In 1939 was vicar of the parish of Stare Selo. The village of that name, which was the seat of the parish, in the Bibrka county of the Polish Lviv Voivodeship, located c. 20 km southeast of Lviv, had an estimated population of c. 2,500, of which Roman Catholic Poles constituted c. 74%.

Ministered there when in 09.1939 the Germans and Russians invaded Poland and World War II began. Stare Selo — pursuant to the German–Russian genocidal 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 between Germany and Russia”, also known as the second Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact — was captured by the Russians. However, before this happened, upon hearing about the Russian invasion — which took place on 17.09.1939 — in many places, including the area around Stare Selo, according to sources, „numerous attacks, robberies, burning of farmsteads and murders of Poles took place, carried out both by the militias of the [genocidal Ukrainian organization] OUN [illegal in Poland], as well as by local Ukrainian peasants armed with various tools: axes, scythes, pitchforks, knives, chains, bayonets. The number of victims has not been determined”. One witness said: „The Ukrainians came at night, and Marcella (Łukaszczyk, née Rzędzianowska) hid on the bread oven with the children. The Ukrainians asked Marcela's brother, Leo Rzędzianowski.

"Who are you?" He replied, "I"m Polish". "If you"re Polish, get to the doorstep", they said. Leona's mother began screaming terribly. She said, "Kill me before I see this". They shot at her. Killed her. He was lying on the doorstep and they cut off his head. Marcella, the one who was on the stove, later said that his torso had been jumping so much. She said she had been so scared. The Ukrainians found her on the stove. They said, "We"ll spare your life because you have a husband […] in Germany"”.

After the Russian occupation started, arrests began among the Polish intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, foresters, policemen, and even the families of Polish servicemen. In 1940‐1941, many other Poles fell victim to four large waves of deportations „to Siberia”, in the vicinity of his parish especially during the first one, on c. 10.02.1940. Accounts often mention that „they came at night, without warning, and took away entire families, from infants to the elderly”. „When we went out into the yard, they let my mother look into the chest‐unfortunately, it was empty, because our neighbors had already emptied it. We took practically nothing with us, because they didn't let us move around the house […] There were large snowdrifts and heavy frost”. In addition, 150,000–200,000 men were conscripted into the Russian army, and c. 100,000 were forced to work for Russian industry, mainly in the mines of the Donets Basin, in heavy industry plants in the Urals and in Siberia. Then the surveillance of priests and monks began. High taxes were imposed on the clergy. Religious instruction for children in schools was abolished.

There survived the Russian occupation, and after the German attack on 22.06.1941 on its erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation, in 10.1941 was transferred to the Sokołówka Hetmańska parish curacy, till 1939 in the Polish Zolochiv county of Ternopil Voivodeship, c. 60 km north‐east of Lviv, near the railway line connecting Lviv with Brody. In the settlement of Sokolivka, where the Roman Catholic church was located, in 1939 lived an estimated c. 3,100 people, of whom Roman Catholic Poles constituted only c. 8‐9%, while Greek Catholic Ukrainians c. 77%, and Jews c. 16%. In the entire Zolochiv county, Roman Catholics constituted c. 30%, and Greek Catholics c. 65%. His curacy ministered to c. 630 Roman Catholics.

Sokolivka was incorporated into the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Złoczów (Eng. Zolochiv county), a part of 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. The period 1941‐1943 was marked in particular by the extermination of Jews. From the beginning of 1942, the Germans implemented the genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), in the GG codenamed «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt). Units of the Ukrainian, collaborative Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), also operating as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma, took a significant part in it. The Jews from Sokolivka were transported to Brody, c. 25 km away. In 1941, there were c. 9,000 Jews in Brody. From 25.10.1941, were basically not allowed to leave the town, because of the decree of the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the GG, Hans Frank, which stated that „Jews who leave their designated 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 helpers 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 imprisonment may be imposed”. On 27.12.1941, several „larger groups” of Jews were transported to „slave labor camps”, from which no one returned. The main extermination operations began on 19.09.1942 when the policemen of the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service) managed to capture c. 2,500 Jews in the ghetto, who were then herded by the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei to the railway station and transported to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Belzec, where they were all murdered in the gas chamber. Already on the way to the station, the Germans and Ukrainians murdered c. 300 Jews. The second group of c. 2,500 Jews was transported to VL Belzec from Brody at the end of 11.1942. And then, on 02.12.1942, Jews from the surrounding area were brought to Brody, including prob. from Sokolivka. Eight days later the Germans established a closed ghetto, surrounded by a fence topped with barbed wire with only one exit, guarded by Ukrainians from Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, in which c. 5,000 Jews were held. In the winter of 1942‐1943, c. 1,000 Jews died of hunger and disease, especially typhus. On 21.05.1943, the final liquidation of the ghetto began. Most of the Jews were prob. deported to the German extermination camp KL Lublin (Majdanek). The rest were murdered by Germans and Ukrainians from the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei in the ghetto, before 06.1943, when the town was finally defined by the Germans as Germ. „Judenfrei” (Eng. „free of Jews”).

And it was then, in 02.1943, in Volyn located right beyond Brody, 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 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.

In 1943, the UPA formally operated only in Volyn, on the territory of the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng. Reich Commissariate of Ukraine), so Shukhevych's order did not — it would seem — cover the Ternopil region, i.e. the former Polish Ternopil Voivodeship, which was located in the GG. Shukhevych, however — in order not to „annoy” the Germans — founded a group operating in the GG under the euphemistic name of Ukr. Українська Народна Самооборона (Eng. Ukrainian National Self‐Defense), i.e. UNS, reinforced by deserters from the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and Schuma, seasoned in the genocide of Jews. Its 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”. In 08.1943, another Ukrainian génocidaire, Vasyl Sydor nom de guerre „Shelest”, became the commander of the Lviv district of UNS, which included the Ternopil region. When at the turn of 1943/1944 it became clear that the Germans were losing the war in the east — on 24.12.1943, a large‐scale Russian offensive began, known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation, which in 04.1944 reached a line c. 80 km east of Lviv, i.e. e.g. Brody — the OUN/UPA decided to extend the «Genocidium Atrox» to the GG and the Germ. Distrikt Galizien. And then Shukhevych liquidated the fiction and transformed the UNS units into the genocidal units of the OUN/UPA. In 01.1944, Vasyl Sydor nom de guerre „Shelest” became the commander of the OUN/UPA operational group „UPA‐West”, covering the Ternopil region, and ordered „to strike the Poles continuously until they are destroyed to the last one from these lands”. Could have done this knowing that the UNS/UPA 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, in connection with the introduction on 02.10.1943 by the Germans in Galicia of the system [of collective responsibility] of executing 10 hostages for the murder of every German soldier or representative of the authorities”.

In the area of Brody and Sokolivka, the execution of the Sydor's order was the responsibility of either the UPA Military District WO‐2 „Bug”, led by Ostap Lynda, nom de guerre „Jarema”, or the UPA Military District WO‐3 „Lysonya”, commanded by Emilian (Omelian) Polowy, nom de guerre „Ostap” — the ambiguities result from the fact that the area around Brody and Sokolivka is located on the border of the historical Ternopil and Lviv regions, and the responsibility of various OUN/UPA formations in that early period was not clear. Both Sydor and the degenerates Lynda and Polowy followed the same path of honing their genocidal craft — from the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall, through the murders of Jews while in the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, to «Genocidium Atrox» — as did their commander, Shukhevych.

Attacks on Poles also began in Sokolivka. The Poles were aware of the growing threat, as one witness described the beginning of the German occupation as follows: „The first Ukrainian attack on Poles actually took place on 13‐14.07.1941, at night [— the Germans occupied Sokolivka on c. 28‐29.06.1941]. Then, local Ukrainians took 12 men from their homes and arrested them […] 180 armed Ukrainians arrived. All the convicts had their hands tied behind their backs, and then all were tied with one rope to prevent escape […] [Nevertheless], six men escaped. Six men were shot near the forest. Of the six escaping, three were wounded, including those who testified. The attacks would certainly have been more frequent if it had not been for the Germ. Ortskommando getting involved [i.e. a unit of the German local commandant's office of the Germ. Wehrmacht, temporarily exercising power in the occupied territories], surrounded the settlement, arrested [and] shot 11 Ukrainians”.

And at the turn of 1943/1944, due to the de facto disinterest of the Germans, who were busy preparing for decisive clashes with the Russians, the Germans ceased to be an obstacle to the achievement of the OUN/UPA goals and attacks on Poles began. In Sokolivka, where — as a witness testified — „there were about 40 Polish [house] numbers, and they were mixed families, most of them Ukrainians, over 1000 numbers”, one of them took place on c. 18.11.1943. Then, „an attack on the forestry district of Sokolivka took place […] The attack began around 3 p.m. A frontal fight took place, which lasted until midnight, and according to another version until the morning. Fifteen Poles armed with shotguns and rifles resisted. A forester and one of the officials were killed in the fight, but also several (perhaps as many as ten) attackers. Around midnight, a ceasefire was reached. In exchange for the release of two hostages — a woman and a child (according to another version, there were five hostages) — the Ukrainians were allowed to collect the dead and wounded”.

A few months later, he fell victim to «Genocidium Atrox».

A witness reported: „There was an attack on the rectory. Jasiński Joseph — 68 years old, Szczęsna Hedwig — 33 years old, and two children — Henry, Wanda — 9 and 3 years old […] They drove out onto the road towards Ozhydiv and disappeared on the road, and Xavera Korgol [sic!]. The attack took place during the day […] The Ukrainians warned the Polish priest to stay put, because nothing would happen to him, and they murdered him in a few days”. Ozhydiv is a village c. 10 km from Sokolivka, on the southern side of the Lviv–Brody railway line.

A contemporary historian describes the murder as follows: „He was arrested on February 28, 1944, by Ukrainians dressed in Gestapo [i.e. Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police)] uniforms under the pretext of being transported to the police headquarters in Olesko. He was shot while trying to escape; the priest's body, taken by the parishioners to the rectory, was taken by the Banderites and taken away in an unknown direction”. Olesko is also located c. 10 km from Sokolivka, east of Ozhydiv.

Another witness puts it this way: „the parish priest, Wiszniowski (John, I think), was taken from his house. He was shot on the way. The parishioners brought the body to the rectory and wanted to give it a proper funeral. At night, the Ukrainians stole the body, took it to the forest, and threw it in a swamp, where it is said to be still floating in decay [sic!]. The bandits were local Ukrainians, connected with Ukrainians from Volyn. The bandits" names: Kozłowski Michael, Kozłowski Miron, Zach Vladislav, Kuzyk Vladislav, Kuzyk Vladislav [sic!], Broczkowski Stephen, Kowal Fed, Poczebski Stephean”.

Yet another adds: „On February 28, 1944, on the way back from a funeral, he was detained along with his neighbor, Kargol, by Ukrainian nationalists dressed in Gestapo uniforms, on the pretext of delivering him to the police station in Olesko. While trying to escape, he was bayoneted and shot. The priest's body was taken by the parishioners to the rectory, but at night it was taken by Banderites and taken away in an unknown direction”.

And another testimony from the housekeeper at the rectory: „On February 28, 1944, Banderites attacked the rectory. They shot and then stabbed Father Wiszniowski and threw him in his cassock into a pond”.

On the same day, i.e. 28.02.1944, Germ. Galizisches SS Freiwilligen Regiment 4 ‐ Polizei (Eng. 4th Galician SS Volunteer Regiment ‐ Police) — consisting of Ukrainians not accepted, for various reasons, into 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 criminal line unit fighting alongside the Germans — surrounded Huta Pieniacka, c. 25 km from Sokolivka, in the same Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Złoczów. Supported by a detachment of OUN/UPA génocidaires and local Ukrainian peasants, it murdered 1,100‐1,300 Poles in an extremely brutal manner.

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). On 14.01.1945, the degenerate Emilian Polowy was also supposed 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”, the schools were named after them.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”