From 1939 ministered in the village of Sieniawa, Sanok district, Lviv Voivodeship, on the Wisłok River, a tributary of the Vistula. At that time, it had an estimated population of c. 1,100 people, including c. 84% who considered themselves Rusyns, i.e. Greek Catholic Lemkos, c. 10% Roman Catholic Poles, and prob. a dozen or so Jews, although the Greek Catholic parish had c. 1,144 faithful in 1936. In Sanok district, Lemkos constituted c. 54%, while Roman Catholic Poles c. 41%.

In the late 1920s, the so‐called Tylawa schism took place, i.e. a wave of mass conversions of Lemkos to Orthodoxy — as a result of which c. 18,000 Lemkos left the Greek Catholic Church — in protest against the Ukrainization policy of the hierarchy of that Church. The Church responded by establishing the Greek Catholic Apostolic G Exarchate of Lemkowszczyzna, i.e. AEL. AEL managed to stop the Ukrainization efforts in the parishes under its control, which prevented further apostasy of the Lemkos, although prob. many priests in the AEL still supported the radical Ukrainian national ideology. Mykhailo Baczyński, a member of the Seym, i.e. Parliament of Poland, in his parliamentary speech of 21.01.1931, revealed what the Rusyns had to deal with within the Greek Catholic Church, who were not susceptible to the genocidal — as it turned out — ideology of Ukrainian nationalists: „After the war [the Polish‐Ukrainian war of 1918‐1919], the Greek Catholic Church was transformed into an agitational Ukrainian political tribune, from which words of hatred are sown, not words of love for one's neighbor”. The administrator of the AEL, Fr Jacob Medwecki, issued i.a. in 1937 ban on the distribution of such periodicals as the Ukr. „Український Бескид” (Eng. „Ukrainian Beskids”), financed by the ordinary of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Przemyśl, Bp Joseph Kocyłowski, whose circulation was confiscated several times by the Polish authorities; the Ukr. „Наш Лемко” (Eng. „Our Lemko”), published in Lviv; and the Ukr. „Діло” (Eng. „Work”), a newspaper, also published in Lviv, which — as the justification stated — „spread discord, are hostile towards the Polish State and incline the local population negatively towards the decrees of the Holy See and the Government of the Republic of Poland”.

Was a priest of the AEL.

After the German and Russian attack on Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II — resulting from the genocidal German–Russian agreement of 23.08.1939, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, confirmed on 28.09.28, 1939 by the so‐called „Treaty on the Borders and Friendship between Germany and Russia”, also known as the Second Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact — after the beginning of the German occupation, Sieniawa found itself in the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Krosno (Eng. Krosno County) in the Germ. Distrikt Krakau (Eng. District of Kraków), within the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. The German occupation authorities of GG began implementing a policy of undermining the influence of the Roman Catholic Church and Polish culture by supporting the Greek Catholic rite and Ukrainian–language education in schools. The policy of supporting the Ukrainian element was perhaps most visible in the social policy of the GG. Germany permitted the operation of social and charitable organizations, but only the Ukrainian Central Committee 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, aid for refugees, etc. Ukrainians/Rusyns, using GG funds, built Ukrainian/Rusyn hospitals, orphanages, nurseries, and schools. Lemko support for such a policy was expressed i.a. by the inhabitants of the village of Krępna, c. 30 km west of Sieniwa, where 80% of the inhabitants were Rusyns: „There was Poland, but it will never be again. Poles ruled, but now they will never be again. Poles have been twirling our tongues for two hundred years and they won't do it now”. This led to the intensification of the Polish–Ukrainian conflict. It couldn"t have been otherwise, as on the entrance door of the waiting room of the main railway station in 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”).

The attitude of the Lemkos towards Poles was not clear, however. One of the members of Polish underground organizations recalled that when, after the beginning of the German occupation, Polish soldiers and officers tried to get to Hungary, in order to reach the Polish army forming in the west — then in France — „in the entire Subcarpathia we had the greatest trust in the Lemkos […] No one betrayed us there […] The Lemkos did not betray the Poles”.

On 05.02.1941, after the death of the aforementioned Fr Jacob Medwecki, the administrator of the AEL became Fr Alexander Malynovski, a strong supporter of the Ukrainization of the Lemko region, in which was supported by the German occupier. He immediately began the process of Ukrainization of the church structures under his control, removing priests who opposed it in independent Poland, introducing the Ukrainian language. Collaborated with the organs of the genocidal Ukrainian organization OUN, tolerated and even supported by the Germans. Relied also on a large number — c. 20,000 — of Ukrainian refugees from the Russian occupation, mostly nationalists. In a memorial to the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kielce, Bp Cheslav Kaczmarek, a group of Greek Catholic priests, including Orest's relative, Fr Volodymyr Wenhrynowicz, wrote about him: „He always distinguished himself by a deep hatred for everything that was not Ukrainian and did not skimp on means when it came to the destruction and oppression of enemies”.

After the German attack on 22.06.1941 on their erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the occupation of the whole of Galicia, including Lviv, the Germans began to implement the German plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which in the GG was carried out under the codename Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt». In most towns, 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, took an active part in the German «Aktion Reinhardt». Jews from Sieniawa, if any lived there — in 1939, after the beginning of the German occupation, the Germans initially attempted to persuade the Jews to relocate to the areas occupied by the Russians, i.e. across the San River — were driven to Rymanów, c. 5 km away. In 12.1941, there were c. 1,300 Jews there, and in 07.1942, c. 1,900. In accordance with the German regulations in force in the GG, the Germ. Judenrat (Eng. Jewish Council) operated, responsible for the Jewish community, assisted by the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service), which it established. The ghetto was an open one, but Jews could not leave the city without permission, as from 25.10.1941, a decree of the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the GG, Hans Frank, was in force, 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 Jews with a hiding place”, and „Instigators and accomplices 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”. The Germ. Ordnungspolizei (Eng. Order Police), i.e. OrPo, and its subordinate Germ. Polnische Polizei im Generalgouvernement (Eng. Polish Police of the General Government), commonly referred to as the Blue Police, were responsible for implementing this regulation. From Rymanów, many Jews were sent to slave labor camps, including to Płaszów near Kraków and to Posada Dolna, adjacent to Rymanów, where the German company Kirchhof Straßenbau — today part of the Austrian Strabag concern — used them to carry out road repair and construction orders. On 13.08.1942 the Germans and unspecified police units — some sources state the Germ. Ukrainian Hilfspolizei, others point to formations of „Vlasovtsy”, i.e. former Russian prisoners of war who decided to collaborate with the Germans, still others to the „local militia” — all the Jews were gathered in the town market square. Some of the people deemed „unfit for work” were shot on the spot, including at the Jewish cemetery. C. 100 people were taken to the vicinity of Barwinek, c. 25 km to the south — on the historic road along the Jasiołka River, leading through Dukla and the lowest pass in the main ridge of the Carpathians, to Hungary — and then murdered in the forest on the slopes of Błudna near Dukla. Some of those „fit for work” were moved to Posada Dolna, for use by Kirchhof Straßenbau — after a few weeks they were sent „to Rzeszów”, from where none returned. The rest — c. 500–800 — were transported to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Belzec and murdered there. For the next few days, the town was combed for those in hiding. The Germans could then declare that Rymanów and the surrounding area were Germ. „Judenrein” (Eng. „Jew–free”).

According to Polish sources, „many Jews, thanks to the help of Poles, managed to survive the ordeal and emigrated to various countries after the war”. Among those who helped was the prefect of the Roman Catholic parish in Rymanów, Fr John Zawrzycki, who collaborated with the independence resistance Home Army AK (part of the Polish Clandestine State, the largest resistance organization in occupied Europe), conducted clandestine education for Polish children deprived of any education beyond the most basic level. He also issued masses of false baptismal certificates (so‐called „Aryan papers”) to Jews and organized safe havens on local farms and monasteries. One such Jew was sheltered by Marie Bolanowska in Posada Dolna, for which she and her son Peter paid with their lives. Fr Zawrzycki was posthumously honored with the title „Righteous Among the Nations” by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem.

Immediately after the extermination of the Jews, information began to reach about the situation in Volyn, several hundred kilometers to the east, where 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. This is not surprising, since a large part of the command cadre of the OUN/UPA genocide perpetrators was trained in 1939‐1941 — under strict German control — in the Germ. Distrikt Krakau, i.a. in the so‐called „Konowalets Officers" School” in Kraków. Other prominent activists were trained — in tracking down political and ideological opponents and their physical liquidation — as agents of the Ukr. Служба Безпеки (Eng. Ukrainian Security Service), i.e.SB OUN, founded in 1940, 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”. Under the watchful, of course, care of the Germans. 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 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 murdered.

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 1943‐1944, Polish refugees from Volyn began to reach the Germ. Distrikt Krakau, bringing with them terrible, traumatic stories of Ukrainian barbarity. This did not help reduce tensions between the Polish and Lemko communities. On the contrary. Especially since, at the turn of 1943/1944, given the signs of Germany's growing defeat and the approaching German–Russian battlefront, the command of the genocidal OUN decided to expand «Genocidium Atrox» to the area of the GG, including the Germ. Distrikt Krakau. Until then, the genocidal UPA, so as not to „annoy” its German ally, had not formally operated there.

There are basically no records of the direct, active participation of the Lemko inhabitants of Sieniawa in these events, which constituted the cruel backdrop of those years. The village was most affected by another event, i.e. the crossing of the German–Russian battlefront in 1944. After the great Russian offensive, today called the Lviv–Sandomierz Operation, was stopped in 08.1944 as a result of the outbreak of the Polish Warsaw Uprising on 01.08.1944 and the tactical, temporary Russian–German alliance — as such the decision of the highest Russian authorities to halt the offensive and not to help the insurgents, and even to hinder the provision of assistance, may be safely regarded — which enabled the Germans to crush the Uprising, the Russians decided to help another uprising, the so‐called the Slovak national uprising of 29.08‐28.10.1944. C. 4,200 Slovaks died in that uprising — for comparison, in Warsaw the Germans committed genocide of c. 200,000 inhabitants of the Polish capital. On 08.09.1944 the Russians began the so‐called Dukla–Prešov Operation, a part of the broader Eastern Carpathian Operation, the aim of which was to break German resistance and break through — more or less along the above‐mentioned road to Hungary — through the Dukla Pass to Slovakia. Sieniawa was not located on the main axis of the Russian attack, but the plan to capture Dukla itself seemed to include, it seems, an attack on the town from the eastern flank, along the road leading along the Wisłoka River, through Sieniawa, and then changing direction west towards Dukla. The Russians captured Sieniawa in a bloody battle on 15.09.1944, and Dukla 5 days later. In Sieniawa, c. 98 buildings were destroyed. The operation, however, was not successful; the Germans defended stubbornly and prevented the Russians from breaking through to Slovakia — c. 126,211 Russian soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing, and 20,000‐70,000 German.

And then moved to Komańcza. Sources indicate that it happened in 1944. The reason could have been the events described, but it is also possible that the decision to transfer was related to the death of his father, Fr Hilarion Wenhrynowicz, on 20.11.1943. Fr Hilarion Wenhrynowicz was the parish priest of the local Greek Catholic parish of the Przemyśl Eparchy, and therefore not part of the AEL. Komańcza was a village with a similar ethnic structure to Sieniawa — in 1939, it had an estimated population of c. 1,000 people, of whom Lemkos constituted c. 83%, Poles c. 11%, and Jews c. 6%. The parish, however, included several neighboring Lemko villages, with a total of c. 2,100 faithful.

Komańcza was captured by the Russians around 24.09.1944, during the aforementioned Eastern Carpathian operation. It seems likely that when the Russian occupation began, was already ministering in Komańcza.

It was not yet known at that time that already on 28.11‐01.12.1943, at the Tehran Conference, the treacherous English and Americans had agreed to establish the post‐war Polish border on the so‐called Curzon–Namier Line.‐The Curzon–Namier Line was a demarcation line between Poland and the Russian Bolsheviks, proposed to the Russians on 11.07.1920, by the Foreign Secretary of the British Empire, 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 imperial concepts of dividing Central Europe, especially the Russian and German ones. Establishing the Polish border on this line meant de facto recognition of the legitimacy of the Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and recognition of Russian claims expressed in the genocidal Ribbentrop–Molotov Pacts of 1939. It also meant that after the end of hostilities, Komańcza was to be located in the area assigned to the Polish Commie‐Nazi Russian protectorate, in the Russian Polish republic called „prl”.

One of the first effects of the beginning of the Russian occupation were massive deportations of the population, in line with the standard, centuries‐old, criminal Russian practice of solving social and national problems. Millions of Poles were to be deported from the east and resettled west, to territories that had belonged to Germany before World War II; Ukrainians and Lemkos were to be resettled from the „prl” to the territory directly occupied by the Russians. The deportations of Ukrainians took place in four stages. In the first, „voluntary” stage, 15.10‐31.12.1944, c. 20,000 Ukrainians were forced to leave, mainly from the Polish Lublin Voivodeship. In 01‐08.1945, i.e. during the second stage, also mostly „voluntary”, i.a. in the spring of 1945 the c. 50,000 Lemkos were forced to leave the areas covered by the aforementioned Eastern Carpathian Operation. A portion of his Komańcza parish, prob. c. 40% of the Lemkos, left for the east, for Ukraine.

Was not among them. At that time, the Russians and their Polish proxies in the „prl” decided to forcibly relocate Ukrainians and Lemkos to the east. The third stage began on 01.09.1945. Even earlier, however, the uniformed services of the Commie‐Nazi „prl” — officers of the militia, i.e. MO, and the criminal UB, soldiers of the military units of the Polish Army.

i.e. WP — began agitation and persecution against the resisting Ukrainians. It is known i.a. about the Greek Catholic priests being visited in the evenings and nights, interrogated at units headquarters, harassment, accusations of collaboration with the genocidal OUN/UPA — often probably justified — attempts to force declarations of departure and to initiate agitation for the departure of the faithful.

At the same time, the genocidal OUN/UPA began to become active in the area. The area west of the aforementioned Curzon–Namier Line was referred to by the OUN/UPA as Zakerzonia, and regarded as the western part of the future Ukrainian state. Within the OUN/UPA structures, it was part of the responsibility of the „UPA‐West” operational group, commanded by the génocidaire Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest”, who ordered „to constantly strike at Poles until they are completely destroyed from these lands”. The unit directly operating in this area, i.e. the WO‐6 „Syan” military district, which was part of the „UPA‐West”, was from 03.1945 commanded by Miroslav Onyshkevych, nom de guerre „Orest”. He became famous for his earlier order to the units under his command: „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 turn of 1945‐1946, several so‐called OUN/UPA genocidal sotnias were active in the area. In the context of Komańcza, the sotnia most frequently mentioned is the one commanded by Stepan Stebelski, nom de guerre „Khrin”, which was part of a larger kuren commanded by Vasyl Mizerny, nom de guerre „Ren”, directly subordinate to Onyshkevych „Orest”, which, according to sources, „passed through the area around Komańcza many times”. The „Bira” and „Didyka” sotnias were also active.

At the same time, the Commie‐Nazi „prl” government, supported by the Russian occupier, was strengthening its position in the region — Polish independence units fighting the Russian occupiers and the Commie‐Nazi structures they installed in the region were mostly engaged in intelligence activities. Meanwhile, Commie‐Nazi MO outposts were strengthened, and border protection troops WOP were established. I.a. in the autumn of 1945, a WOP watchtower was established in Komańcza.

On c. 02.03.1946, the OUN/UPA fired on a passenger train passing through Komańcza, killing 5 people. On 21.03.1946, the OUN/UPA attacked the village of Jasiel, c. 12 km away, on the western side of the mountain ridge separating it from Komańcza. Several sotnyas, including the „Khrin” sotnya, murdered two WOP guards, including its commander — „the Ukrainians chained one of his legs to a fir branch and the other to a horse's harness. The body was torn apart in the air” — and two families of 8 people. They also imprisoned 104 WOP soldiers and 5 MO militiamen from Komańcza, leading them out of the village. The militiamen and 89 soldiers were killed. The bodies of only 41‐60 of them (sources differ) were found — „in underwear, with their hands and feet tied”.

Two days later, Komańcza was visited by prob. „Khrin” sotnya. According to Polish sources, „Banderites, partly disguised in Polish uniforms, burned down the building of the railway sanatorium, […] the building of the former starosta, […] the Border Guard [i.e. WOP] station, the teacher's building […], which housed a private Polish school and a dairy. Furthermore, the railway guardhouse, the buildings of the [local] militiaman, […] the mayor, […] the [doctor's] building, which housed the militia station, the station and two railway warehouses, were burned down. The teacher […] was burned down along with the school building, her sister was also killed […] The UPA also kidnapped and shot [two] militiamen, a lieutenant [of the WOP] and a railwayman […] The UPA also intended to burn down the convent of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth — at the urgent request of the convent superior, the UPA managed to dissuade them from this intention. In reality, the convent was not burned down, because they often hid in wounded UPA members”. A total of 6‐8 people were prob. murdered.

A few weeks later, murdered in Komańcza.

A source from the OUN/UPA describes the crime as follows: „On April 6, 1946, at 11 a.m., the 3 sotnyas of the Polish Army [i.e. the 34th Budziszyn Infantry Regiment of the 8th Infantry Division] returning from a raid on the Chryszczaty forests came to the village of Komańcza. In the village, they behaved as best they could, but immediately went to the upper end, where they surrounded the building of the local parish priest, Father Wenhrynowycz, and began a search.

During the search, they found the priest's son, Ołeś, a pistol, for which they began to beat him severely, breaking his arm. Seeing his hopeless situation, he jumped out of the window and started to run away. While escaping, he received a bullet in the side, but kept running. 300 meters away, he received a second bullet in the head and fell.

The Polish executioners went to the church, from where they took the priest to recognize his son. The priest recognized his son, for which the Polish the satraps began beating him on the head, causing him to lose consciousness. The Red executioners, however, continued beating him.

After regaining consciousness, he began to run towards the rectory.

A short distance from the fire (10 meters), he received several bullets in the head and collapsed.

The priest's rectory, along with all his property (horses, cows, grain, clothing), burned down”.

The bodies of the dead were thrown into the burning barn.

According to some Polish sources, a unit of the genocidal Ukrainian UPA organization was hiding in the rectory.

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 24.08.2018, on behalf of the same Council, the Bronze Cross of Military Merit of the UPA (No. 071), awarded on 01.09.1946 to Vasyl Mizerny, was presented to his nephew. Stepan Stebelski had received the Gold Cross of Military Merit of the UPA, 1st Class, on 25.08.1947. 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!”