academy, was occupied by the Soviets on 22.09.1939 — in accordance with the genocidal agreement of the two allies known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 23.09.1939, later confirmed by the so‐called „Treaty on Borders and Friendship between Germany and Russia” of 28.09.1939, also called the second Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The Soviet occupation began in Lviv, and one of the first acts of the occupier was to close the Academy. Must already have been in the GG at that time, however, since began studies at the Greek Catholic Teachers" Seminary in Krynica‐Zdrój, which had been incorporated into the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Neu‐Sandez (Eng. Nowy Sącz county) in the Germ. Distrikt Krakau (Eng. Kraków county) of the GG. Krynica‐Zdrój had been seized on 08.09.1939 by the third invader of Poland — Slovakia — but was transferred to the Germans on c. 18.09.1939.

Found himself in areas where the Ukrainizing policy of the hierarchy of the Greek Catholic Church ‐ particularly the Przemyśl eparchy — at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s to the wave of mass conversions of Lemkos to Orthodoxy — c. 18,000 Lemkos/Rusyns left the Greek Catholic Church. The Church managed to stop further apostasy of the Lemkos, not thanks to the attitude of Greek Catholic hierarchy, but thanks to the establishment of a special Apostolic Exarchate of Lemkowszczyzna AEL, i.e. of the Lemko Region. Mykhailo Baczyński, a member of the Seym, i.e. Parliament, of Poland, in his parliamentary speech of 21.01.1931, revealed what the Rusyns had to deal with within the Greek Catholic Church, who were not susceptible to the genocidal — as it turned out — ideology of Ukrainian nationalists: „The Greek Catholic Church was transformed after the war [the Polish–Ukrainian war of 1918‐1919] into an agitational Ukrainian political tribune from which words of love for one’s neighbor are sown, but words of hatred”. Many of the Greek Catholic priests, however — i.e. of Przemyśl eparchy — still supported Ukrainian nationalists, close to the genocidal OUN/UPA.

In the first years of the war the occupiers subjected Poles to particular repression. The details were specified at four so‐called thematic conferences, when the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. Gestapo, and the Rus. Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел (Eng. People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs), i.e. NKVD, two genocidal allied organizations, debated cooperation and ways of combating and exterminating Poles in the territories they occupied. The first took place on 27.11.1939 in Brest‐on‐the‐Bug; the second immediately afterwards in Przemyśl. The third was held on 20.02.1940 in Zakopane, in the villas „Pan Tadeusz” (Eng. „Sir Thaddeus”) and „Telimena”, the fourth in 03.1940 in Kraków. In the meantime, at the beginning of 02.1940, in Hermann Göring's hunting lodge in Rominty in the Romincka Forest, a meeting of two génocidaires, Heinrich Himmler and Lavrentiy Beria, took place, where the decision to exterminate Polish society and combat the Polish resistance movement was probably finalized. As a consequence, in 04.1940, almost simultaneously, the genocidal murders of Polish prisoners of war began in Russia, which went down in history as the «Katyn genocide», and in the German‐occupied GG, the Germ. Außerordentliche Befriedungsaktion (Eng. Extraordinary Pacification Action) began, i.e. «Aktion AB», which was part of the so‐called Germ. «Intelligenzaktion» (Eng. Operation Intelligentsia), aimed at exterminating Polish political and intellectual elites.

At the same time, the Germans in GG pursued a clearly pro‐Ukrainian policy. Ukrainians were guaranteed self‐government, the use of the Ukrainian language in administration, and Ukrainian education. The Ukrainian police, Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), in some regions also referred to as Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma, began its operations. Ukrainians were also entrusted with prison service, employed in concentration camp crews, and employed in lower administration. Ukrainian political organizations operated openly, such as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists OUN — which had once murdered the director of his gymnasium, Ivan Babij — the Ukrainian Central Committee UCC, which became the Ukrainian representation towards the German authorities. They were allowed to take over Polish schools, reading rooms, and churches and organize them as Ukrainian. In 1940, the Ukr. Служба Безпеки (Eng. Security Service), i.e. SB OUN, was allowed to be established under the watchful care of the Germans, whose task was to track down political and ideological opponents of the OUN. SB OUN training was conducted, among others, in Zakopane, at the „Stamary” hotel. According to the hotel's contemporary website, „the training included the principles of sabotage, Gestapo interrogation methods, and killing methods”. All these undertakings were overseen by the Gestapo, which had its headquarters in the „Palace” villa, where Polish patriots were being murdered. SB OUN was later to participate in genocidal attacks on the Polish community, i.e. «Genocidium Atrox».

When, on 22.06.1941, the Germans attacked their erstwhile ally, the Russians, was prob. completing his teacher training course in Krynica. Prob. in 08/09.1941 returned to Lviv and resumed his seminary studies at the reopened Greek Catholic Theological Academy.

In 1939 the city of Lviv was inhabited by c. 360,000 people, of whom c. 51% were Roman Catholic Poles, c. 18% Greek Catholic Ukrainians, and c. 33% Jews. During the Russian occupation, in four major deportations deep into the USSR, „to Siberia” — the first of which took place on c. 10.02.1940, in the middle of a particularly harsh winter — the Russians deported between 340,000 and 1,000,000 Polish citizens, entire families, „especially those who held significant positions”, i.e., teachers, officers, military settlers, political activists, landowners, businessmen, officials, and other wealthy persons, recognized by the Russians Soviets as a „hostile and harmful element”. From Lviv itself, c. 12,000‐15,000 Poles were deported. The number of Jews in the city, just before the German invasion — according to Jewish sources — had grown to c. 150,000, including several tens of thousands of refugees from the German occupation.

Prob. 20,000‐30,000 of them fled with the Russians after the German attack on 22.06.1941.

The Germans, supported by units of the Ukrainian collaborationist Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall (Eng. Nightingale Special Group), a Wehrmacht unit (Eng. Armed Forces), whose deputy commander was the future mass murderer Roman Shukhevych, entered Lviv on 30.06.1941. The murders of Jews began, initially in revenge for the active participation of Jews in the Russian occupation authorities and in the massacres in Lviv’s prisons, during which the Russians and collaborating Jews murdered c. 7,000 prisoners. By the end of 1941, Germans and Ukrainians had murdered 11,500‐16,000 Jews in Lviv.

At the same time, already on 30.06.1941, the OUN had proclaimed the Act on the Restoration of the Ukrainian State — with the approval of the metropolitan Sheptytsky, who was allegedly misled as to the scale of support for the project among the Ukrainian political class. The text of the proclamation stated, among other things: „The sovereign Ukrainian state will closely cooperate with the National–Socialist Greater Germany, which under the leadership of Adolf Hitler is creating a new order in Europe and the world and is helping the Ukrainian nation to liberate itself from Moscow’s occupation”. The formation of the Ukrainian police, later transformed into the Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, began. On 04.07.1941 and in the following days, the Germans — on the basis of proscription lists prepared by the genocidal OUN — carried out the murder of c. 45 Polish eminent professors from Lviv, outstanding scholars and lecturers at higher education institutions.

When was resuming his studies — prob. on the third year of the five‐year program — the „Ukrainian state” no longer existed. The Germans quickly liquidated it. Lviv became the seat of the Germ. Stadthauptmannschaft Lemberg (Eng. Lviv City Administration) and was incorporated into Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galicia) within the GG.

But the genocide of the Jews — i.e. the genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which in the GG was known as the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt) — was only gaining momentum. Over the next two years 1941‐1943, the Germans — under the direction of specialists sent to Lviv by the SS‐ und Polizeiführer (Eng. SS and Police Leader) in Distrikt Lublin and de facto deputy to the governor of that district, one of the greatest criminals in human history, whom the historian Michael Allen described as „the vilest man in the vilest organization that ever existed”, the Austrian Odilo Globočnik — with the support of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, murdered all the Jews of Lviv. Through the Lviv ghetto, through the Germ. Zwangsarbeitslager für Juden (Eng. Forced Labor Camp for Jews), on Janowska Street in Lviv, i.e. the so‐called Janowska ZALfJ Lemberg camp — which provided slave labor for the Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke DAW, a company belonging to 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 and supplying the German war machine with uniforms, wood, metals, and repairs of military equipment ‐ c. 200,000 Jews passed. All were systematically murdered, i.a. in the Germ. niem.

Vernichtungslager (Eng. Extermination Camp) VL Belzec, in the Piaski ravine adjacent to the ZALfJ Lemberg, and in other extermination camps such as VL Sobibor, KL Auschwitz, and KL Lublin (Majdanek).

While studying within the walls of the seminary building, prob. had limited information about life outside the seminary, but information about the fate of the Jews must have reached him.

Similarly, information must have reached him about the order issued in 02.1943 by 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: „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.

By 12.1943, when was finishing his theological seminary, the OUN/UPA did not formally exist in Germ. Distrikt Galizien. There 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. De facto however also there the Ukrainian genociders, „unemployed” after the end of the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt», deserted and joined the UNS, whose 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”. And in 12.1943 — when it became clear that the Germans were losing the war in the East, the UNS was formally transformed into a genocidal „UPA‐West” OUN/UPA unit. In 01.1944, its commander became 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 the Poles continuously until they are exterminated to the last one from these lands”.

After entering into marriage at the beginning of 1944, was directed by the ecclesiastical authorities of his archeparchy to parishes belonging to the AEL, perhaps because of his earlier stay in areas inhabited by Lemkos. As Wikipedia states, the AEL was already at that time „completely Ukrainized — the Ukrainian language began to be used, contacts with the other units of the Ukrainian Church were renewed, which intensified after the Third Reich occupied the entire territory of the Lviv metropolis. Politically, the new administrator of the AEL sided unreservedly with the Ukrainian nationalists”, i.e. the genocidal OUN.

After receiving priestly ordination in Wróblik Królewski near Rymanów — one of the parishes of the AEL — became a vicar in Deszno, c. 5 km south of Rymanów. The village of Deszno, inhabited in 1939 by c. 500 people, including c. 40% Roman Catholic Poles, 56% Greek Catholic Lemkos, and a dozen or so Jews — which roughly reflected the national composition of the entire county — in 1944 belonged to the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Krosno (Eng. Krosno county) in Germ. Distrikt Krakau within the GG.

And just a few months later was murdered there.

It happened a few days after the Russian offensive in the East, which had been halted during the spring, resumed on 13.07.1944 — the so‐called Lviv–Sandomierz Offensive.

The contemporary website of Polish Lemkos presents the situation as follows: „The inhabitants of Deszno were harassed by various (Polish, Ukrainian, Slovak) illegal groups that robbed cattle, food, clothing, and other goods […] A young clergyman, Bohdan Semków, was killed by the murderers”.

Is said to have died during a night attack on the house in which lived. Before the attackers broke in, managed to hide in the attic, but in response to the desperate cries of his pregnant wife, broke through the thatched roof and began to shout for help.

Was then shot / „tortured to death”.

No one else, it seems, was killed during the attack.

It is not clear who could have been responsible for the crime. The existing accounts, even among Ukrainian sources, are contradictory.

A month and a half later, the Russians entered Deszno.