From 1934, was the administrator of the branch, i.e. the curacy of the Plotycha parish in the village of Ihrovytsia, located c. 16 km north of the voivodeship city of Ternopil. In 1939, it had an estimated population of c. 2,700, of whom Roman Catholic Poles and Greek Catholic Ukrainians constituted c. 48% of the inhabitants each, and Jews c. 2%, i.e. c. 50 people. The curacy also included several colonies near Ihrovytsia, in which Polish families of veterans of wars on Poland's borders, e.g. the Polish–Russian War of 1919‐1921, called „Masurians” by Ukrainians, settled. There was also a Greek Catholic parish of the Lviv Archeparchy in Ihrovytsia.

After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II, organized a first aid station for wounded Polish soldiers in the rectory. Meanwhile, Ukrainians, especially after the Russian attack on Poland on 17.09.1939, „didn't stop celebrating for a long time”. According to a witness of the events, „in Ihrovytsia, in Kazimierzów [i.e. one of the Polish colonies near the village], two Polish officers were detained and taken to the school basement. There they were robbed, stripped and murdered”. The genocidal German–Russian agreement of 23.08.1939, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, confirmed on 28.09.1939 by the so‐called „Treaty on the Borders and Friendship of Germany‐Russia”, also known as the Second Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which became the starting point of World War II, had another ally in some Ukrainians.

After the beginning of the Russian occupation, arrests of Polish intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, foresters, policemen, and families of Polish military personnel began. The witness continued: „In the winter of 1939/1940, during one of the meetings, a vote was held on the fate of Polish settlers living in nearby colonies — Obroczówka, Kalinka, Korczunek, and Kazimierzów (Chomy). These Poles, as enemies of Ukraine, were proposed to be expelled […] During the vote, when asked, "czy wyhnaty Mazuriw?" (pl. "Should the Masurians colonists be expelled?"), the packed hall roared with a thunderous cry of "wyhnaty! wyhnaty!", raising their clenched fists higher and higher”. The Russians, however, had other plans, and „after a few weeks, the NKVD began arresting Ukrainians active during the meeting”.

In the years 1940‐1941, many Poles became victims of four great waves of deportations „to Siberia”. The accounts often mention that „they came at night, without warning, and took away entire families, from babies to the elderly”. „When we went out into the yard, they allowed my mother to look into the chest — unfortunately, it was empty, because our neighbors had already emptied it. We took practically nothing, because they didn't let us move around the house […] There were large snowdrifts and heavy frost”. The witness described one of them — perhaps of 10.02.1940, when i.e. the colonists were deported, or the second one, of 04.1940, when the Polish intelligentsia were deported: „Father Szczepankiewicz was informed by parishioners about the deportation at the moment when the first sleigh with NKVD fighters was going to pick up the colonists. When the Poles were being deported, the priest placed a painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa in the rectory window and himself blessed those being deported to Siberia. He prayed for their quick return. Later, he often celebrated services for the deportees, having first discreetly notified the faithful. And when the deportees asked for food aid in letters, the priest mobilized the faithful to send parcels. He personally prepared medicines and herbs for the sick in exile. The colonists were deported thus their property was looted by Ukrainians”.

Surveillance of priests and monks began. High taxes were imposed on the clergy. Despite this, continued his ministry, supplemented by medical advice — he had previously studied medicine. „During the first Soviet occupation, he was forbidden to practice these things because posed too strong a competition to the vrach [i.e. a doctor] sent from the depths of Russia, who treated all illnesses with adikalon [(Rus. одеколон), i.e. cologne]”.

After the German attack on 22.06.1941, on their erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation, provided medical assistance more openly. „The inhabitants of Ihrovytsia and surrounding villages eagerly asked him for help, which he never refused anyone. Did not demand payment for treatment, but the families of the sick repaid the priest with food, which was difficult to obtain during the war. For this food, Father Stanislav obtained medicine for the sick. At the same time, he supported the starving Polish intelligentsia in Lviv and Ternopil”.

Ihrovytsia found itself then in the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Tarnopol (Eng. Ternopil County) in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. Galicia District), part of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. Witnesses recalled that „the Ukrainians could not wait for the Germans to arrive. After the Soviets withdrew, groups of Ukrainian youths armed with handguns and automatic weapons paraded around Ihrovytsia. They waved pistols aiming at the homes of Poles”. Others recalled that they „demonstrated the creation of a free Ukraine and proclaimed anti‐Polish and anti‐Jewish slogans”. The Germans quickly dissuaded the Ukrainians from their hopes for a „free Ukraine”, but exploited their revealed anti‐Polish and anti‐Jewish resentments.

Perhaps that is why the Germans based their administrative power, i.a. in Ihrovytsia, „on Ukrainian activists”. They organized „a Ukrainian police force in the village. The station was placed in a palace on an estate. The police were mostly local riffraff, people without moral principles, prone to drinking and brawling. As armed officers, they constantly sought opportunities to harass and take revenge on Poles for alleged wrongs they had allegedly suffered in the past”.

But in the first years of the German occupation, the main task of this Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), in some regions operating as Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma — created e.g. from the transformation of the „Ukrainian Sich” militias established at the beginning of the German occupation — became the extermination of Jews. The Jews from Ihrovytsia were prob. herded into the Ternopil ghetto. In 06.1941, there were c. 18,600 Jews there. Some of them prob. escaped with the Russians. Already on 05.09.1941, the Germans ordered the creation of a ghetto. It was surrounded by a high fence and barbed wire. Two gates were manned by Germans and collaborating Ukrainians from Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei. From the ghetto side, the gates were protected by the Jews themselves, by the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng Jewish Order Service). Till 06.1943, the Germans, with the participation and support of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, carried out — as part of the German genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which from 1942 in the GG was implemented under the German codename Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt) — the extermination of Jews from Ternopil and the surrounding towns and villages, brought to the ghetto mainly in 07‐08.1942. C. 10,000 were murdered in the ghetto itself, at the Ternopil cemetery, and in the surrounding forests — particularly in the forests near the villages of Petrykiv and Yanivka, southwest of the city. C. 6,000 were sent to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. Extermination Camp) VL Belzec. C. 1,000 were transported to several forced slave labor camps — e.g. on plantations of the Kazakh dandelion (i.e. Taraxacum kok‐saghyz), a plant from Central Asia, cultivated for the rubber contained in the milky sap of its roots, which the German company Continental AG produced for the German war machine. Several hundred Jews died in the ghetto from hunger and disease. On 23.06.1943, the Germans from Ternopil could proudly report that the city was Germ. „Judenrein” (Eng. „Jew‐free”).

Providing help was practically impossible. Any kind of help was punishable by death — from 25.10.1941, a decree issued by the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the GG, Hans Frank, was in force, according to which „Jews who leave their assigned district without authorization are subject to the death penalty. The same punishment applies to persons who knowingly provide such Jews with a hiding place”, and „Instigators and accomplices are subject to the same punishment as the perpetrator; an attempted act will be punished as a completed act. In less serious cases, heavy imprisonment or prison may be imposed”. Nevertheless, assistance to Jews was provided whenever possible, and Jewish sources state that „several Poles from Ternopil actively helped Jews”.

And it was then, in 02.1943 — even before the final extermination of the Jews in Ternopil — that 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 in Volyn, which was then part of another occupation unit, the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng. Reich Commissariat Ukraine), stating: „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 and Schuma, 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.

Although Shukhevych's order and the UPA appeal were not formally addressed to units of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien — for there, in 1943, 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 — but de facto also there the Ukrainian genociders, „unemployed” after the end of the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt», deserted and joined the UNS. The UNS commander at that time was a certain Alexander Lutsky, nom de guerre „Andriyenko”, and his orders in the Ternopil area were carried out by Emilian (Omelyan) Polowy, nom de guerre „Ostap”. Both of these degenerates followed a similar path as the aforementioned genocider, Roman Shukhevych — from the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall, through the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, where they gained experience in the extermination of Jews, to the UNS.

In Ternopil, the genocide of Jews continued until 06.1943, and then the UNS turned its attention to the Poles. The UNS had nothing else to do at that time, because — as even the Ukrainian Wikipedia confirms — „during the last months of 1943, the UNS units did not conduct military operations due to the introduction by the Germans on 02.10.1943, in Galicia of the system of [collective responsibility and] executing 10 hostages for the murder of every German soldier or official”. The Poles were not part of theses occupation authorities.

Refugees from Volyn had appeared in the area around Ihrovytsia and Ternopil earlier, bringing with them news of Ukrainian barbarity, intensifying the fears of local Poles. But it was in 10.1943, that the threat began to materialize, and the first attacks on Poles took place. E.g. on 02.11.1943, Ukrainians murdered Fr Charles Procyk in Baboriv, south of Ternopil. These events caused the Poles in Ihrovytsia ‐a village that, by 01.03.1943, had only 2,138 inhabitants‐to begin organizing self‐defense, based on local structures of the underground Home Army AK (part of the Polish Clandestine State).

They began purchasing weapons — mainly from Hungarians who were retreating from the Russian‐German front. „AK members persuaded Fr Szczepankiewicz to move the bell from the church to the rectory. It was decided that the loud sound of the bell would be a good alarm signal for the entire village”.

The Ukrainian génocidaires also changed their forms of action. When at the turn of 1943/1944 it became clear that Germany was losing the war in the East — on 24.12.1943, a large Russian offensive known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation began, which in 04.1944 was to reach a line about 80 km east of Lviv — the OUN/UPA decided to extend the «Genocidium Atrox» to the Germ. Distrikt Galizien. I.a. the UNS was transformed into the OUN/UPA operational group „UPA‐West”, under the command of Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest”, with a similar career path to the above‐mentioned UNS leaders, who ordered „to constantly strike at Poles until they are destroyed to the last one from these lands”. In the vicinity of Ternopil, the order was to be carried out by the OUN/UPA military district WO‐3 „Lysonya”, under the command of the aforementioned degenerate Emilian Polowy. Other groups, controlled by the genocidal OUN/UPA, also emerged, mainly in rural centers, operating under the euphemistic Ukrainian name Ukr. Самооборонні кущові відділи (Eng. Self‐Defense Unit), i.e. SKW.

On the night of 22‐23.02.1944 — just before Lent, which in the Roman Catholic Church began on 23.02.1944 — the genocidal OUN/UPA attacked the village of Mala Berezovytsia, c. 7 km north of Ihrovytsia. Over 130 Poles were brutally murdered. Some of those who escaped with their lives took refuge in Ihrovytsia. And in Ihrovytsia itself, in 02.1944, c. 3 Poles were murdered. At that time, as it was recalled, „the growing threat to Poles from Ukrainians in the spring of 1944 was to be countered by a joint Lenten retreat. It was led in the church by three Greek Catholic missionaries. Father Szczepankiewicz repeatedly encouraged Poles to participate in the retreats and the ceremony that concluded it. Poles took part in large numbers in the procession that preceded the closing ceremony of the retreat […] In the procession, Greek Catholics, together with Latins, carried a massive oak cross on their shoulders. It was quite warm, with a light southerly wind. The procession headed towards the highest hill in the area, called Dyblanka, to place the symbol of faith there as a reminder of the ending retreat. At the top of the hill, the ceremony of consecrating the place where the cross was to be placed began. To the surprise of the Poles, the religious ceremony turned into a political meeting filled with hostility towards everything that was not Ukrainian. The words coming from the mouths of the clergy encouraging the elimination of other nationalities living in this area were shocking. One of the preachers used the words of the parable about the tares that must be weeded out from "our Ukrainian wheat"”. It is therefore not surprising that „the only — as it seemed — salvation for the Poles was the sound of the front approaching from the east. Despite tragic experiences, we prayed fervently for the speediest arrival of the Red Army”.

Russian front troops entered Ihrovytsia at the turn of 03‐04.1944, during a three‐week siege of the Germ. Festung Tarnopol (Eng. Ternopil Fortress), which the Germans turned Ternopil city into. Ternopil fell on 15.04.1944. The Russian occupation began.

As early as 04.1944, the Russians began conscription. Poles were drafted into the so‐called 1st Polish Army, under the command of Sismund Berling, previously, on 26.07.1943, sentenced in absentia by the relevant Polish authorities to death for desertion. 170‐180 young Poles from Ihrovytsia did so, which meant that the Home Army AK de facto ceased its operations in the area, and mainly women, children, and the elderly remained in Ihrovytsia. Some Ukrainians, also drafted into the Russian army, began to hide. When another Russian offensive, the Lviv–Sandomierz Operation, began on 13.07.1944, and Russian frontline troops left the vicinity of Ternopil, the hiding Ukrainians began to join the OUN/UPA. Immediately afterwards, Ukrainian soldiers from the Germ. 14. Waffen–Grenadier–Division der SS /ukrainische Nr. 1/ (Eng. 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen SS /1st Ukrainian/), commonly known as SS‐Galizien, a front unit 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, who managed to avoid Russian captivity after the defeat in the Battle of Brody, began to join the genocidal OUN/UPA.

When the Russian occupier began to actively combat the OUN/UPA, the commander of „UPA‐West”, the genocide‐monger Vasyl Sydor, ordered on 01.09.1944, to halt the action against the Polish civilian population, but the order did not include „the Polish element collaborating with the NKVD and the organs of Moscow imperialism”. The OUN/UPA was still to attack „Polish militias of 20 people or more in anylocality. One third or half of them should be destroyed, the rest should be disarmed and warned that if they do not stop collaborating with the Bolsheviks against us, they will also be destroyed next time”.

The halt was short‐lived. Already at the turn of 1944/1945, the Ukrainian genocide‐mongers of the OUN/UPA — the commander of the WO‐3 „Lysonya” district, in place of the wounded Emilian Polowy, was then another genocide‐monger, Volodymyr Yakubovsky, nom de guerre „Bondarenko” — resumed their murders of Polish civilians. And it was then that Ihrovytsia's turn came.

According to sources, the murders were committed by an OUN/UPA sotnia from the kuren „Burlaki”, commanded by a certain Ivan Shemchyshyn, nom de guerre „Chornyi” — of course, a former member of the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall — assisted by the local SKW unit.

Was warned of the impending danger. Allegedly replied: „I don't expect what happened in Mala Berezovytsia from our Ihrovytsia Ukrainians. Besides, I'll stay with my parishioners anyway”. And when asked for his advice, „reassured people that was in contact with local Greek Catholic priest Peter Hałaś, who assured him that nothing bad could happen in Ihrovytsia”.

The Ukrainian génocidaires attacked, as they did in many other cases, just before the holidays, on Roman Catholic Christmas Eve 1944, when Poles were celebrating the birth of Christ. A chronicler of the events wrote: „After the first rifle bursts, the bell in the rectory rang out”.

„Until the last minute of his life, the priest notified and warned his parishioners of the attack by ringing a bell”. „The loud sound of the bell from the rectory saved the lives of many Ihrowicz residents. Those who immediately fled from the Christmas Eve tables survived.

However, no one could help the priest and his family. The Ukrainians began smashing the entrance door and windows. The capture of the rectory, secured with massive doors and shutters, took about 15 minutes.

After chopping down the door, Father Stanislav Szczepankiewicz, his mother Anna, sister Marie, and brother Bronislav were brutally murdered with axes”.

Another source states that „the UPA ripped his heart out alive and carried it to the sotnia leader, Volodymyr Yakubovsky "Bondarenko", because he had requested the priest's heart”.

The perpetrators murdered c. 79‐92 Poles. Sources state that „they carried out the murder using axes, knives, bayonets, and various other tools; a significant number of the bodies burned together with the buildings, hence the number of victims is incomplete”. „A married couple aged 60 and 62 were hanged on barbed wire; they cut off the head of 17‐year‐old Casimir Litwin with a carpenter's saw and brought it to the sotnia leader”.

On 12.10.2007, the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. On 10.12.2017, on 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). Much earlier, on 14.01.1945, during World War II, Emilian Polowy was to receive the Bronze Cross of Military Merit of the UPA. In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to these Lat. „hostis humani generis” — e.g. such monument has the génocidaire Volodymyr Yakubovsky — the schools were named after them.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”