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
TOPOROWSKI
forename(s)
Florian
function
diocesan priest
creed
Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]
diocese / province
Lviv archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]
date and place
of death
1944
Kryvetoday: Skalat urban hrom., Ternopil rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.08.19]
alt. dates and places
of death
16‑17.03.1944, 07.1944
Krasnetoday: Hrymailiv hrom., Chortkiv rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.03.02]
details of death
In the schematisms of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv, until 1938, a person named Florian Toporowski is not mentioned, neither as a priest, monk, or friar, nor as a seminarian preparing for the priesthood.
Other Polish sources, however, inform that „Fr Florian Toporowski, born in 1910, vicar of the Krasne parish, Skalat county. Murdered during a UPA attack in 1944, along with 80 parishioners”; others that in 1944, in Kryve, Skalat county, „Fr Florian Toporowski, born in 1910, vicar of the Kryve parish, was murdered by Bandera supporters. A railway worker was also killed […]”; still another states that in Krzywcze, in 1944, „he was kidnapped from the road together with his wagon and horses and murdered on the day of departure from the Skalat station for Poland”.
If he were to die in 1944, he would have had to have begun his studies at the theological seminary in Lviv around 1938‐1939 and been ordained just before his death. This is not impossible, but the authors of «Liber Albus» failed to find any records confirming such a hypothesis.
Another doubt concerns the village of Kryve mentioned in the above‐mentioned accounts. In Kryve, located c. 2 km from the county town of Skalat, on the other side of the Hnyla River, although inhabited by c. 60% Roman Catholic Poles, there was no Roman Catholic parish. The inhabitants belonged to the Skalat parish.
Yet another concerns the entry referring to departure „to Poland”. Before 1939, Skalat County, which included both the villages of Kryve and Krasne, was in the Polish Ternopil Voivodeship. That is, in Poland. During the German occupation, after the German and Russian attack on Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II, after the German attack on 22.06.1941 on their erstwhile ally, the Russians, all these localities found themselves in the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Tarnopol (Eng. Ternopil County) within 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. Therefore, he could only travel westward, to some place occupied by Germany, e.g. to Lviv, not „to Poland”.
The biggest doubt, and at the same time the most interesting clue, concerns the parish of Krasne in the Skalat deanery. In 1939, the village of Krasne had a population of c. 1,800 people, of whom Roman Catholic Poles constituted an estimated 70%, Greek Catholic Ukrainians c. 25%, and Jews c. 3%. This is where, in 1944, the genocidal OUN/UPA attack and murder of Polish inhabitants actually took place.
It was the result of the order issued in 02 1943, in Volyn, c. 150 km to the north, 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 — 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, to desert and join the UPA ranks. Perhaps as many as 10,000 Ukrainians did so. The Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei took an active part in the implementation of the German genocidal plan, Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which in the GG was codenamed «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt), i.e. the extermination of Jews — e.g. in Skalat, which became the gathering center for Jews in the vicinity of this town and where the Germans established a ghetto, according to Jewish sources, „in the years 1941‐1943, approximately 2,500 Jews were murdered in the town and its vicinity, and approximately 4,500 were transported to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Belzec” and murdered there.
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.
When, at the turn of 1943/1944, it became clear that Germany was losing the war in the East — on 24.12.1943, a major Russian offensive, known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation, began, which rapidly began to shift the battlefront of the Germ‐Russian fighting, e.g. towards Lviv, Ternopil and Stanislaviv — the OUN/UPA decided to extend the genocide «Genocidium Atrox» to the Germ. Distrikt Galizien. Until then, the groups operating there — in order not to „annoy” the Germans — were mainly operating under the euphemistic name Ukr. Українська Народна Самооборона (Eng. Ukrainian National Self‐Defense), i.e. UNS, and later also Ukr. Самооборонні кущові відділи (Eng. Self‐Defense Unit), i.e. SKW, reinforced by deserters from the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and Schuma, seasoned in the genocide of Jews. The Ukrainian génocidaires then formed, i.a. the OUN/UPA operational group „UPA‐West”, under the command of Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest” — a degenerate with a similar career path as his superior, the aforementioned génocidaire, Roman Shukhevych, i.e. from the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall, through the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, where both gained experience in the extermination of Jews — who ordered „continue to strike at Poles until they are destroyed to the last one from these lands”.
And then, according to Polish sources, on 16‐17.03.1944, the genocidal OUN/UPA attacked Krasne. Fifty–two Poles were murdered. „The Banderites organized a large‐scale attack on Krasne on the night of March 16‐17, 1944. They brutally murdered several dozen people with knives. They also burned down several Polish farms, while the then priest, Father Lukas Makolądra, tended to the dying from their wounds. "Respectable and noble people" died then. Father Makolądra spent two hours sleeping in a church relatively well protected from attacks. The local Greek Catholic priest, a noble man, gave Father Makolądra a place in his rectory, saying: "I don't know if they won't kill you, Father, but first they would have to kill me". However, there were few such people at the time. They were exceptions. The Bandera followers in Krasne touched neither the church nor the rectory”.
Father Lukas Makolądra was born in 1910, the same year as „Father Florian Toporowski”. He survived the OUN/UPA attack on Krasne and died in 1998.
Perhaps the authors of the notes in Polish sources, based mainly on the memories of witnesses who survived the Ukrainian murders, have assigned a different surname to Father Makolądra. However, until concrete evidence is discovered, the note about Father Florian Toporowski will remain in «Liber Albus».
cause of death
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
1910
positions held
till 1944
vicar — Krasnetoday: Hrymailiv hrom., Chortkiv rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.03.02] ⋄ Transfiguration of the Lord RC church ⋄ Tovstetoday: Hrymailiv hrom., Czortków rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.08.05], Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC parish ⋄ Skalattoday: Skalat urban hrom., Ternopil rai., Ternopil obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.15] RC deanery
comments
There is another explanation. The authors of the notes could have confused „Father Florian Toporowski” with the former principal of the Polish school in Skalat, Florian Toporowski. Florian Toporowski, nom de guerre Pl. „Jeleń” (Eng. „Deer”) was an active member of the independence resistance Home Army AK (part of the Polish Clandestine State). He served as chief of staff and then commander of the Skalat Group, within the AK Ternopil Inspectorate, AK Ternopil District. His house in Skalat was supposed to be the center of the resistance movement in the county, and his wife was the contact point. On 21.12.1943, he went by cart — together with his AK colleague Demkowski, a former professional non‐commissioned officer of the Polish Border Protection Corps KOP — to the village of Hostra Mohyla or Monasterykha, c. 10‐15 km east of Skalat, where they intended to buy meat for the upcoming Christmas holidays. There they were attacked by OUN/UPA genocidaires. They defended themselves. Demkowski was allegedly killed on the spot, and Toporowski, nom de guerre Pl. „Jeleń” was allegedly captured, tied up, and taken to an unknown destination. His body was never found.
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.panorama.info.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2012.11.23], baza.muzeum-ak.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2026.07.13]
bibliographical:
„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
„Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933‐1945”, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ed. Martin Dean, volume II: „Ghettos in German–Occupied Eastern Europe”, part A
„Genocidium Atrox”, GTKRK, https://www.swzygmunt.knc.pl/GENOCIDEs/15 GENOCIDUM ATROX/vPOLISH/MAINs/GENATROXsearch01.htm
original images:
wegliniec.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.10.31]
LETTER to CUSTODIAN/ADMINISTRATOR
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