Participant in the Polish–Russian War of 1919‐1921, prob. in endangered Warsaw.

The last days of his life are connected with the Lubień parish in Włodawa county in the Polish Lublin Voivodeship, on the northern edge of the historical Chełm region. In 1939, Lubień had an estimated population of c. 1,000 people, including c. 22% Roman Catholic Poles, c. 72% Ukrainians, and c. 6% Jews, but in the entire parish, which included several neighboring villages, there were c. 2,000 Roman Catholic parishioners. Meanwhile, in the entire Włodawa county, Poles constituted c. 50% of the inhabitants, Ukrainians c. 30%, and Jews c. 15%.

Till c.1874/1875 Lubień was a village with a Uniate parish, i.e. formerly belonging to the Uniate Church in the First Polish Republic, after the partitions of Poland also called Lat. Ecclesia Ruthena Unita (pl. Ruthenian Uniate Church). There was also a Uniate wooden church there, founded in c. 1784 prob. by the Prince Adam Casimir Czartoryski. On 13.05.1875, the Uniate diocese of Chełm — by decree of Tsar Alexander II, as a result of the activities of the Russian partitioning administration of the Rus. Царство Польское (Eng. Polish Kingdom), which de facto had the character of forced Russification — was incorporated into the Chełm–Warsaw Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. The headcount of the Orthodox Church in the Rus. Царство Польское increased sixfold. According to sources, „The last Uniate parish priest and at the same time dean of the Lubień deanery, Fr John Charłampowicz, was removed from his parish and exiled deep into Russia. And for refusing to accept the priest appointed by the Tsarist authorities — John Płociński — the village of Lubień faced cruel repressions, including the confiscation of all property, exile to Siberia and the complete liquidation of the Uniates”.

Thirty years later, on 30.04.1905, Tsar Nicholas II issued an edict ensuring „religious tolerance to all Russian subjects”. As a result, in the vicinity of Lubień in 1905‐1907 the number of Catholics increased by over 70% — former Uniates returned to the Roman Catholic Church. But they did not regain their church and the Russification tendencies did not stop, which culminated in the exclusion of the Chełm region from the Russian‐occupied Rus. Царство Польское and the creation of the Rus. Холмская губерния (Eng. Chełm Governorate) — by the act of 06.07.1912, which defined the new governorate as the lands „inherently Russian”. The Włodawa county became part of it. The situation changed in 1915, after the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and the defeat of the imperial Russian forces by the Central Powers (the German Empire and the Austro–Hungarian Monarchy) in the Battle of Gorlice in 05.1915. At that time, c. 3 million Russians, the entire Russian administration from the territories under Russian rule, officials, military personnel, teachers and Orthodox clergy with their families — sometimes even entire Orthodox parishes — fled in panic from Polish lands into the depths of Russia (the so‐called bezhenstvo). This also included Lubień, which — like the entire Włodawa county at that time — became part of the occupation entity known as the Germ. Kaiserlich‐deutsche Generalgouvernement Warschau (Eng. Imperial‐German General Government of Warsaw). The church, it seems, stood empty and decayed.

The next intervention in the fate of the region, which has and had far–reaching consequences, took place in 1918, after the coup in Russia and the seizure of power in the former Russian Empire by the Bolsheviks supported by the Germans. Namely, on 09.02.1918, the occupying Central Powers concluded a treaty in Brest‐Litovsk on the Bug with the fledgling, seasonal Ukrainian state, with its capital in Kiev, in which they granted, by the law of caducus, i.e. „with disregard for the rights”, excluding the Poles, the Chełm region, i.e. the area of the former Rus. Холмская губерния, to Ukraine — as a result of which e.g. the Ukrainian delegation at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919, after the defeat of the Central Powers, laid claim to these lands.

And in 1919, after the end of World War I and Poland regained its independence, when the Włodawa county returned to Poland, the church in Lubień was consecrated as a Roman Catholic one. On 20.09.1920, a Roman Catholic parish was also established in Lubień. The religious division in the village at that time, however, is not clear. The 1921 census states that c. 67% of the inhabitants were Orthodox, although it is possible that some of them were Uniates. In any case, in 1920‐1939, Orthodox Christians practically did not attempt to recreate a parish there (although one source mentions the establishment of a house of prayer in 1936, which however is not confirmed by other sources). Lubień is also not mentioned in the main studies on the so‐called Polonization and Restitution campaign, aimed at limiting Orthodoxy, considered one of the strongholds of Russian and Commie‐Nazi influence in Poland — about which the President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, said in 2008: „We should express regret for the evil that has been done”.

However, in 1937, Fr Mechislav Klimczyk, the parish priest of the Roman Catholic parish in Lubień, initiated the construction of a brick church, which was already in its shell stage in 1938. The old, wooden church was dismantled and the building material and equipment were used to build a church in the village of Wola Korybutowa.

In 09.1939, the Germans and Russians — in accordance with the provisions of the genocidal German–Russian agreement of 23.08.1939, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact — invaded Poland, and World War II began. The Germans entered Włodawa on 16.09.1939, but on c. 25.09.1939, in accordance with the provisions of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, abandoned it — Włodawa was to fall in the division of spoils among invaders to the Russians. At that time, however, Poland was not yet completely defeated, and units of the „Polesie” Independent Operational Group, i.e. SGO, formed during the fighting by Brigadier General Francis Kleeberg, entered Włodawa and the surrounding area. The so‐called „The Republic of Włodawa”, one of the last bastions of a free, still fighting Poland. The SGO then defeated — in the battles at Jabłoń and Milanowo — the advanced columns of Russian troops, but already on 06.10.1939, after a four‐day battle with units of the Germ. Wehrmacht (Eng. armed forces) near Kock was forced to capitulate due to shortages of supplies and ammunition. Kleeberg laid down his arms as the last Polish general. Then Russian troops entered Włodawa and the nearby Lubień. Yet the Russian occupation was short‐lived, because under the so‐called „Treaty on the Borders and Friendship between Germany and Russia” of 28.09.1939, also known as the Second Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact, the course of the border between the two occupiers was changed and Włodawa was to remain on the German side. On c. 14.10.1939, the Germans entered the area again.

Around this time, in 1939, Fr Mechislav Klimczyk left the Lubień parish. It is not known whether left before the start of the war, but it seems more likely that left — for unknown reasons, although one source specifies that „he left the parish because was threatened with death by Ukrainian nationalists” — during the German and Russian invasion, or immediately thereafter. Thus, at the beginning of the German occupation, the parish was without a pastor for some time.

Lubień and Włodawa then became part of the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Cholm (Eng. Chełm County), within the Germ. Distrikt Lublin (Eng. District of Lublin), part of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. The Germ. SS‐ und Polizeiführer (Eng. SS and Police Commander) in the Germ. Distrikt Lublin, and de facto deputy governor of this district, was one of the greatest criminals in human history, the Austrian, Odilo Lotario Globočnik, whom one historian described as „the most vile individual in the most vile organization that has ever existed”. The Germans immediately introduced terror against the Polish population. The details were specified — within the framework of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pacts — 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 one immediately afterwards in Przemyśl.

The third one took place on 20.02.1940, in Zakopane, in the „Pan Tadeusz” and „Telimena” villas; the fourth in 03.1940 in Kraków. Meanwhile, at the beginning of 02.1940, at 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.

One of the German goals was to attempt to break the influence of the Roman Catholic Church and Polish culture. This was expressed, e.g. in clear favoritism towards the Ukrainian population. The policy of supporting the Ukrainian element was perhaps most visible in the social policy of the GG. Germans allowed the activity of social and charitable organizations, but only the Ukrainian Central Committee UCK was partially financed from the GG budget. Additionally, it could use the funds of Ukrainian cooperatives. The Polish Central Welfare Council RGO and the Jewish Social Self‐Help JSS had to rely exclusively on voluntary contributions from donors. As a result, Polish and Jewish organizations could only conduct charitable activities: supporting food supplies, aid for refugees, etc. Ukrainians, using the GG funds, built Ukrainian hospitals, orphanages, nurseries, and schools. In some regions of the Germ.Distrikt Lublin, the Germans de facto restored the policy of Ukrainization, which had its origins in the aforementioned Treaty of Brest‐Litovsk of 1918. In many places, schools were taken away from Polish hands and handed over to Ukrainians. Sometimes, Catholic priests were thrown out of parishes and churches were converted into Orthodox churches. This led to an intensification of the Polish–Ukrainian conflict. It could not have been otherwise, since on the entrance door of the waiting room of the main railway station in the capital of the G, Kraków, there was an inscription: Germ. „Nur für Deutsche aus dem Reich, Volksdeutsche und Ukrainer” (Eng. „Only for Germans from the Reich, Volksdeutsche and Ukrainians”).

In such circumstances, Fr Sigismund Mościcki, a young Roman Catholic priest, ordained in 1938, appeared in Lubień. It seems didn't last long — for unknown reasons, left the parish in 1939, or didn't take it over at all.

Was then appointed parish priest in Lubień and arrived there in mid‐12.1939.Was then c. 70‐year‐old, already in retirement for several years, residing e.g. in the Wojcieszków parish. It seems that due to the arrests and the confusion caused by the German occupation, decided to return to pastoral work, trying to save the Lubień parish. One source describes the general situation as follows: „the Ukrainian Orthodox clergy of Chełm region began to organize national celebrations in their parishes, erected symbolic monuments in honor of those killed in the fight for independent Ukraine, and organized church brotherhoods combining religious and national ideas”. This was also the case in Lubień, where the local Orthodox population welcomed the fall of the Polish state by raising a commemorative mound. At the same time, in 11.1939, it was recognized „at a meeting of the clergy and laity of the Chełm Land […] the necessity of establishing a Ukrainian church”, which lead in 1940 to the renewal of the historical Chełm eparchy.

This coincided with the Germans systematic plunder of Polish Roman Catholic parishes and handing them over to the Orthodox.

Such was the case in Lubień. The Ukrainians, prob. incited by the Orthodox clergy and the Germans — under the leadership of a local German colonist, i.e. a Germ. Volksdeutsche (Eng. Ethnic German), a Polish citizen who had joined the Eng. Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz (Eng. Ethnic German Self‐Defense), a genocidal paramilitary formation composed of members of the treacherous German national minority living in Poland — demanded the keys to the church.

Refused.

On 06.01.1940, on the Roman Catholic Epiphany and Greek Catholic Christmas Eve, Ukrainians smashed the doors and entered the church, effectively taking it over.

They also forcibly entered the rectory.

Ukrainian women brutally beat him, and the new arriving Ukrainian Orthodox priest, Joseph Danielewicz, and his family moved in arbitrarily and occupied half of the rectory.

Remained in the other half of the building — after the beating was sick and in bed — from where carried out pastoral ministry, performing weddings, etc.

On 14.01.1940, twelve German soldiers and two Ukrainian policemen–collaborators forcibly entered his room — the Ukrainian (auxiliary) police were able to function, e.g. based on a circular from the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the GG, Hans Frank, from 17.12.1939, which stipulated that „in the areas inhabited by [Ukrainians and Podhale highlanders], a German auxiliary police force consisting of Ukrainians and highlanders was to operate”.

An „indictment” was read to him in German with accusations of anti‐German activities and organizing illegal priestly meetings — the day before, he had been visited by two priests from neighboring parishes. The aforementioned Germ.Volksdeutsche translated.

Dragged from bed — was already ill — and herded to a closed church, where was beaten in front of the parishioners.

Then driven on foot, along the road towards Włodawa. „The local Orthodox population ran out in droves and watched the priest being led away with laughter and jeers”, recalled the priest's housekeeper.

The Ukrainians were reportedly then celebrating the priest's departure from Lubień, and the Orthodox priest, as the housekeeper reported, had robbed his property.

A witness to the events, the housekeeper, learned a few days later from the Germans in Włodawa that „Father Weiss had died in a military hospital in Lublin, despite medical treatment, and was buried in the Lublin cemetery”.

On 05.05.1940, however, in the forest near the village of Wyryki, c. 3 km from the parish church in Lubień, his body was found — minus his fur coat, hat, and suitcase.

Had been murdered with two shots and a bayonet thrust.

As it was later learned, two Ukrainians, after robbing him, buried him in thick snow and in early spring covered his body with pine branches.