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
SZAWŁOWSKI
forename(s)
Boleslav (pl. Bolesław)
function
diocesan priest
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
diocese / province
Lutsk diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
Lutsk‐Zhytomyr diocese (aeque principaliter)more on
www.catholic-hierarchy.org
[access: 2021.12.19]
RC Military Ordinariate of Polandmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.12.20]
academic distinctions
Sacred Theology MA
honorary titles
honorary canonmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.11.14]
(Holy Trinity RC collegiate church, Olykatoday: Olyka hrom., Lutsk rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17])
date and place
of death
11.07.1943

Porytsktoday: Pavlivka, Pavlivka hrom., Volodymyr rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.08.05]
alt. dates and places
of death
12.07.1943
details of death
From 1939 ministered in Porytsk, a town c. 30 km south of Volodymyr–Volynskyi, which in 1939 had an estimated population of c. 4,400 people, including 24% Poles, Roman Catholics, c. 26% Ukrainians/Ruthenians, Orthodox, and c. 48% Jews, while in the Porytsk commune the estimated proportions were 14.5%/74%/9% respectively.
After German and Russian invasion of Poland and start of the World War II in 09.1939, after German attack on 22.06.1941 of their erstwhile allies, Russians, and start of German occupation, murdered while celebrating Sunday Holy Mass in his parish church by members of the genocidal Ukrainian organization OUN/UPA.
In 02.1943 Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the main commander of the UPA, 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 (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), collaborating with Germans, in some regions also referred to as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma, which co‐participated in the German genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question) — i.a., participated in the extermination of Jews from the Porytsk commune, of whom 1,800‐3,000 were murdered, some of them, including children, with bayonets, between 01‐05.09.1942, c. 3 km from Porytsk — 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 — from 11.1943 commander of the Operational Group „UPA‐North” — Dmytro Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”, in 06.1943. Anticipating Germany's defeat in the war with Russia, 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”.
The attack on his parish village was the implementation of these orders.
A witness recalled: „I witnessed a murder committed […] by a gang of UPA soldiers in the parish church in Porytsk, Volodymyr‐Volynskyi district […] On Sunday, 11.07.1943, we went by horse‐drawn carriage to our parish church in Porytsk […] I was a little over 7 years old then […] The church was slowly filling up, parish priest Boleslav Szawłowski began celebrating Holy Mass. Listening intently to the «Introitus» we did not even suspect that the church had already been surrounded by a gang of UPA Ukrainians.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of shots from a heavy machine gun coming from the direction of the main entrance to the church. My father quickly sat me down in the niche where the statue of Our Lady had been stolen by the Soviets in 1939. The first victims fell among the faithful standing in the central nave. Then, to prevent further massacre, the people standing under the choir closed the main doors, paying for this in most cases with their own lives.
Father Boleslav Szawłowski, seeing so many wounded and dead, interrupted the Mass, climbed the pulpit, and gave final absolution to the dead, the wounded, and the living kneeling before God in the face of death. While reciting the final blessing, he added the words: «Polish brothers, we are dying for the faith».
At that moment, the Bandera followers smashed the sacristy door with a grenade and stormed the altar steps, from where they began shooting at the faithful. One of the machine guns aimed at the priest, who was still at the pulpit. Father Boleslav Szawłowski, hit in the arm and legs, rolled down the pulpit steps, falling onto the bodies of his parishioners killed at the foot of the altar. My father was kneeling next to the confessional, but one of the Ukrainians spotted him too. The bullet hit his cheek, passing under his eye, and he died before my eyes without saying a word […] Then the Bandera followers threw grenades between the pews. The grenade bundles they threw caused terrible havoc among the faithful: bodies were torn in half, the entrails spilling from the torn bodies caused a foul stench, and the legless bodies jumped on their hands at the last impulses. The floor between the pews was completely drenched in blood. Unable to reach the choir, they fired at it with rifle fire.
The Poles opened the main door, and whoever was still alive ran to the exit. But there, in front of the church, a heavy machine gun was positioned, a plate‐type machine gun. Within a minute, only a mountain of dead and wounded bodies remained in the passageway.
Meanwhile, four rezuns brought in two large artillery shells, which they placed on the main altar, covered with straw from the straw mattresses, then set them on fire and left, hoping that the shells would destroy the church. However, a grenade placed between the shells, intended to aid detonation, blew out the flames, only tearing a hole.
The church was full of smoke. I emerged from the alcove […] and made my way through the pile of dead on the steps of the main entrance. At the entrance to the courtyard, I saw two Ukrainians with a machine gun, and I froze. Then, unexpectedly, one of them said to the other: «Let him go, the wolves will eat him anyway» (my white clothes were soaked in the blood of the dead and wounded, over whose bodies I had to climb to leave the church)”.
After the massacre in the church, the Ukrainians hunted Poles throughout the town and the surrounding area for two days. Ukrainian women and youth participated in the murders. The Ukrainian perpetrators of genocide robbed the church, stole, drank the sacramental wine, and laughed.
„The victims of the murder were buried on the orders of the Germans in the courtyard in front of the Church in a common grave — 180 murder victims. The parish priest was buried separately at the request of the priest near the statue of St Anne on the right side of the courtyard, because the eastern‐rite priest justified it by saying that «it is not right to bury a priest in trampled ground»”.
On this day, known as „bloody Sunday”, when Ukrainian murderers/genociders attacked at least 99 villages and in a most barbaric, unimaginable fashion slaughtered most of their Polish inhabitants, at least 220 his parishioners, mostly women and children, perished as well.
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”.
Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”
alt. details of death
According to some sources, on 11.07.1943, the „Bloody Sunday”, was wounded four times, fell from the pulpit and pretended to be dead. In the evening was to crawl — or was carried — to the house of a local Orthodox priest named Szelest, who took care of him. Was also hiding four Jews who, upon seeing him, were said to have said: „First us, and now you”. After few days however the Ukrainians were supposed to realize the situation and murdered him — priest Szelest was to give him the last rite.
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
18.01.1900

Haisyntoday: Haisyn urban hrom., Haisyn rai., Vinnytsia obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17]
presbyter (holy orders)
ordination
04.02.1923

Lutsktoday: Lutsk city rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17]
RC chapelmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2025.03.14] (in Theological Seminary)
positions held
1939 – 1943
parish priest — Porytsktoday: Pavlivka, Pavlivka hrom., Volodymyr rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.08.05] ⋄ Holy Trinity and St Michael the Archangel RC parish ⋄ Horokhivtoday: Horokhiv hrom., Lutsk rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.27] RC deanery
1927 – 1939
prefect — Lutsktoday: Lutsk city rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17] ⋄ St Peter and St Paul the Apostles RC cathedral parish ⋄ Lutsktoday: Lutsk city rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17] RC deanery
1927 – 1939
notary — Lutsktoday: Lutsk city rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17] ⋄ Office, Diocesan Curia
till 1939
notary — Lutsktoday: Lutsk city rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17] ⋄ Bishop's Diocesan Court
1923 – 1927
vicar — Bilyntoday: Ovadne hrom., Volodymyr rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.07.05] ⋄ Exaltation of the Holy Cross RC chapel ⋄ Volodymyr‐Volynskyitoday: Volodymyr, Volodymyr urban hrom., Volodymyr rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.07.31], St Joachim and St Anne RC parish (main parish) ⋄ Volodymyr‐Volynskyitoday: Volodymyr, Volodymyr urban hrom., Volodymyr rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.07.31] RC deanery
1923 – 1927
student — Warsawtoday: Warsaw city pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.10.09] ⋄ Department of Catholic Theology, University of Warsaw [i.e. University of Warsaw (from 1945) / clandestine University (1939‐1945) / Joseph Piłsudski University (1935‐1939) / University of Warsaw (1915‐1935) / Imperial University of Warsaw (1870‐1915)] — postgraduate specialised studies in moral theology crowned with a Sacred Theology Master's degree
c. 1923
notary — Lutsktoday: Lutsk city rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17] ⋄ Office, Diocesan Curia
1920 – 1923
student — Gnieznotoday: Gniezno urban gm., Gniezno pov., Greater Poland voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.18] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Archbishop's Practical Theological Seminary (Lat. Seminarium Clericorum Practicum) ⋄ Lutsk‐Żytomierz RC diocese
1919 – 1920
student — Olykatoday: Olyka hrom., Lutsk rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary ⋄ Lutsk‐Żytomierz RC diocese — also: for some time in Tarnów Theological Seminary
from 1918
student — Zhytomyrtoday: Zhytomyr urban hrom., Zhytomyr rai., Zhytomyr obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17] ⋄ philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary
others related
in death
GRZESIAKClick to display biography Stanislav, ALEKSANDROWICZClick to display biography Joseph, BARANClick to display biography Charles, KOTWICKIClick to display biography John, KONOPLANKOClick to display biography Eugene, TURZAŃSKIClick to display biography Constantine
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.duszki.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], nawolyniu.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.06], zbrodniawolynska.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2023.08.19], www.niedziela.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.05.19], pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19]
bibliographical:
„Martyrology of the Polish Roman Catholic clergy under nazi occupation in 1939‐1945”, Victor Jacewicz, John Woś, vol. I‐V, Warsaw Theological Academy, 1977‐1981
„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
original images:
www.kchodorowski.republika.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.01.26], nowahistoria.interia.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2017.03.11], www.stowarzyszenieuozun.wroclaw.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.01.16], wegliniec.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.31]
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