Some sources state was a seminarian, but had to interrupt his seminary studies. Could have been one during the Russian occupation of 1939‐1941, when the seminary in Lviv — his home village, Bilokrynytsya, was subject to the Lviv archdiocese — was closed by the Russians, but operated underground. Could have been later, after 22.06.1941 and the beginning of the German–Russian war, when the Germans allowed the seminary to operate, but forbade the admission of new alumni, and only those who had begun their studies before 1939 could continue their studies — assuming, however, that began his theological studies after 1938, at the aforementioned clandestine seminary, because in the schematisms of the Lviv archdiocese until that year he is not mentioned among the seminarians.

It seems certain that in 1944‐1945 was in Bilokrynytsya, ministering as a „church organist” in the local Roman Catholic church.

In 1939, Bilokrynytsya, c. 7 km from Pidhaitsi County, in the Polish Ternopil Voivodeship, had an estimated population of c. 2,400 people, of whom Roman Catholic Poles constituted c. 78% and Greek Catholic Ukrainians c. 22%. One memoir states that the village „had 428 farmsteads. 291 families were purely Polish; 76 Ukrainian, 60 mixed, and one Jewish family (the owner of the estate and distillery — Mr. Rotenberg)”.

After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II — as a result of 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 2nd Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact — after the beginning of the Russian occupation, the Russians particularly subjected Poles to repression, arresting Polish intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, foresters, policemen, and even the families of Polish servicemen. 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 allowed my mother to look into the chest — unfortunately, it was empty, because our neighbors had already emptied it. We took practically nothing with us, because they didn't let us move around the house […] There were large snowdrifts and heavy frosts at that time”. 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, and religious education was removed from schools.

According to one of the memoirs, the Russians deported at least 5 Polish families, i.e. c. 28 people, from Bilokrynytsya.

After the German attack on their erstwhile ally, the Russians, on 22.06.1941, and the beginning of the German occupation, Bilokrynytsya parish curacy found itself in the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Brzeżany (Eng. Brzeżany County), within the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng District of Galicia), part of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG, expanded by Galicia.

The period 1941‐1943 was marked in particular by the extermination of Jews. 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 «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt). The local center of the Jewish community was the county town of Pidhaitsi, where in 1939 c. 3,400 Jews may have lived, i.e. c. 55% of the inhabitants. Already in 07.1941, the Germans established — in accordance with the German regulations in force in the GG — the Germ. Judenrat (Eng. Jewish Council), responsible for the Jewish community, assisted by the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service). Later, they de facto forbade Jews to leave the town without permission, because from 25.10.1941, a decree issued by the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the GG, Hans Frank, came into 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 such 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, hard labor or imprisonment may be imposed”. On 21.09.1942 Germans, with the support of the Ukrainian, collaborationist Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), also operating as Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Security Battalions), i.e. Schuma — which was to take part in all such Germ. Aktion (Eng. operation) — as well as the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst, herded c. 1,000 Jews to the railway station, from where they were deported to their deaths, to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Belzec. Incidentally, c. 50 Jews were murdered in the Jewish cemetery. Immediately afterwards, a ghetto was formally established in Pidhaitsi, initially of an „open” nature, without a boundary fence. On 30.10.1942, the second Germ. Aktion took place. Over 1,200 Jews were deported to VL Belzec, and several dozen were murdered during the roundup. At about the same time, Jews from the surrounding villages were brought to the ghetto, including prob. from Bilokrynytsya, and in 12.1942 the ghetto — c. 2,500 people — was „closed”, i.e. surrounded by a wooden fence topped with barbed wire. On 12.04.1943, c. 40‐50 sick Jews were murdered in the Jewish cemetery. The liquidation of the ghetto took place on 06.06.1943. The Germans and the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei murdered c. 1,070 Jews in two ditches dug in the part of Pidhaitsi called the Old Town. On 08.08.1943, c. 750 Jews were lured out of hiding, under promise of transfer to Ternopil. All were taken out of the town and near the village of Zahaytsi, c. 2 km away, the Germans and Ukrainians murdered them. Over the next few months, the Germans and the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei systematically searched the ghetto hunting for Jews. C. 300 were captured and murdered in the Jewish cemetery. The Germans could declare that Pidhaitsi and the surrounding area were Germ. „Judenfrei” (Eng. „free of Jews”).

At the same time, i.e. in 02.1943, in Volyn, c. 150 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 was not formally addressed to units of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei in the Germ. Distrikt Galizien — 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 — but de facto also there the Ukrainian génocidaires, „unemployed” after the end of the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt», deserted and joined the UNS. But in 12.1943 — when it became clear that the Germans were losing the war in the East, i.e. on 24.12.1943, the great Russian offensive called the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation began — the UNS was formally transformed into a „UPA‐West” unit of the genocidal OUN/UPA. In 01.1944, its commander was 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 continuously at the Poles until they are completely destroyed from these lands”. The «Genocidium Atrox» began in Germ. Distrikt Galizien.

The UNS/UPA had nothing else to do at the time, because — as even the Ukrainian Wikipedia confirms — „during the last months of 1943, UNS units did not conduct military operations in connection with the introduction on 02.10.1943, by the Germans in Galicia of the system [of collective responsibility] of executing 10 hostages for the murder of every German soldier or official”. The Poles remained though a target for were not among these „officials”. And the Germans behaved passively towards the genocidal acts of the UNS/UPA, essentially not undertaking any major operations against Ukrainians.

In Bilokrynytsya, where in 03.1943 only 1,732 remained, there existed a clandestine structure of the genocidal OUN. It was so strong that one of the Ukrainian villagers recalled years later — after escaping into exile in Canada — that „in mid‐1943, UPA [i.e. UNS] units began to be formed. From them, a sotnia was formed solely from the inhabitants of the Pidhaitsi county”, including three inhabitants of Bilokrynytsya. „In November–December 1943 and January 1944 [they underwent] military training in Volyn in the village of Derman”, in the same village where the OUN/UPA murdered c. 190 of its Polish inhabitants in 1943.

In the vicinity of Pidhaitsi, the orders of the génocidaire Sydor were carried out by another degenerate, the commander of the UPA Military District WO‐3 „Lysonya”, Emilian (Omelian) Polowy, nom de guerre „Ostap”, whose „career path” was identical to that of his superiors — i.e. through the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall and the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, where they gained experience in the extermination of Jews. The murders of Poles began already in the last quarter of 1943 and intensified at the beginning of 1944. Ended with the arrival of the German–Russian battlefront. On c. 01.04.1944, the Russians — as part of the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation — entered Pidhaitsi, but on c. 07.04.1944, faced with a German counterattack, they withdrew c. 25 km to the east. This coincided with the end of the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation by the Russians and the suspension of frontline fighting for the spring period.

The next major Russian offensive, known as the Lviv–Sandomierz Operation, began on 13.07.1944. The Russians entered Pidhaitsi and its parish on c. 21.07.1944. The Russian occupation began.

The OUN/UPA initially suspended its operations against the Poles during the advance of the battlefront and the saturation of the area with thousands of Russian troops. On 01.09.1944 Vasyl Sydor „Shelest”, commander of „UPA‐West”, ordered a halt to the genocidal action, but the order did not include 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 a certain 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”. The suspension was short‐lived, however — at the turn of 1944/1945, Ukrainian génocidaires resumed the murders of Polish civilians.

In Bilokrynytsya, in response to the threat, „self‐defense was organized, and at night guards were kept on guard in the fences of buildings and the rectory”. At the same time, some Poles — mainly younger ones — joined the Rus. истребительные батальоны (Eng. pursuit battalions), i.e. IB, a Russian auxiliary paramilitary formation within the criminal NKVD, whose primary role in the area was to defend civilians from attacks by the genocidal OUN/UPA. Despite this, some of the Stara Wieś Sisters Servants ABMV, who had ran a school and kindergarten there, were forced to leave Bilokrynytsya in 1943‐1944 — the last two departed in 1945. Perhaps some of the residents, faced with repeated genocidal attacks on Polish villages, moved to Pidhaitsi, where a Russian garrison was stationed, finding shelter in former Jewish homes.

At the turn of 1944/1945, the Russians began preparations for the deportation of millions of Poles westward, to territories that had belonged to Germany before World War II. Although the decisions of the Tehran Conference of 28.11‐01.12.1943, when the treacherous British and Americans agreed to establish the post‐war Polish eastern border along the so‐called Curzon–Namier Line, were unknown, but it was becoming clear that this line would play a significant role in the post‐war political puzzle. The Curzon–Namier Line was a demarcation line between Poland and the Russian Bolsheviks, proposed on 11.07.1920 to the Russians, 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, Bilokrynytsya was to be in territory directly occupied by the Russians.

One of the first effects of the beginning of the Russian occupation was therefore massive deportations of the population, in line with the standard, centuries‐old, criminal Russian practice of solving social and national problems. In Bilokrynytsya, its symptom was the inscription appearing on the municipal building: Ukr. „за Сан Лаше во то наше” (Eng. „out Poles beyond the San, for it's ours”).

And then was murdered.

Sources state: „Banderites sentenced Home Army AK [i.e. part of Polish Clandestine State] fighters, but the victim was the church organist, John Wiernik”. Another informs: „In [Bilokrynytsya], Banderites murdered John Wiernik, who lived in the house of Francis Krosnowski. The Krosnowskis left for Stara Wieś near Leżajsk, where Francis" brother was an abbot in a monastery. Local [Ukrainian] nationalist Volodimir Sroka wanted to live in the Krosnowski house after their departure, but Wiernik refused to leave, so he paid for it with his life”.

According to some sources, saved the parish priest, but died himself in unknown circumstances. As the sources state, „at night, Bandera supporters attacked Father Joseph Szyca, but he raised the alarm and saved his life and fortunately did not share the fate of the priest from nearby Novosilka”. Another reports that „[priest's] life was saved by the immediate alarm raised by young Poles and neighbors, and the unexpected intervention of a local Greek Catholic priest, which prevented the kidnapping”.

The priest from Novosilka in question was Fr Marian Dziamarski, murdered four days later. The Greek Catholic priest, on the other hand, was the administrator of the Greek Catholic parish in Bilokrynytsya, Fr Joseph Koroweć, who „when the Bandera supporters from neighboring Novosilka were preparing for the final showdown with the "Lachs" [i.e. Poles], he interrupted them, […] rode out to the attackers on horseback with the words that "there will be no murders in this village!" […] Bilokrynytsya fortunately did not share the fate of hundreds of similar villages, where Ukrainian units and ordinary residents committed genocide with particular cruelty”.

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, First 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!”

The parish records from Bilokrynytsya contain a record that John Wiernik was born in Bilokrynytsya on 22.06.1906, his father was John, his mother was Julianne Fenc or Tenc, and was baptized on 24.06.1906. It is not known whether this is the same person.