Andrey Sheptytsky

Andrey Sheptytsky (29 July 1865 – 1 November 1944) was a prelate and theologian of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church who served as Metropolitan of Galicia and Archbishop of Lviv from 1901 until his death in 1944. His tenure in office spanned two world wars and seven political regimes: Austrian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Soviet, Nazi German, and again Soviet.

World War II

Sheptytsky welcomed the Wehrmacht entering Lviv and supported the OUN-B's declaration of Ukrainian independence on June 30, 1941. After the dissolution of Yaroslav Stetsko's government, he became honorary chairman of the Ukrainian Council of Seniors. On July 22, 1941, in a letter to Joachim von Ribbentrop, Germany's foreign minister, he protested against the annexation of Eastern Galicia to the occupied Polish General Government. In August 1941, he assumed the protectorate of the newly established Ukrainian Red Cross.

Sheptytsky maintained contacts with the Polish underground and tried to mediate in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict. In the autumn of 1941, he met with Jerzy Braun, an envoy of Government Delegate for Poland Cyryl Ratajski and General Stefan Rowecki, Commander-in-Chief of the ZWZ, to whom he made a proposal to delegate two Ukrainian representatives to the Polish Government in Exile in London.

Gradually, he developed a dislike for the Nazi Party, being disgusted by their policies toward the civilian population. In June 1942, he promulgated the document The Ideal of Our National Life, in which he presented a vision of an independent, united Ukraine united by a single Church in union with the Roman Catholic Church. In February 1942, he signed a letter to Adolf Hitler issued by the OUN-M opposing German policies and demanding the establishment of an independent Ukraine.

Sheptytsky supported the SS Galicia Division, blessing new recruits. He reportedly told Volodymyr Kubiyovych, who was helping organize it, that "there is virtually no price which should not be paid for the creation of a Ukrainian army." According to his close friend Rabbi David Kahane, however, Sheptytsky had believed that the SS Galicia Division would be used to fight Stalinism and personally expressed disgust in a conversation with the Rabbi about the Division's subsequent role as perpetrators of the Holocaust in Ukraine.

Also in February 1942, Sheptytsky sent a letter to Heinrich Himmler protesting the Holocaust. During World War II, he saved at least 150-200 Jews, mainly children, by hiding them in Greek Catholic orphanages, monasteries, and convents, where they were trained in how to pass as Greek Catholics. He collaborated in this work with the superiors of the Studite orders, Sister Josefa (Helena Witter) and his brother Klymentiy Sheptytsky. At his archbishop's residence in Lviv, he gave shelter to Kurt Lewin, the son of Jecheskiel Lewin, the chief rabbi of the Lviv progressive synagogue.[7]

In August 1942, Sheptytsky sent a letter to Pius XII in which he reported on the brutal Nazi policies and condemned the murder of Jews, and also admitted that his original assessment of the Germans' attitude toward Ukrainians was wrong. Nevertheless, in the summer of 1943, Sheptytsky appointed chaplains for the Waffen SS Galicia Division.

According to historian Ronald Rychlak, "A German Foreign Office agent named 'Frederic' was sent in a tour through various Nazi-occupied and satellite countries during the war. He wrote in his confidential report to the German Foreign Office on September 19, 1943, that Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky, of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, remained adamant in saying that the killing of Jews was an inadmissible act. 'Frederic' went on to comment that Sheptytsky made the same statements and used the same phrasing as the French, Belgian, and Dutch bishops, as if they were all receiving instructions from the Vatican."

One of the rabbis whose life was saved by Metropolitan Sheptytsky, David Kahane, stated: "Andrew Sheptytsky deserves the undying gratitude of the Jews and the honorific title 'Prince of the Righteous'". In addition, among the Jews who, thanks to Sheptytsky's help, survived the war were Lili Pohlmann and her mother, Adam Daniel Rotfeld (later Poland's foreign minister), two sons of the chief rabbi of Katowice (including the prominent cardiac surgeon Leon Chameides).

Volhynia Massacre

See also: Volhynia Massacre

Sheptytsky was aware of the ongoing genocide of the Polish population by the forces of OUN-B and the UPA since the summer of 1943. He did not condemn it outright, but in a pastoral letter of August 10, 1943, he called for saving the lives of those in danger, and in another of August 31, he urged both sides to stop fighting. In early 1944, he condemned the killings and their perpetrators, regardless of their motives. In a "word for Easter" dated April 16, 1944, he called for harmony between neighbors

During this period he secretly consecrated Josyf Slipyj as his successor. Sheptytsky died on November 1, 1944, and was buried in St. George's Cathedral in Lviv. Due to the metropolitan's high authority in Galicia, the Soviets allowed a public funeral, which was attended by thousands of people. On 12 November Josyp Slipyj was consecrated as the new metropolitan. However, soon thereafter due suspicions of the church hierarchy's collaboration with Nazis, Soviet authorities started their campaign to liquidate the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In March 1946, during the so-called "Lviv Synod", Soviet officials declared it was part of the Russian Orthodox Church, and transferred property from the Holy See to the Moscow Patriarchate.