After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the beginning of World War II, after the German attack on 22.06.1941 on their erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation, opposed — according to Russian sources — the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, i.e. secession from the Moscow Patriarchate.

In 1939, his parish village of Velyke Verbche had an estimated population of 1,200‐1,500, of whom perhaps 1.5% were Roman Catholic Poles and c. 2% were Jews. Over 90% of the population were Orthodox Ukrainians. During the German occupation, Volyn, where his parish and village are located, became part of the occupying entity known as the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng. Reich Commissariat of Ukraine).

In 1943, when died, there were no Jews in Verbche anymore. In 1942, they were all herded into the ghetto in Stepan, c. 10 km to the south, and on 21.08.1942 driven towards Kostopil, c. 45 km to the south. C. 5 km from Kostopil, in the middle of the forest, near the village of Korchivya, the Germans — with the help of members of the collaborationist Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), in some regions also referred to as Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma — as part of the implementation of the German genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), murdered c. 1,500‐2,000 Jews 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 (Emg/ 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”.

The tactics of the genocidal Ukrainians were detailed in an order issued by the UPA commander in Volyn — from 11.1943 commander of the Operational Group „UPA‐North” — Dmytro Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”, in 06.1943. Anticipating Germany's defeat in the war with Russia, explained and ordered: „We should carry out a major operation to eliminate the Polish element. When the German troops withdraw, we should use this opportune moment to eliminate the entire male population aged 16 to 60 […] We cannot lose this fight, and we must weaken Polish forces at all costs. Forest villages and villages located near forest massifs should disappear from the face of the earth”.

Immediately afterwards, in 03.1943, the UPA issued an appeal addressed to members of the collaborative Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei / Schuma, which participated in the implementation of the Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage», to desert and join the UPA ranks. Perhaps as many as 10,000 Ukrainians did so.

The tactics of the genocidal Ukrainians were detailed in an order issued by the UPA commander in Volyn — from 11.1943 commander of the Operational Group „UPA‐North” — Dmytro Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”, in 06.1943. Anticipating Germany's defeat in the war with Russia, explained and ordered: „We should carry out a major operation to eliminate the Polish element. When the German troops withdraw, we should use this opportune moment to eliminate the entire male population aged 16 to 60 […] We cannot lose this fight, and we must weaken Polish forces at all costs. Forest villages and villages located near forest massifs should disappear from the face of the earth”.

«Genocidium Atrox» began in Volyn. The choice of Volyn was not accidental. Firstly, Volyn in pre‐war Poland had prob. the smallest percentage of Polish population in the entire country. Secondly, it was probably the least economically developed voivodeship of Poland, which was caused by the deliberate policy of the Russians in the 19th century, ruling then in part of partitioned Poland — the direct route to the heart of Russia, to Moscow, runs through Volyn, so no roads were laid there, no bridges built, no marshy areas around the Pripyat drained, no industry located, and no schools established. Thirdly, and finally, it was Volyn (and the Chełm region) that was to be incorporated into the borders of the short‐lived Ukrainian state, to be established on the basis of the Treaty of Brest‐Litovsk of 09.02.1918 during World War I, agreed by the Central Powers (German Empire, Austro–Hungarian Monarchy) — in 1943 the Germans simply fulfilled the obligations undertaken at that time.

After the outbreak of the «Genocidium Atrox», when Polish villages in Volyn began to burn, Poles from Velyke Verbche took refuge in nearby Huta Stepańska, c. 10 km to the southwest. They were not the only ones — several thousand Poles, elderly people, women, and children, were hiding in Huta at the time. However, on 16‐18.07.1943, the OUN/UPA carried out a genocidal attack on Huta. C. 500‐1,800 Poles were murdered in an incredibly brutal manner.

The rest, who fled and took refuge in the surrounding forests, were hunted down. Some tried to break through to the the nearest large district town, Sarny. However, on the way there was Velyke Verbche. There, Ukrainians caught Poles escaping from Huta Stepańska. The „village council” held a „trial” over them and sentenced them to death, after which they were all brutally murdered. A total of 60 Poles.

One witness recounted that „during the evacuation [from Huta Stepańska], Francesca Dziekańska, 50, from Vyrka, was fatally hit by a bullet, carrying her 6‐year‐old daughter Yadzya. The bullet itself also wounded the child in the leg. For 10 days, the child survived with her dead mother, feeding on ears of grain and drinking water from a puddle. A Ukrainian from the village of Verbche, who had come to harvest grain from the abandoned Polish fields, found her and took her to his home. In July, the Verbche village council voted to kill Yadzya. She was saved from execution by the Ukrainian's family and a local teacher, also Ukrainian, who took her in. In 1944, the child was taken to Casimir Karpiński, a former teacher in Vyrka, and was later given to her father, who had returned from German captivity”.

The date, place, and circumstances of his death are unknown to the authors of «Liber Albus».

The genocidal OUN/UPA supported Orthodox clergy who attempted to achieve autocephaly for the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, murdering those who opposed it. On 12.10.2007, the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. In 12.2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in a resolution, recognized génocidaire Dmitry Klachkivsky as „the leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Volyn and a participant in the struggle for Ukraine's independence in the 20th century”. 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!”