From 1937, served — together with her sister and fellow nun, Sr Germana Anne Żarkowska — in the village of Velyki Hnylytsi, in the Roman Catholic parish of Koshlaky, then in the Zbarazh district in the Ternopil Voivodeship, c. 13 km from Sk Skala‐Podilska on the Zbruch, the border river of Poland. In 1939, it had an estimated population of c. 2,000 people, of whom c. 33% were Roman Catholic Poles and c. 65% Greek Catholic Ukrainians. In addition, c. 45 Jews lived in the village. The nuns ran an orphanage there — founded in 1887 by Hedvig Sapieha, mother of the Archbishop of Kraków, later Cardinal, Adam Sapieha. All children attended it, because the nuns knew the Ukrainian language — they came from a mixed family (their mother was prob. Ukrainian). They also ran cutting and sewing courses. They cared for the sick and did church work. It was mentioned that „they had land, a horse, a cow, and they were happy there”.

After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II, they went to their home village, Cherneliv‐Mazovetskyi, located c. 11 km south of Zbarazh and 11 km east of Ternopil. The village was inhabited by over 80% Polish, Roman Catholics. In accordance with the agreement between the two allies, approved by the genocidal Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact of 23.08.1939, the Ternopil Voivodeship fell to the Russians. In the autumn of 1939, arrests of the intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, and families of Polish military personnel began. In the years 1940‐1941, many other Poles became victims of four large waves of deportations „to Siberia”. Reports 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, 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.

The fate of the inhabitants of Cherneliv‐Mazovetskyi reflected this Polish fate. It was mentioned, however, that the nuns „knew about herbs, and during their stay in their home village they treated children who were brought to them”.

They returned to Velyki Hnylytsi after On 22.06.1941, when the Germans attacked their erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the German occupation began.

Velyki Hnylytsi became part of the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Tarnopol (Eng. Ternopil County), which was part of the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galicia), within the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. Witnesses recalled that „Ukrainian nationalists were the most delighted with the new situation. In marches and demonstrations, they manifested the creation of a free Ukraine and proclaimed anti‐Polish and anti‐Jewish slogans”.

The Germans quickly dissuaded Ukrainian nationalists from their hopes for a „free Ukraine”. But they exploited these revealed anti‐Polish and anti‐Jewish sentiments. The years 1941‐1943 were marked, in particular, by the extermination of Jews. The center of Jewish concentration in the area was Zbarazh. In 1941, there may have been c. 5,000 Jews there, some of who, however, fled eastward with the Russians in 1941. Immediately after the occupation of the city on 04.07.1941, the Germans and Ukrainians murdered c. 20 Jews and burned down two synagogues — prob. due to suspicions of collaboration with the Russians, which were largely justified. On c. 06.09.1941, the Germans murdered c. 70 Jews in the Lubyanka forest — c. 10 km east of Zbarazh — mostly Jewish intelligentsia, a list of whom was prob. prepared by the Germ. Judenrat (Eng. Jewish Council) appointed by the Germans. From 25.10.1941, a decree by Hans Frank, the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the GG, came into force in the GG, 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 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”. Strict observance of the ban was enforced by members of the collaborative Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), in some regions also referred to as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Security Battalions), i.e. Schuma, subjecting Jews to „systematic robberies and beatings”.

From the beginning of 1942, the Germans started implementation of the genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which in the GG was codenamed the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. „Operation Reinhardt”). In 03‐04.1942, c. 600 elderly and sick people were shot outside the city, next to the road to Ternopil. Starting in 08.1942, the string of Germ. Aktion (Eng. action) of deporting Jews from Zbarazh began. They were led by the Germans, but the main roles were played by policemen from the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service), subordinate to the Germ. Judenrat. And so on 31.08.1942, c. 500‐1,200 people, including some brought from Volyn, e.g. from Lanivtsi and Vyshnivets; on 30.09.1942, c. 260; and on 21‐22.10.1942, c. 960 Jews were herded to the railway station and then transported to Ternopil, and from there to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. Extermination Camp) VL Belzec, where they were all murdered. During this last Germ. Aktion, some Jews were transported to the Germ. Zwangsarbeitslager für Juden (Eng. Forced Labor Camp for Jews) in Lviv on Janowska Street, i.e. the so‐called Janowska camp ZALfJ Lemberg, providing slave labor for the Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke DAW company, owned by 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 — which supplied the German war machine with uniforms, timber, metals, and repairs to war equipment, and from where no one returned. C. 130 Jews were also murdered in Zbarazh itself while being herded onto the train. For the remaining c. 2,000 Jews, an „open” ghetto was established, i.e. without a border fence, protected only by agents of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst. C. 1,000 of them were murdered on 07.04.1943, at the Zbarazh railway station. The remaining Jews were murdered by the Germans and the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei on 09.06.1943, after which the Germans were able to announce in their reports that the city was Germ. „Judenrein” (Eng. „Jew‐free”), although for months thereafter they continued to search the nearby forests for those in hiding.

The Jews from Velyki Hnylytsi were prob. transported to Zbarazh, but it is also possible that they were driven c. 17 km south, to Pidvolochysk. From there, in 10.1942, they were transported to the VL Belzec extermination camp, or murdered on c. 29‐30.09.1943, when c. 600 Jews were shot in Pidvolochysk.

And In 02.1943 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 the Germ. Distrikt Galizien, the UPA formally did not operate, not wanting to „annoy the Germans”. Only the aforementioned genocidal Ukrainian militias operated, hiding under the Ukrainian name Ukr. Українська Народна Самооборона (Eng. Ukrainian National Self‐Defense), i.e. UNS. As it was noted, „At first, these were sporadic incidents aimed at exterminating Polish priests and the intelligentsia, but in September [1943] these murders took on the character of some sadistic, monstrous game: the victims were kidnapped alive, taken to the forest for torture, or tortured at home before being finished off”.

In 12.1943, the UPA shed another mask and officially extended its genocidal activities to the Germ. Distrikt Galizien. The UNS de facto became part of the genocidal UPA. The commander of the OUN/UPA operational group „UPA‐West” became Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest”, who ordered „to strike at Poles continuously until they are completely destroyed from these lands”. Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Tschortkiw belonged to „these lands”. The Zbarazh region was covered by the activities of the UPA Military District WO‐3 „Lysonya”, initially commanded by a certain Emilian (Omelian) Polowy, nom de guerre „Ostap”, a degenerate with a similar career path as his genocidal superiors, Roman Shukhevych and Vasyl Sydor — from the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall, through the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, where they gained experience in the extermination of Jews, to the UNS.

The order of the genocide killer Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest”, evidently reached the Koshlaky parish. According to Polish sources, on 25.12.1943, on Christmas Day, the genocide killers from the OUN/UPA attacked Velyki Hnylytsi and murdered c. 40 Poles from 8 families.

The Ukrainian threat and the approaching German–Russian front forced both nuns to move back to their home village of Cherneliv‐Mazovetskyi.

Further killings were interrupted by the aforementioned Russian offensive, known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation, as part of which the Russians entered Cherneliv‐Mazovetskyi on c. 06‐10.03.1944 and the Russian occupation began. Till 16.04.1944, the siege of nearby Ternopil took place — the Germans turned the city into Germ. Festung Tarnopol (Eng. Ternopil Fortress) and defended it fiercely — after which the very next day, 17.04.1944, the Russians halted their offensive for the spring period. For the next few months, the area was therefore full of various Russian front–line troops, with whom the Ukrainian "heroes" from the OUN/UPA did not risk confrontation.

A little later, on 01.09.1944, Sydor himself, ordered a halt to the genocidal action against the Poles, although the order excluded „the Polish element collaborating with the NKVD and the organs of Moscow imperialism”. The OUN/UPA was still to attack „a Polish militia of 20 people in some locality. One‐third or half of them should be destroyed, the rest disarmed and warned that if they do not stop collaborating with the Bolsheviks against us, they will also be destroyed next time”. And again, the UPA militia in the Koshlaky area read the order "literally" — or perhaps it was creatively interpreted by the genocidal perpetrator Volodymyr Jakubowski, nom de guerre „Bondarenko”, the chief of staff of WO‐3 „Lysonya”, who following the wounding of Emilian Polowy, nom de guerre „Ostap”, prob. took over command of WO‐3 „Lysonya” — and already on 10.09.1944, they murdered Thaddeus Dąbrowski, a Pole who was the municipal secretary in Koshlaky.

But this apparent calming of the situation made the nuns decide to return to their house and nursery in Velyki Hnylytsi. Upon their return in 10.1944, they found the Congregation's house plundered. Turned therefore to the inhabitants of Velyki Hnylytsi with a request to „return at least the most necessary things”. The Ukrainians assured them that everything would be returned to them.

However, at the beginning of 11.1944, prob. bored with inactivity, OUN/UPA militias from the Zbarazh and Koshlaky areas decided to attack the Polish clergy.

On 02.11.1944, „several men appeared at the sisters" home with orders to leave immediately”.

The events were described in 1965, based on the account of a local organist, in the following way:

„In the yard, they handed them spades and forced them to dig a hole.

Once it was dug, they put ropes around the nuns" necks and pushed them into the hole.

The men, holding the ends of the ropes, shook the tied victims until the ropes dug into their bodies.

Then they were lowered to the bottom and covered with earth”.

Three days later, on Sunday, OUN/UPA perpetrators kidnapped and murdered the vicar of the Koshlaky parish, Fr Volodymyr Siekierski.

On 20.12.1944, Fr Theophilus Łucyk, pastor of the Greek Catholic parish in Koshlaky, notified the Metropolitan Curia of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv of the events. He also had the courage to lead the funeral Mass for the last Roman Catholic parish priest of Koshlaky, a 75‐year‐old, retired, Fr John Biliński, who prob. died of natural causes in early 12.1944.

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). 08.10.2017, on behalf of the same „Coordination Council” the génocidaire Emilian (Omelian) Polowy was posthumously awarded the Bronze Cross of Military Merit of the UPA (No. 010) in the village of Byshki. In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to these Lat. „hostis humani generis” — as well as to the génocidaire Vladimir Jakubowski — the schools were named after them.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”