In 09.1939, when the Germans and Russians, pursuant to 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 between Germany and Russia”, also known as the Second Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, attacked Poland and World War II began, found himself in part of his Przemyśl diocese under Russian occupation. May have been the administrator of the Tvirzha parish in the Sudova Vyshnya deanery at that time.

In 02.

1942, after the German attack on 22.06.1941, on its erstwhile ally, the Russians, when the entire area of his diocese found itself under German occupation, became administrator of the Uherce parish. In 1938, this parish had c. 1,890 faithful living in many villages, in which there were 8 primary schools. During the Russian occupation — in 09.1939, Uherce came under Russian occupation, and the border with the German‐occupied areas ran c. 4 km to the west, along the San River — the Russians removed religious education from schools, so the restoration of catechesis had to become a priority for the parish. The parish, however, found itself within the borders of the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Sanok (Eng. Sanok County), part of the Germ. District Krakau (Eng. District of Kraków), within the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. From 1939, the Germans had been pursuing a clearly pro‐Ukrainian policy in the GG, aimed i.a. at aimed at weakening the Roman Catholic Church. Ukrainians were guaranteed self‐government, the use of the Ukrainian language in administration. The Ukrainian police, Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), in some regions also referred to as Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma, began its operations. Ukrainians were also entrusted with prison service, employed in concentration camp crews, and employed in lower administration. Ukrainian political organizations, such as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists OUN, the Ukrainian Central Committee UCC, operated openly. The policy of supporting the Ukrainian element was perhaps most visible in the social policy of the General Government. Germans allowed the activity of social and charitable organizations, but only the UCC was partially financed from the GG budget. Additionally, it could use funds from 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, refugee assistance, etc. Ukrainians, using the GG funds, built Ukrainian hospitals, orphanages, nurseries, schools. In many places, schools were taken away from Polish hands and handed over to Ukrainians. 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 GG, 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).

At the same time, the Germans began the process of extermination of the Jews. The Jews from his parish — according to schematism of his diocese, in 1938, 324 Jews lived in the Uherce parish, and in Uherce itself in 1939, an estimated 65 — were driven by the Germans and the Germ. Ukrainian Hilfspolizei collaborating with them to a ghetto in Lesko, c. 6 km away, on the right bank of the San River. The Germans established the ghetto in Lesko, in which c. 60% of the inhabitants were Jews, in the spring of 1942. However, even earlier, on 25.10.1941, a decree of the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor), Hans Frank, came into force in the GG, according to which „Jews who leave their assigned district without authorization are subject to the death penalty. The persons who knowingly provide such Jews with a hiding place are subject to the same punishment”, and „Instigators and helpers are subject to the same punishment as the perpetrator, an attempted act will be punished as a completed act”. Immediately afterwards, at the beginning of 1942, the Germans began implementing the genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which in the GG was codenamed Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt). In 06.1942, when Jews from many towns of the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Sanok, including Uherce, were driven to Lesko, the number of ghetto inhabitants increased from c. 2,300 to prob. c. 3,900. On c. 04.09.1942, all but c. 100 elderly and infirm people, murdered by the Germans and the Germ. Ukrainian Hilfspolizei in the cemetery in Lesko — altogether c. 200 Jews were murdered in Lesko itself during the operation of the ghetto — were herded to the Germ. Zwangsarbeitslager (Eng. Forced Labor Camp) ZL Zaslaw, in the village of Zasław, c. 8 km away, on the other side of the San River. Over the next few days, c. 4,000 Jews were transported from VL Zaslaw to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Belzec, where they were all murdered. ZL Zaslaw was finally liquidated in 1943, but Lesko might have been declared a Germ. „Judenrein” (Eng. „free of Jews”) even earlier.

In 12.1942, when the fate of the Jews was being sealed, had to leave Uherce and the parish. Diocesan sources report that was „forced into hiding”. Others report that „belonged to the AK, was active in the Sanok region, and was hiding from the Germans”. Home Army AK — formed on 14.02.1941 from the renamed Union of Armed Struggle ZWZ, which had been operating underground since 1939 — was part of the Polish Clandestine State, the largest resistance movement in German‐occupied Europe.

It is not known where was hiding, how long was in hiding, or why was forced to hide „from the Germans”. The „Sanok region” probably means that was in the area of the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Sanok.

The Germans were forced out of „Sanok region” on in 07‐08.1944, and the Russian occupation began. His whereabouts at the time are unknown.

The next information about his fate is connected with Jordanów Śląski, known as Jordanice until 1947. A witness recalled: „I came here [i.e., Jordanice] in 10.1945. We wanted our parish priest to be with us, so I went to the curia and asked for it. Then I personally went to pick up Father Zawiślak and brought him here. We worked together before the war. I played the organ in Tvirzha as a sixteen‐year‐old boy”.

To Jordanice the parishioners of the village of Tvirzha, where began his ministry in 1938, were brought in. This was the result of the arrangements made by the main leaders of the anti‐German coalition — the USA, Great Britain, and Russia — at the Tehran Conference of 28.11‐01.12.1943, when the Allies agreed to establish the post‐war Polish eastern border along the Curzon–Namier line, divide Poland, and award Russia the areas it had seized in 09.1939, i.e. de facto recognizing the legitimacy of the Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the Russian claims expressed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. The Curzon–Namier line was a demarcation line between Poland and the Russian Bolsheviks, proposed to the Russians on 11.07.1920, by the British Foreign Secretary, George Curzon, during the great Russian offensive during the Polish–Russian War of 1919‐1921, suggested by the so‐called expert, Lewis Bernstein Namier, a Jew of Polish origin. Russia — contrary to the plans of the British imperialists — suffered defeat in 1920, but the concept of the Curzon–Namier line, running through the center of Poland, became a cause célèbre for all imperialists for the division of Central Europe, especially the Russian and German ones.

The Russians, however, did not intend to stop at simply marking new borders — they also intended to solve national and social problems using the old, proven Russian method. This method involved the deportation of entire nations and societies. Almost two million Poles from the so‐called Pl. Kresy (Eng. Borderlands), i.e. the territories east of the Curzon–Namier line and the Bug River, were being forced to leave to the west, to the lands that in 1939 were part of Germany. And they began to force Ukrainians and Rusyns to leave to the east, to the areas that were to belong directly to communist Russia. The Russians began the deportation action already in the autumn of 1944, when the final decisions about the shape of the borders had not yet been made — this happened on 04‐11.02.1945 at the Yalta conference — and when the German–Russian battlefront was still on the line of the Vistula, established there in 08.1944 on the orders of the highest Russian authorities, de facto in a momentary strategic collusion with the Germans, to give the Germans time to suppress the Warsaw Uprising started on 01.08.1944 by the Polish Clandestine, as part of Operation Pl. „Burza” (Eng. „Tempest”), and to murder c. 200,000 Poles. The beginning of the deportation action were the so‐called Republican Agreements — the Russians liked to dress up all acts of lawlessness in the garb of legality. On 09‐23.09.1944, i.e. before the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, they led to the signing of three agreements by agents and traitors controlled by them, who were to take power in the Russian Polish Republic, called „prl”, with representatives of the other Russian republics: Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian, under which Poles were to be deported from the territories of these „republics” to the „prl”.

Deportation of Poles to the „prl” took place mainly after the end of World War II military hostilities in 05.1945. It was then that was persuaded to settle in Jordanice and minister to those displaced from the east.

His attitude towards the Commie‐Nazi „prl”, which was the administrative form of the Russian occupation, is summarized by one of the sources: „After the war, he did not hide his aversion to the new system and spoke out strongly against communist terror”.

In the rectory, prob. provided shelter to soldiers of the former AK, formally disbanded on 19.01.1945, and considered by the authorities of the Russian Commie‐Nazi republic „prl” to be a „spitting/venomous dwarf of reaction”.

Perished on 07‐08.08.1947.

A witness described the event as follows: „On that day, there were two young priests in the rectory. Father Zawiślak went to Tyniec, returned in the evening, and they went to bed.

During the night, a fire broke out in his bedroom.

Everything burned, even the plaster fell off. Something must have been spilled on it. When neighbors came running to help, they saw a ladder by the window to the parish priest's room.

His body was found near the tiled stove; he had apparently tried to escape from his bed.

He burned alive.

These young priests saved themselves by jumping out the window”.

And he adds: „It was obvious to everyone that he was liquidated by the UB”, i.e. members of the criminal Commie‐Nazi „Security Office”, subordinate to the Russian MGB, the successor to the genocidal NKVD.

When in 09.1939 the Germans and Russians attacked Poland and World War II began, in accordance with the genocidal agreement between the two allies, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 23.08.1939, later confirmed by the so‐called „Treaty on the Borders and Friendship between Germany and Russia” of 28.09.1939, also known as the second Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, his parish was captured by the Russians. The Russian occupation began. The Russians subjected Poles in particular to repression, arresting Polish intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, foresters, policemen, and even the families of Polish servicemen. In 1940‐1941, many other Poles became victims of four large waves of deportations „to Siberia” or to the north, e.g. to the vicinity of Arkhangelsk, especially during the first one, around 10.02.1940. The 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 allowed my mother to look into the chest — unfortunately, it was empty, because our neighbors had already emptied it. We practically didn't take anything, because they didn't let us move around the house […] There were large snowdrifts and heavy frost”. The surveillance of priests and monks began. High taxes were imposed on the clergy. Children's catechism classes in schools were abolished.

After the German attack on 22.06.1941, on its erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation, prob. ministeredin the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galicia), within German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. The Germans immediately began implementing the genocidal plan known as the Germ. Endlösung der Judenfrage (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which in the GG was codenamed Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt). In virtually every ghetto of the Germ. Distrikt Galizien, members of a Ukrainian, collaborationist police formation, the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), operating in some regions as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. the Schuma, participated in the genocide of the Jews.

The murders of Jews were not yet over when, in 02.1943, in Volyn, c. 100 km to the north, 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.

Although Shukhevych's order and the UPA appeal were not formally addressed to the 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. De facto however also there the Ukrainian genociders, „unemployed” after the end of the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt», deserted and joined the UNS, whose 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”. And in 12.1943 — when it became clear that the Germans were losing the war in the East, the UNS was formally transformed into a genocidal „UPA‐West” OUN/UPA unit. In 01.1944, its commander became another of the Ukrainian „trainees” of the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall and the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, the degenerate Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest”, who almost immediately ordered „to strike the Poles continuously until they are exterminated to the last one from these lands”.

«Genocidium Atrox» began in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien.

In 1944, another Russian occupation began and moved to Jordanów Śląski.