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Roman Catholic
St Sigismund parish
05-507 Słomczyn
85 Wiślana Str.
Konstancin deanery
Warsaw archdiocese, Poland

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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
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    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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    XIX c., feretory
    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
    source: own collection
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    St Sigismund parish church, Słomczyn, Poland
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Martyrology of the clergy — Poland

XX century (1914 – 1989)

personal data

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surname

WITKOWSKI

forename(s)

Basil (pl. Bazyli)

function

presbiter (i.e. iereus)

creed

Eastern Orthodox Church ORmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]

diocese / province

Volyn‐Podilsky OR eparchy (Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church UAOC)more on
drevo-info.ru
[access: 2023.08.19]

Volyn OR eparchy (Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church PAOC)more on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.12.19]

nationality

Ukrainian

date and place
of death

1943

Kivertsitoday: Kivertsi urban hrom., Lutsk rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.01.26]

alt. dates and places
of death

05‑07.1943

details of death

After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II, after the German attack on 22.06.1941 against its erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the start of the German occupation, in his Kivertsi parish, the German police, the Germ. Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers‐SS (Eng. Reichsführer‐SS Security Service), abbreviated as SD, along with, among others, the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police) shot on 25.05.1942 c. 270 Jews. In 1943, during the «Genocidium Atrox» — the genocide committed by Ukrainians, known also as „Volyn massacres”, on the defenseless Polish population — his parish Kivertsi became the local center of the activities of the Ukrainian genocidal OUN/UPA organization (which at the beginning of 1943 the policemen from the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei joined in). In 05.1943 UPA units murdered the population of 68 Polish villages in the Kovel district, and in 06.1943, attacks were made on 78 villages. At this time the Polish self–defense organizations began to emerge, among others in Prebrazhe, c. 10 km from Kivertsi, associated with the Polish resistance Home Army AK (part of the Polish Clandestine State), which so far had no partisan units in the region.

On 12.06.1943, near Kivertsi, the UPA murdered c. 150 Poles from nearby colonies. The Ukrainians placed the bodies of the victims under an obelisk with the inscription „Smert lacham, szcze ne wmerła Ukrajina i Zemla i Wola” (Eng. „Death to the Poles, Ukraine lives, and Ukrainian Land and Will”). In 07.1943 the defense of the Polish camp in Prebrazhe, where 10,000‐20,000 Polish refugees gathered against Ukrainian genocidal attacks, began. The UPA carried out at least three attacks on the camp (the last one involving c. 3,000 bandits).

Perished during this time.

According to Polish sources, in 07.1943 the German security of the railway station — with the participation of Hungarian and Dutch soldiers — repelled the UPA attack on Kivertsi (the UPA usually did not attack towns where German posts were located, it focused on the genocide of the defenseless Polish population, this time it was different). During the attack c. 30 UPA murderers and „the Ukrainian clergyman who accompanied them” were captured.

Prob. this recollection refers to him.

The Germans shot all captured.

alt. details of death

Ukrainian sources close to the UPA present a different version, accusing the „Polish police” in Kivertsi of responsibility. However, nothing is known about such unit — perhaps it refers to the Polish self‐defense that was slowly organizing itself in nearby Prebrazhe. According to these sources, the metropolitan of the non‐canonical Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church, Abp Polykarp Sikorski, during a meeting with the German occupation authorities, allegedly claimed that Witkowski was accused by the Poles of „blessing knives for [UPA] partisans to be used in the murder of Poles and Germans”. Was supposedly murdered by Poles, along with his wife and a parishioner — prior to that being tortured.

cause of death

execution

perpetrators

Germans

sites and events

«Genocidium Atrox»Click to display the description, Ribbentrop‐MolotovClick to display the description

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

14.01.1931

positions held

till 1943

parish priest — Kivertsitoday: Kivertsi urban hrom., Lutsk rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.01.26]
⋄ St Nicholas the Wonderworker OR parish

from 1941

parish priest — Baivtoday: Boratyn hrom., Lutsk rai., Volyn obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.01.26]
⋄ Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary OR parish ⋄ Lutsk city distr.Orthodox deanery name
today: Volyn obl., Ukraine

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17]
OR deanery

from 07.03.1931

parish priest — Bukhlichitoday: Rechitsa ssov., Stolin dist., Brest reg., Belarus
more on
be.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.03.15]
⋄ Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary OR parish ⋄ Stolin 1st distr.Orthodox deanery name
today: Stolin dist., Brest reg., Belarus

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.05.02]
OR deanery

administrator — Smolyanitsatoday: Khoreva ssov., Pruzhany dist., Brest reg., Belarus
more on
be.wikipedia.org
[access: 2024.03.15]
⋄ St Nicholas the Wonderworker OR parish (fillial)Pruzhany 1st distr.Orthodox deanery name
today: Pruzhany dist., Brest reg., Belarus

more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.11.13]
OR deanery — acting („ad interim”)

14.01.1931

presbiter (Eng. priest, i.e. iereus) — Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church PACP — priesthood cheirotonia, i.e. ordination

student — Warsawtoday: Warsaw city pov., Masovia voiv., Poland
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.10.09]
⋄ Orthodox Theology Department, University of Warsaw [i.e. University of Warsaw (from 1945) / clandestine University (1939‐1945) / Joseph Piłsudski University (1935‐1939) / University of Warsaw (1915‐1935) / Imperial University of Warsaw (1870‐1915)]

married

sites and events
descriptions

«Genocidium Atrox»: In 1939‐1947, especially in 1943‐1944, independent Ukrainian units, mainly belonging to genocidal Ukrainian organizations OUN (political arm) and UPA (military arm), supported by local Ukrainian population, murdered — often in extremely brutal way — in Volyn and surrounding regions of pre‐war Poland, from 130,000 to 180,000 Poles, all civilians: men, women, children, old and young. Polish‐Ukrainian conflict that openly emerged during and after World War I (in particular resulting in Polish‐Ukrainian war of 1918‐1919), that survived and even deepened later when western Ukraine became a part Poland, exploded again after the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. During Russian occupation of 1939‐1941, when hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported into central Russia, when tens of thousands were murdered (during so‐called Katyń massacres, among others), this open conflict had a limited character, helped by the fact that at that time Ukrainians, Ukrainian nationalists in particular, were also persecuted by the Russians. The worst came after German‐Russian war started on 22.06.1941 and German occupation resulted. Initially Ukrainians supported Germans (Ukrainian police was initiated, Ukrainians co—participated in extermination of the Jews and were joining army units fighting alongside Germans). Later when German ambivalent position towards Ukraine became apparent Ukrainians started acting independently. And in 1943 one of the units of aforementioned Ukrainian OUN/UPA organization, in Volyn, started and perpetrated a genocide of Polish population of this region. In mere few weeks OUN/UPA murdered, with Germans passively watching on the sidelines, more than 40,000 Poles. This strategy was consequently approved and adopted by all OUN/UPA organisations and similar genocides took place in Eastern Lesser Poland (part of Ukraine) where more than 20,000 Poles were slaughtered, meeting however with growing resistance from Polish population. Further west, in Chełm, Rzeszów, etc. regions this genocide turned into an extremely bloody conflict. In general genocide, perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists, partly collaborating with German occupants, on vulnerable Polish population took part in hundreds of villages and small towns, where virtually all Polish inhabitants were wiped out. More than 200 priests, religious and nuns perished in this holocaust — known as «Genocidium Atrox» (Eng. „savage genocide”) The nature and purpose of genocide is perhaps best reflected in the song sung by the murderers: „We will slaughter the Poles, we will cut down the Jews, we must conquer the great Ukraine” (ukr. „Поляків виріжем, Євреїв видусим, велику Україну здобути мусим”). This holocaust and conflict ended up in total elimination of Polish population and Polish culture from Ukraine, in enforced deportations in 1944‐1945 of remaining Poles from Ukraine and some Ukrainians into Ukraine proper, and finally in deportation of Ukrainians from East‐South to the Western parts of Polish republic prl by Commie‐Nazi Russian controlled Polish security forces („Vistula Action”). (more on: www.swzygmunt.knc.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.06.20]
)

Ribbentrop‐Molotov: Genocidal Russian‐German alliance pact between Russian leader Joseph Stalin and German leader Adolf Hitler signed on 23.08.1939 in Moscow by respective foreign ministers, Mr. Vyacheslav Molotov for Russia and Joachim von Ribbentrop for Germany. The pact sanctioned and was the direct cause of joint Russian and German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of the World War II in 09.1939. In a political sense, the pact was an attempt to restore the status quo ante before 1914, with one exception, namely the „commercial” exchange of the so‐called „Kingdom of Poland”, which in 1914 was part of the Russian Empire, fore Eastern Galicia (today's western Ukraine), in 1914 belonging to the Austro‐Hungarian Empire. Galicia, including Lviv, was to be taken over by the Russians, the „Kingdom of Poland” — under the name of the General Governorate — Germany. The resultant „war was one of the greatest calamities and dramas of humanity in history, for two atheistic and anti‐Christian ideologies — national and international socialism — rejected God and His fifth Decalogue commandment: Thou shall not kill!” (Abp Stanislav Gądecki, 01.09.2019). The decisions taken — backed up by the betrayal of the formal allies of Poland, France and Germany, which on 12.09.1939, at a joint conference in Abbeville, decided not to provide aid to attacked Poland and not to take military action against Germany (a clear breach of treaty obligations with Poland) — were on 28.09.1939 slightly altered and made more precise when a treaty on „German‐Russian boundaries and friendship” was agreed by the same murderous signatories. One of its findings was establishment of spheres of influence in Central and Eastern Europe and in consequence IV partition of Poland. In one of its secret annexes agreed, that: „the Signatories will not tolerate on its respective territories any Polish propaganda that affects the territory of the other Side. On their respective territories they will suppress all such propaganda and inform each other of the measures taken to accomplish it”. The agreements resulted in a series of meeting between two genocidal organization representing both sides — German Gestapo and Russian NKVD when coordination of efforts to exterminate Polish intelligentsia and Polish leading classes (in Germany called «Intelligenzaktion», in Russia took the form of Katyń massacres) where discussed. Resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands of Polish intelligentsia, including thousands of priests presented here, and tens of millions of ordinary people,. The results of this Russian‐German pact lasted till 1989 and are still in evidence even today. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.09.30]
)

sources

personal:
www.politarena.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.01.26]

bibliographical:
Hierachy, clergy and employees of the Orthodox Church in the 19th‐21st centuries within the borders of the Second Polish Republic and post–war Poland”, Fr Gregory Sosna, M. Antonine Troc-Sosna, Warsaw–Bielsk Podlaski 2017

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