In 1938 was ministering in the Greek Catholic parish in the village of Tuchne, located c. 45 km southeast of Lviv, 2.5 km east of the Svirzh River. The number, religion and nationality of the inhabitants of Tuchne in 1939 can be estimated on the basis of available data from the censuses in 1921 and 1931. Namely, there was then an increase in the population of Peremyshliany district, voivodeship.

Ternopil, where Tuchne was located, by c. 15%, i.e. an increase in the number of Roman Catholic Poles by c. 50%, a decrease in the number of Greek Catholic Ukrainians by c. 3% and a decrease in the number of Jews by c. 3%. Assuming similar growth trends in the years 1931‐1931, it can be estimated that in 1939 Tuchne was inhabited by c. 1,800 people, of whom c. 56% were Roman Catholic Poles, c. 40% Greek Catholic Ukrainians and c. 3.5% Jews.

It is not known whether in 1939 was still in Tuchne, or perhaps was already ministering in the neighboring parish in Svirzhsky Hlibovychi, located c. 7 km to the northwest, on the Svirzh river. Hlibovychi, also located in the Peremyshliany county was a slightly larger village, inhabited in 1939 by an estimated — using the same assumptions as in the case of Tuchne — c. 2,300 people, of whom c. 65% were Roman Catholic Poles, c. 33% Greek Catholic Ukrainians and c. 2% Jews. Roman Catholic Poles also constituted the majority in the then Peremyshliany county of the Polish Ternopil voivodeship, where they were located — if the population development trend from the years of the 1921 and 1931 censuses continued there also in the years 1931‐1939 — i.e. c. 51%, while Greek Catholic Ukrainians c. 45% and Jews c. 3%.

After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II, pursuant to the genocidal German–Russian agreement of 23.08.1939, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, confirmed 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, his parish found itself in the territory granted to Russia by the allies. The Russian occupation began. The Russians subjected Poles in particular to repression, arresting Polish intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, foresters, policemen, and families of Polish military personnel. Many other Poles became victims of four large waves of deportations „to Siberia”, especially the first one on 10.02.1940. 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 did not allow us to move around the house […] There were large snowdrifts and severe 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, and religious education was removed from schools. 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 Złoczów (Eng. Złoczów County) within the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galicia), becoming part of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. The persecution of Jews began immediately. In the first phase, Jews began to be separated from the non‐Jewish community, which was often accepted by the Jews with some satisfaction. The Germans also designated concentration centers to which Jews from the surrounding villages were systematically brought. In the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Złoczów, Peremyshliany became such a center, c. 11 km from Svirzhsky Hlibovychi. There, already on 04.07.1941, a few days after the beginning of the occupation, local Ukrainians carried out a pogrom against Jews, accused — often not without justification — of collaborating with the Russians, and murdered them in the synagogue. C. 2,600 Jews lived in Peremyshliany at that time. In the summer of 1941, the Germ. Judenrat (Eng. Jewish Council) was established, which the Germans made responsible for all matters related to the Jewish community. The Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service) became its arm. At the same time, the Germans established a branch of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police) in Peremyshliany, collaborating with the German forces of order. From 15.10.1941, the German „Law on Restriction of Residence” in the GG came into force, signed by the Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the GG, Hans Frank, according to which „Jews who leave their designated 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 severe cases, severe imprisonment or prison may be imposed”. Already on 05.11.1941, the first Germ. Aktion (Eng. operation) took place, during which c. 400 Jews deemed unfit for work were led out of the town and murdered in the forest near the village of Korosno, c. 3 km away. This was only a prelude to the German genocidal plan, launched at the turn of 1941/1942, i.e. Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which in the GG was codenamed as «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt). Also at the turn of 1941/1942, the Germ. Jüdischer Wohnbezirk (Eng. Jewish residential district), i.e. an open ghetto, guarded by the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, to which local Jews were constantly brought, so that in the summer of 1942 c. 4,000‐5,000 were kept there. In 05.1942, the second Germ. Aktion took place, during which c. 100 Jews were murdered. The largest Germ. Aktion took place in 09.1942, when the Germans — with the help of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst — drove c. 3,000 people to the railway station, from where they were taken to the Germ. Vernichtungslager (Eng. extermination camp) VL Belzec and murdered there. Immediately afterwards, in 11.1942, the ghetto in Peremyshliany was again filled with Jews, e.g. deported from Svirzh, where earlier Jews from Tuchne and Svirzhsky Hlibovychi were prob. driven to. On 01.12.1942 the ghetto in Peremyshliany was closed, surrounded by a fence, prob. made of barbed wire. And here the sources are not clear — according to some, on 05.12.1942 another Germ. Aktion was carried out, sending c. 2,400 Jews to VL Belzec and murdering c. 600 in the city; according to others, it was a the same deportation as the aforementioned Germ. Aktion in 09.1942. In the winter of 1942/1943, several hundred Jews died in the ghetto from hunger and disease. Finally, on 22‐28.05.1943, the Germans and the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei liquidated the ghetto, murdering c. 2,000 people in the ghetto itself or in the nearby forests. It was possible to declare that Peremyshliany was Germ. „Judenrein” (Eng. „free of Jews”), although for several months the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei continued to hunt Jews in the surrounding area. A few people survived, hidden by Polish or Ukrainian families.

At the same time, 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.

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, known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation, began, which rapidly began to shift the battlefront of the German–Russian fighting, e.g. in the direction of Lviv, Ternopil and Stanislaviv — the OUN/UPA decided to extend the genocide «Genocidium Atrox» to the Germ. Distrikt Galizien. Until then, the groups operating there were mainly — in order not to „annoy” the Germans — operating under the euphemistic name of Ukr. Українська Народна Самооборона (Eng. Ukrainian National Self–Defense), i.e. UNS, and later also Ukr. Самооборонні кущові відділи (Eng. Self‐Defense Unit), i.e. SKW, reinforced by deserters from the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, seasoned in the genocide of Jews. The Ukrainian génocidaires then created, among others, 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 superior, the aforementioned génocidaire, Roman Shukhevych, i.e. from the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall, through the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201, where both gained experience in the extermination of the Jews — who ordered „to strike Poles relentlessly until they are exterminated from these lands to the last one”.

In the Peremyshliany region attacks by Ukrainians began — among them of those „unemployed” after the extermination of the Jews, former members of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei — on Poles. According to Polish sources, „a significant role was played by a Greek Catholic priest from Svirzhsky Hlibovychi, who initially encouraged fratricidal murders, calling to Ukrainians from the church pulpit: "Get to work, because roasted cabbage rolls won’t get into your mouths by themselves"”. One of the first murders were the murders of two Roman Catholic priests on 11‐13.02.1944, Fr Joseph Kaczorowski and Fr Stanislav Ignatius Kwiatowski in Vovkiv and Ladantsy, c. 12 km to the east. Ukrainian residents of his parish were said to have participated in them: „some of the Ukrainians from Svirzhsky Hlibovychi were pleased with their actions and ridiculed the Poles, [and the mother of two young Bandera supporters] said [after the murder of Fr Kwiatkowski]: "It will be the same with all Poles. They will cut you all up like a priest. Your priest was fat, so they cut strips on his back, sprinkled them with salt and glued them back on to make him suffer"”. The witness to the abduction of Fr Kwiatkowski was „less than a month later […] taken out in front of the house and had his head cut off on a tree stump with a wood saw. The family had to watch everything”.

Earlier, c. 10 days after the murder of Fr Kwiatkowski, at the end of the Greek Catholic „miasnytsia”, i.e. the „carnival” period, Ukrainian génocidaires attacked Tuchne. On 21‐22.02.1944, they murdered over 40 Poles, including „a 3‐year‐old girl who was quartered with an axe”. According to Polish sources, „a characteristic feature [of the attack] was that the attackers, while murdering and killing the inhabitants, did not rob their property and did not burn the buildings”. Four days later, on 26.02.1944, they attacked his Svirzhsky Hlibovychi, murdering 67 Poles. Polish sources comment: „The murders were not approved by all Ukrainians, but no one dared to take action. Only the village head of Tuchne complained that the thugs killed elderly Poles”.

Was not among those Ukrainians. Sources state that „later actually blackmailed his faithful, shouting in church: — "Ukrainians cannot come to bless the food unless they eliminate the Poles"”. The aforementioned „blessing” of food before Easter, in the Greek Catholic Church fell on 15.04.1944 that year. However, he did not live to see it. Due to the growing wave of genocidal attacks by the OUN/UPA in the Peremyshliany area, as well as a series of attacks by the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei on young Polish men in Lviv — in the evening hours, under the guise of checking their IDs, they were murdered by shots in the back of the head and their identity documents were stolen — the leadership of the Polish Clandestine State and the commanders of the resistance Home Army AK in Lviv attempted talks with representatives of the genocidal OUN/UPA. The meeting took place on 08.03.1944. It brought no results. Therefore, the very next day, on 09.03.1944, an operation codenamed „Vespers” began in Lviv. Several‐strong patrols of the AK Lviv District and the AK Headquarters" Subversion Directorate, i.e. Kedyw, responsible for carrying out combat operations, assassinations, sabotage, and diversion against the German occupier authorities, appeared in the city's streets. Eleven Ukrainian policemen were shot, and notes were attached to their bodies informing of the reasons for the execution. The murders of young Poles ceased.

On the same day, 09.03.1944, a 22‐person AK group set out on foot from Kryvchytsi, just east, beyond the borders of Lviv. The next day, after a march of c. 30 km southeast, it reached the Hanaczova, a Polish village in Peremyshliany County, and stopped. On 13.03.1944, an additional 36‐person AK unit left Lviv by truck. It was to await an airdrop of supplies near Svirzh, which, however, did not materialize. On 15.03.1944, it joined the first group.

In the evening, after marching southward c. 10 km through the forests, combined AK groups attacked Svirzhsky Hlibovychi.

Was murdered during the attack.

Sources indicate that „an eight‐strong patrol broke away from the main group and attacked the rectory. After breaking down the door, entered the room where Father Tiktor's family was staying. The priest, his wife Olga, and his mother Pauline were shot”. His children survived.

In total, c. 60 people were allegedly murdered, including six Poles who were shot „by mistake”. Among them were also „four clerics, a local teacher, and the village head”. It is unknown what „clerics” are referred to. Nine children and c. 17 women were also killed.

His home was one of 12 attacked and burned in the c. 45‐minute attack by the AK.

On the way back to Lviv, the AK attacked the villages of Cherepyn and Lopushna, c. 15 km south of Lviv. In total, the AK during its expedition murdered c. 130 people.

The AK's action did not produce the expected results — just as it did in Lviv. It was „criticized by the Polish community” of the attacked villages. And it did not stop the Ukrainian génocidaires either. Prob. on 26.03.1944, the OUN/UPA attacked Svirzhsky Hlibovychi again, murdering c. 60 Poles. On 06.04.1944, the chief of staff of the Military District WO‐2 „Bug”, which was part of the OUN/UPA operational group „UPA‐West”, génocidaire Miroslav Onyshkevych, nom de guerre „Orest”, specified the tasks of the OUN/UPA: „I order the immediate purging of my region of the Polish element […] The purging should be carried out in the villages sparsely populated by Poles. For this purpose, a militia should be created in the region, composed of our members, whose task would be to eliminate the above‐mentioned. Our larger villages 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 […] Carry on a hard, ruthless fight against them. 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”. Perhaps because of this, or perhaps because of wanting to „come to bless the food” „without the Poles”, as he had shouted from the pulpit a month earlier, on 15.04.1944 — on the eve of Greek Catholic Easter, when food for the holiday table is blessed; it is possible though the attack took place a week later — the OUN/UPA attacked Tuchne again. An unknown number of Poles were murdered — from 66 to 112. The weekly report of the AK from 22.04.1944 stated: „The village was set on fire and machine guns placed on the hills were firing at the village, then groups armed with rifles, axes, and knives entered the village and murdered people […] The murder scenario was as follows: in the first row, Banderites armed with firearms marched and eliminated any resistance, behind them came those who had no weapons: older men, adolescents, and women with axes, hoes, and knives, they finished off the wounded, tormented the elderly, women, and children, and engaged in robbery”. Then, on 30.04.1944, the OUN/UPA attacked Svirzhsky Hlibovychi and a ring of hamlets and villages surrounding it again. In Hlibovychi, 42 Poles were killed, in Podwysokie (Myvseva) ‐ 22, Mestechko ‐ 36, Zadubyn ‐ 27, Bachach (Bekas) ‐ 18, Nedylyska ‐ 19, Hrabnyk ‐ 19, Halyna ‐ 80, Zhabokruky ‐ 20 Poles. As recorded in the OUN/UPA report, „all actions were carried out by the county militia with the help of the UPA "Eagles", […] because they actually collaborated with the Germans and strongly paralyzed our work in this area”.

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!”