In 1937 became the parish priest of Bukova, then in the Sambir county in Polish Lviv Voivodeship. The village of Bukova itself was inhabited by an estimated 1,400 people, basically — apart from c. 45 Jews and c. 15 Roman Catholic Poles — by c. 95% Greek Catholic Ukrainians. However, the religious structure — and consequently the national structure — of the Sambir county was more complex: c. 30% were Roman Catholic Poles, c. 67% Greek Catholics Ukrainians, and c. 3% Jews. This division was also reflected in the national and religious structure of two neighboring settlements, each c. 6 km away — both located on the Strwiąż River and the railway line running along it from Przemyśl, through Sambir, to Stryi — which were to play a key role in his history: the town of Felshtin, with c. 1,700 people, including c. 46% Roman Catholic Poles, c. 10% Greek Catholic Ukrainians and c. 44% Jews, and the large village of Susidovichi, inhabited by c. 3,100 people, including c. 95% Poles, c. 3% Ukrainians and c. 2% Jews.

After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II, as a result of the German–Russian Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the Fourth Partition of Poland, his parish found itself under Russian occupation. His diocese, like its capital, Przemyśl, was however divided by the San River — part of the diocese was under German occupation, and the other part under Russian rule. In the autumn of 1939, arrests of intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, foresters, policemen, and families of Polish military personnel began under Russian occupation. In the years 1940‐1941, many other Poles became victims of four large waves of deportations „to Siberia”. 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 wouldn"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 Poles in the Sambir area reflected this Polish fate.

The fate of the Greek Catholic clergy did not differ from the experiences of the Polish clergy during this period.

After the German attack on 22.06.1941, on its erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation, his parish found itself in the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Drohobycz (Eng. Drohobych County) in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. Galicia District), German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. Witnesses recalled that „the most delighted with the new situation were Ukrainian nationalists. 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 took advantage of these revealed anti‐Polish and anti‐Jewish sentiments. The years 1941‐1943 were marked, in particular, by the extermination of Jews and the participation of collaborative Ukrainian units in it. The center of Jewish concentration in the area was Sambir, located c. 18 km from his parish village of Bukova. In 1939, an estimated 6,500 Jews lived there, although some Jewish estimates put the number as high as 8,000, perhaps including the those who fled to the German‐occupied territories. In addition, c. 12,000 Poles and c. 4,000 Ukrainians lived in the town. Immediately after the beginning of the German occupation, in the summer of 1941, the Germans established a Germ. Judenrat (Eng. Jewish Council) in the town, which was to represent the interests of the Jewish population in front of the occupation authorities. The Germ. Judenrat run the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng.Jewish Order Service) subordinate to it, responsible for maintaining order among the Jews. From 25.10.1941, a decree by Hans Frank, Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. Governor General) of the GG came into effect, 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.

From the beginning of 1942, the Germans implemented 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). 12.03.1942, the Germans created a „Jewish residential district” in Sambir, i.e. an open ghetto, in which c. 6,466 Jews were kept. At the beginning of the summer of 1942, the Jews from nearby villages and towns, including c. 1,500 from Staryi Sambir, were forcibly transported to this ghetto. From 08.1942 to 10.1942, the Germans carried out — with significant assistance from the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei — four Germ. Aktion (Eng. action) to deport Jews from the city. And so, on 04.08.1942, the German gendarmerie, together with the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst, herded a crowd of Jews to the city stadium, where a selection was carried out: c. 150‐600 deemed „fit for work” were separated and then transported to the Germ. Zwangsarbeitslager für Juden (Eng. Forced Labor Camp for Jews) in Lviv on Janowska Street, i.e. the so‐called Janowski's ZALfJ Lemberg camp, which provided slave labour for 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 — the Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke DAW company, which supplied the German war machine with uniforms, timber, metals, and war equipment repairs; c. 150 were murdered on the spot; most — c. 3,800 — were herded to the railway station and deported in cattle wagons to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Engl.

extermination camp) VL Belzec, where they were all murdered. The second Germ. Aktion took place on 25‐26.09.1942, during which the Germ. Judenrat was forced to select c. 300 old and sick Jews, who were then murdered in the forests near the village of Radlovichi, c. 5 km from Sambir, on the other side of the Dniester River. On 17‐18.10.1942, during the third Germ. Aktion, c. 1,000 Jews were deported to VL Belzec, and on 22.10.1942, during the fourth Germ. Aktion, c. 460. Members of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei participated in all the deportations and murders. On 01.12.1942, the ghetto was surrounded by a barbed‐wire fence and the surviving Jews from the entire region were brought there — including e.g. from Felshtin and prob. Bukova and Susidovichi. In total, c. 3,000 Jews remained in the ghetto. From 02.1943 to 06.1943 the Germans, with the participation of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, in four subsequent Germ. Aktion, murdered them all: on 13.02.1943 — c. 500 in the forests near Radlovichi; on 14‐18.04.1943 — c. 1,200 in the cemetery; on 20‐22.05.1943 — several hundred near Radlovichi, c. 550 were deported to the Germ. Konzentrationslager (Eng. concentration camp) KL Lublin (Majdanek), where they were murdered, and c. 70‐80 to ZALfJ Lemberg, from where none returned; finally, 05‐10.06.1943 — c. 1,000 in the forests near Radlovichi.

In the census of the Germ. Distrikt Galizien of 01.03.1943, the Germans reported that 9,987 people lived in Sambir. A few months later, they were able to announce that Sambir and the surrounding area were Germ. „Judenrein” (Eng. „free of Jews”). Only c. 160 Jews managed to survive, hidden by Poles in the city and in Polish or Ukrainian farms in villages — including hidden by the Polish Wójcik family in Felshtin.

Additionally, according to Polish sources, in 01‐02.1943, the Germans, with the participation of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, arrested c. 250‐300 Poles in Felshtin, Staryi Sambir, Khyriv, and Turka, and at the beginning of 02.1943 transported them to Lviv, after which, in a transport of c. 800 people, they brought them to the KL Lublin concentration camp, which only a few survived.

When the Poles were being deported to the Lublin concentration camp, when the Germans began the liquidation of the Sambir ghetto, in 02.1943, several hundred kilometers to the north, in Volyn, 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.

Shukhevych's appeal was not formally addressed to the units of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien — because there in 1943 the genocidal OUN did not establish an armed wing under the name of UPA, but formed armed units under a euphemistic name, to „confuse” the Germans, Ukr. Українська Народна Самооборона (Eng. Ukrainian National Self‐Defense), i.e. UNS — but de facto also there the Ukrainian génocidaires, „unemployed” after the end of the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt», deserted and joined the UNS. Their 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”. 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 began, known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation, which in 04.1944 reached a line c. 80 km east of Lviv — the OUN/UPA decided to extend the «Genocidium Atrox» genocide to the Germ. Distrikt Galizien and the Germ. Distrikt Krakau. I.a. the Ukrainian génocidaires formed the OUN/UPA operational group „UPA‐West”, under the command of Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest” — a degenerate with a similar career path as his genocidal superior, Roman Shukhevych — from the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall, through the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, where they gained experience in the extermination of Jews, to the UNS — who ordered „to strike at Poles continuously until they are completely destroyed from these lands”.

In the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Drohobych, Sydor's plans were implemented by the OUN/UPA Military District WO‐5 „Makivka”, commanded by Ivan Beleyovych, nom de guerre „Dvynchuk”. In 1940, he performed „guard duty” in the vicinity of Kraków, the capital of the GG. Under strict German control, of course. From 1939, the Germans in GG pursued a clearly pro‐Ukrainian policy. Ukrainians were guaranteed self‐government, the use of the Ukrainian language in administration, and Ukrainian education. The Ukrainian police Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei began then its operations. Ukrainians were also entrusted with prison service, employed in concentration camp crews, and employed in lower administration. Ukrainian political organizations operated openly, such as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists OUN, the Ukrainian Central Committee UCC, which became the Ukrainian representation towards the German authorities. They were allowed to take over Polish schools, reading rooms, and churches and organize them as Ukrainian. In Kraków, there was the so‐called „Konovalec Officers" School”, where future leaders of Ukrainian armed forces were „educated”. In 1940, the Ukr. Служба Безпеки (Eng. Security Service), i.e. SB OUN, was allowed to be established under the watchful care of the Germans, whose task was to track down political and ideological opponents of the OUN. SB OUN training was conducted, among others, in Zakopane, at the „Stamary” hotel. According to the hotel's contemporary website, „the training included the principles of sabotage, Gestapo interrogation methods, and killing methods”. All these undertakings were overseen by the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. the Gestapo, which in Zakopane had its headquarters in the „Palace” villa, where Polish patriots were being murdered. The „graduates” of the „Konovalec Officers" School” and the SB OUN was later to lead and participate in genocidal attacks on the Polish community, i.e. «Genocidium Atrox». The choice of Zakopane and Kraków as training places for future génocidaires was not accidental. At the same time, i.e. in 1939‐1940, the Germans and Russians were agreeing and specifying the details of the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia and leaders. This happened at four so‐called thematic conferences, when the German 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 immediately afterwards in Przemyśl. The third was held on 20.02.1940 in Zakopane, in the villas „Pan Tadeusz” (Eng. „Sir Thaddeus”) and „Telimena”, the fourth in 03.1940 in Kraków. In the meantime, at the beginning of 02.1940, in 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. As a consequence, in 04.1940, almost simultaneously, the genocidal murders of Polish prisoners of war began in Russia, which went down in history as the «Katyn genocide», and in the German‐occupied GG, the Germ. Außerordentliche Befriedungsaktion (Eng. Extraordinary Pacification Action) began, i.e. «Aktion AB», which was part of the so‐called Germ. «Intelligenzaktion» (Eng. Operation Intelligentsia), aimed at exterminating Polish political and intellectual elites.

Three years later, German–Russian–Ukrainian cooperation resulted in the «Genocidium Atrox».

And then, prob. in the first half of 1944, was murdered.

Existing accounts, both Polish and Ukrainian, are very superficial. But even in these forms, they differ drastically.

A Polish source, attributing the crime to Ukrainian genocidal formations, reports: „[There was a murder of] Fr NN from Bukova near Felshtin, Sambir county, Lviv voivodeship — he was kidnapped on 14.06.1944, while traveling in a cart from Felshtin with a Ukrainian teacher.

Both were considered friends of Poles.

The horses and cart were found, but there was no trace of the occupants”.

The Ukrainian source, based on a 1990s recollection of a conversation with a now deceased witness, states that was murdered by a „Polish gang”. Arrested in the spring of 1944 in the forest — when was going to a mill in Felshtin — and driven to the village of Susidovichi and there, in the basement of the Roman Catholic church, murdered.

In the spring of 1944, Polish underground units of the largest underground organization in the territories occupied during World War II, the Home Army AK (part of the Polish Clandestine State), were preparing for the inevitable arrival of the Russians. They were carrying out the order of the AK Commander‐in‐Chief, General Thaddeus Komorowski nom de guerre „Bor”, to launch Operation Pl. „Burza” (Eng. „Tempest”), i.e. a military operation against the German occupier. In Felshtin and the surrounding area, the previously loose forms of conspiracy circles began to be transformed into armed units. Felshtin was subordinated to the AK Unit „Sambir”, within the AK Inspectorate „Drohobych”, part of the larger AK District „Lwiv”. And it was then, on c. 29.04.1944, in the vicinity of Susidovichi — as mentioned, a village inhabited essentially only by Poles, where the local parish was run by the Carmelite Fathers OCarm, who i.a. hid and sheltered a Jewish family for some time — a forest partisan unit was formed, i.e. the 1st Sambir Company of the AK under the command of Adam Ekiert, nom de guerre Pl. „Pogarda” (Eng. „Contempt”). In Susidovichi itself, the German gendarmerie was stationed, „composed of German convalescent soldiers sent to defend the inhabitants against the UPA bandits”, as well as a special unit of the Germ. Gestapo, whose task was to fight the Home Army AK.

The genocidal OUN/UPA did not seem to have any strong organized partisan units in the area at that time. However, agents of the genocidal SB OUN were active, whose task was to track down political and ideological opponents of the OUN, carry out their physical liquidation, and also participate in the murders of the Polish population. Sources indicate that „SB OUN could 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"”.

It is not known how perished. The only certainty seems to be that was kidnapped — prob. in the forests between Bukova and Felshtin, where in 1914, during World War I, heavy RussianAustrian fighting took place.

The Russians entered Sambir — as part of the offensive known as the Lviv–Sandomierz Operation, which began on 17.07.1944 — at the end of 07.1944. „On July 26, 1944, in the evening, the AK Sambir company set off […] from the village of Susidovichi […] towards Sambir and after an all‐night march, reached the town in the morning. There it met the first reconnaissance vehicles of the Red Army. The welcome was friendly. AK partisan companies were arriving in Sambir from all directions […] On July 27, 1944, power in Sambir passed into the hands of the Home Army. The town hall began its work. White and red flags appeared […] Around 1 p.m., a Soviet car with soldiers drove into the market square, removed the Polish flag from the town hall and hung a red flag”. The Russian occupation began. Bukova and Susidovichi, the Russians entered a little later, after c. a week of offensive fighting.

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!”