When began his ministry in Pawłokoma in 1942, the village was under German occupation, being part of the Germ. Landkreis Krosno (Eng. Krosno County) within the German Distrikt Krakau (Eng. Kraków District), which was part of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG.

The first years of World War II, which began with the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939, spent however under Russian occupation. Shared the fate of the inhabitants of Pawłokoma, which in 1939‐1941 was also occupied by the Russians — as a result of the rogue Russian‐German agreements known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pacts. During the war, during the first great deportation of Poles on 10.02.1940, the Russians deported c. 40 inhabitants of Pawłokoma deep into Russia — „to Siberia”. These were representatives of the local elite, and their deportation was also demanded by the Ukrainian inhabitants of Pawłokoma. The Russians incorporated the entire area into Rus. Украинская Советская Социалистическая Республика (Eng. Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), thus specifically appreciating the Ukrainian element.

Pawłokoma was a small village, in a bend of the San River, on its right bank. In 1939, it had a population of c. 1,300 people, of whom c. 23% were Poles and 76% Ukrainians. Furthermore, a few Jews lived in the village. The village was a kind of Ukrainian enclave, surrounded by Polish villages — in that year, it belonged to the Polish district of Brzozów, in which c. 80% of the population was Polish, and only 16% Ukrainian. In 1943, during the German occupation, after the Russian deportations of Poles, after the genocide of Jews — victims of the Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. The Final Solution of the Jewish Question) plan, which in GG was implemented under the codename Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Reinhardt Action), with the active participation of members of the collaborative Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), in some regions also referred to as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma — it had a population of c. 1,101 inhabitants.

The Germans favored Ukrainians, entrusting them with local leadership positions, including police duties performed by armed posts of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei — it was the Poles who posed the greatest threat. Additionally, after the Soviet years, activists of the criminal Ukrainian organization OUN began to appear in the area, allowed to function by the Germans, who promoted the idea of a greater Ukraine, including, among others, the so‐called Zakerzonia, i.e. the lands east of the San River.

It was then, several hundred kilometers to the east, in 02.1943 Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the chief commander of the Ukrainian, genocidal OUN/UPA organisation, 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, which co‐participated in the German genocidal Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt) plan, to desert and join the UPA. Perhaps as many as 10,000 Ukrainians did so.

Ukrainian génocidaires murdered tens of thousands of Poles and burned hundreds of villages in Volyn in 1943 as part of the «Genocidium Atrox» program.

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 called the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation began — the OUN/UPA decided to extend the genocide «Genocidium Atrox» to the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galicia), Germ. Distrikt Lublin (Eng. District of Lublin) and Germ. Distrikt Krakau. Until then, the groups operating there mainly — in order not to „annoy” the Germans — included those operating under the euphemistic Ukrainian name Ukr. Самооборонні кущові відділи (Eng. Self‐Defense Unit), i.e. SKW, and the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei. The Ukrainian génocidaires then formed, among others, the OUN/UPA operational group „UPA‐West”, under the command of Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest”, who ordered „to strike continuously at Poles until they are completely destroyed from these lands”. The OUN/UPA Military District WO‐6 „San” was responsible for implementing the «Genocidium Atrox» in the Germ. Distrikt Krakau, on the right side of the San River, and from 1945 was commanded by Miroslav Onyshkevych, nom de guerre „Orest”, who had previously gained fame for his order issued on 06.04.1944, specifying the tasks of the UPA units subordinate to him: „I order the immediate purging of my region of the Polish element […] The purging should be carried out in the sparsely populated areas by Poles. For this purpose, a militia group composed of our members should be established in the area, whose task would be to eliminate the above‐mentioned. Larger areas will be purged of this element by our military units even in broad daylight […] The purging of the area must be completed before our Easter, so that we can celebrate it without Poles […] Fight them hard and ruthlessly. Spare no one, even in the case of mixed marriages. Pull the Poles out of their homes, but do not eliminate the Ukrainians and children in these houses […] Take out your weapons. Death to the Poles”.

At the beginning of 1944, a Ukrainian unit, i.e. Ukr. Добровільна Дивізія СС „Галичина” (Eng. SS Volunteer Division „Galicia”), subordinate to Germ. Die Schutzstaffel der NSDAP (Eng. The Protection Unit NSDAP), i.e. «SS», a paramilitary formation subordinate to the ruling National Socialist German Workers' Party NSDAP in Germany, consisting predominantly of Ukrainians, which went down in history mainly under the name SS‐Galizien, also began combat operations alongside the German occupiers. C. 10 residents of Pawłokoma volunteered and joined it. Its first „tasks” were to combat Polish independence, resistance partisans in the Biłgoraj area, c. 90 km north of Pawłokoma.

At the same time, agents of the Ukr. Служба Безпеки (Eng. Security Service), i.e. SB OUN, were operating in the vicinity of Pawłokoma, tracking down political and ideological opponents of the OUN, physically liquidating them, and also participating in the murders of the Polish population. Sources indicate that „SB OUN could only issue death sentences to "enemies of the Ukrainian nation" […] For minor offenses, the so‐called buki were used, i.e. beatings with beech sticks from 10 to 50 strokes. Major offenses were punished by death. The sentence was carried out by shooting or hanging […] some group commanders "chopped off the heads of their victims"”. The SB OUN was founded in 1940, under the watchful care of the Germans, and training was conducted, among others, in Zakopane, at the „Stamary” hotel. According to the contemporary website of this hotel, „the training included the principles of sabotage, Gestapo methods of interrogation and methods of killing”. At the same time, i.e. on 20.02.1940, in Zakopane, at the „Pan Tadeusz” (Eng. „Sir Thaddeus”) and „Telimena” villas, the third so‐called „thematic conference” of the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. Gestapo, and the Russian Rus. Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел (Eng. People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs), i.e. NKVD, two genocidal allied organizations, debating cooperation and ways of combating and exterminating Poles in the territories they occupied. In Zakopane, all these undertakings were supervised by the Gestapo, which had its headquarters in the „Palace” villa, where Polish patriots were being murdered.

In the first half of 1944, sporadic attacks on Poles took place in the Pawłokoma area. The OUN/UPA began «Genocidium Atrox» in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien, starting from areas further east; whereas in the Germ. Landkreis Krosno — with a significant majority of the Polish population — limiting itself to individual attacks and preparing for the inevitable end of the German occupation and the arrival of Russian troops. But with the German defeats in the east and the approach of the Russians — who in 04.1944, for the spring period, halted their offensive — more and more Polish refugees began arriving from the east, both from Galicia and Volyn, bringing with them stories and images of unimaginable Ukrainian genocidal crimes.

On 12.07.1944, Ukrainian génocidaires attacked two villages — both within a radius of c. 12 km of Pawłokoma — murdering Polish Catholic priests there: Fr Joseph Kopeć in Borownica and Fr John Mazur in Tarnawka. This happened literally on the eve of another Russian offensive in the east, known as the Lviv–Sandomierz operation. As a result, on c. 03‐10.08.1944, the Russians entered his parish village. The Russian occupation began.

A few days later, the German–Russian fighting front came to a halt again. Faced with the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw on 01.08.1944 — in accordance with the Polish Clandestine State's plan to take control of Polish lands just before the German withdrawal, codenamed Pl. „Burza” (Eng. „Storm”) — the Russians made the genocidal decision to halt the entire offensive in the east to allow the Germans to crush the Uprising and murder the inhabitants of the Polish capital. Most units of the Polish Clandestine State, in particular the Home Army AK, were involved in Operation Pl. „Burza”. AK Rzeszów Sub‐District, with its AK Brzozów Division, which covered Pawłokoma, took part as well. In this Division, the AK attacked, i.a. railway lines, several hundred freight wagons were damaged, almost a hundred locomotives, and some of the equipment transported by the Germans to the front (including tanks and aircraft). AK participated in the liberation of the region's larger cities. But immediately after the Russians entered, repressions began — i.a. AK units were not allowed to break through to the capital and help the fighting Warsaw. And then arrests of members and entire AK units began.

At the same time, in the Rzeszów region, including in the vicinity of Pawłokoma, Lviv Forest Units AK Group „Warta” appeared. It arrived from near Lviv, following the arrests of the members and leadership of the AK Lviv District by the Russians, which began on c. 31.07.1944, whom the Russians sent to slave labor camps Gulag deep in Russia. The Group hoped to come to the relief of Lviv — as in 1919 — as soon as possible. The quartered troops skirmished with Soviet units and defended Polish villages against attacks by the genocidal OUN/UPA. Thus, on 13.12.1944, „Warta” soldiers carried out an operation to rescue members of the AK Brzozów Division imprisoned by the Russians, including its commander, Ignatius Casimir Wanic, nom de guerre „Andrzej” (Eng. „Andrew”).

Meanwhile, Russian soldiers had taken up residence in Pawłokoma — after all, the halted front ran c. 20 km southwest of the village. This ensured relative peace for the Polish minority in the village — the Ukrainians, among whom in Pawłokoma there were „at least 50 members [of the genocidal OUN] and sympathizers” out of c. 800 inhabitants of Ukrainian nationality, did not dare to attack. But in the area they unleashed «Genocidium Atrox» — between 11‐12.1944, the targets of attacks became the villages of Bachów, Harta, Jabłonica Ruska, Jawornik, Kotów, Obarzyn, Piątkowa, Poręby, Siedliska, Sufczyna, Ulucz, Zahutyń — precisely in the area where some units of the „Warta” Group were stationed.

In 01.1945, after the Germans bloodily crushed the Warsaw Uprising, the Russians launched another offensive, the so‐called Vistula–Oder operation, pushing the Germans further west, and the Russian front‐line units abandoned Pawłokoma and the surrounding area. The remaining rear‐support units, i.e. the genocidal NKVD units, were supported by Commie‐Nazi units of the criminal Polish Security Service UB and the vassal pseudo‐state of the Polish People's Republic prl created by the Russian occupier. They were mainly engaged in fighting the Polish independence underground, including the AK, pursuing and arresting its members, often deporting them deep into Russia. But they also fought against the OUN/UPA units, which undertook a two‐front fight — against the Russians and against the Polish population, still implementing the «Genocidium Atrox» program.

Immediately afterwards, on 19.01.1945, the authorities of the Polish Clandestine State decided to disband the AK. In the order to disband it, the AK commander‐in‐chief wrote: „Poland, according to the Russian recipe, is not the Poland for which we have been fighting for six years […] We do not want to fight the Soviets, but we will never agree to any other life than in a completely sovereign, independent and socially just Polish State”. Many Poles, however, in the face of intensifying Russian and Commie‐Nazi repression, were forced to continue fighting in defense of the Polish population — in the Pawłokoma area on three fronts: against the Russians, against Commie‐Nazis serving the Russians, and against Ukrainians. This was the case, i.a. of the „Warta” Group, whose members were from the east, from area around Russian‐occupied Lviv and who had excellent knowledge of the practices used by the OUN/UPA in implementing the genocidal «Genocidium Atrox».

On 21.01.1945, a group of about 60 bandits broke into Pawłokoma and kidnapped c. 7 Poles. They were never found. The Poles of Pawłokoma considered the OUN/UPA to be the perpetrators, while contemporary scholars of Ukrainian origin claim that it could have been a unit of the Russian NKVD, disguised as the OUN/UPA. This led to the decision by the „Warta” Group, with the participation of some Pawłokoma residents, at a meeting in Dynów at the end of 02.1945 to attack Pawłokoma. It was decided to „capture and kill all men over 15 years of age, except for infirm old ones”. On 26.02.1945, on Monday, the Polish inhabitants of Pawłokoma left the village.

On 03.03.1945, on Saturday, the attack was carried out by a „Warta” unit commanded by Lieutenant Joseph Biss, nom de guerre Wacław, commander of Company D‐26, part of Battalion D of „Warta” with the participation of Polish residents of Pawłokoma. According to Polish sources, only men were murdered; according to Ukrainian sources, women and children were also among the victims. They were murdered, i.a. in the cemetery near the Greek Catholic church. However, the number of victims is unknown — sources vary, giving figures ranging from 80 to as many as 500. It is astonishing that after so many years, it has not been possible to even come close to a realistic number of victims, since the perpetrators were a unit of the Polish independence underground, chased in every possible way by the NKVD and Polish Commie‐Nazis. There are towns in Galicia and Volyn in the east whose inhabitants — murdered by the OUN/UPA — are remembered by the survivors by name….

Was murdered then.

According to Polish sources, OUN/UPA weapons were stored in his rectory.

Was supposed to be celebrating Mass and dragged out of the church.

One of his surviving family members — a young boy — recalled: „They took father out of the church and led him home. They beat him and asked where had hidden his property. They brought his mother to my father. She asked them in Polish why they were beating him. My grandmother cried and showed the Poles where some clothes were buried in the basement. Then they led the father out, covered in blood in his underwear and shirt, to say goodbye to his family.

A little earlier, the local Poles warned my father to flee the village with his family. However, he did not do so, saying: «Where my faithful are, there I will be».

He carried out his duties until the end”.

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). 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!”