Andrzej Osikowicz

In 1931, Andrzej Osikowicz became a prior of the St. Barbara temple of the Roman Catholic Church in Boryslav, Lviv area. He combined his religious service with public activity. He was elected as a deputy of the Boryslav Town Administration, being the dean of the Drohobych deanery. According to the believers who came to this temple, Fr. Andrzej was always full of energy, kind and open-hearted, making an impression of the ordinary village parson.

In July 1941, the Nazi troops entered Boryslav. In November they started preparation of the Boryslav ghetto. However, the resettlement of the Jews to the ghetto lasted until October 1942, because of the pandemic danger of typhoid fever, which appeared in the winter of 1941 – 1942.

The Holocaust had the special features in Boryslav: there was no closed ghetto with the walls, entrance gate and guard, as the oil derricks on its territory did not allow to do it. The town is located near the foothills of the Carpathians, so the escapees made their shelters and dugouts in the woods. Another important reason which helped the Jews survive was the significance of the Boryslav oil industry for the Third Reich. The qualified Jewish workers, in particular the specialists of the oil industry, were privileged. Yulia Kysla, the historian, mentioned in her work “Survival in the Extremal Conditions: Overcoming the Past in Boryslav (1941 – 1944)” that there were very few places like Boryslav – Drohobych oil area where the conflict between the economic interests of the Nazi leadership and the intention to exterminate the Jews existed. In addition, the Jews were the cheap workforce. The women and children had very little chance to survive.

Fr. Andrzej Osikowicz joined the assistance to this category of the Jewish people. The common form of the help from clergy was falsification of the baptismal certificates.

Fr. Andrzej took a responsible approach to the Sacrament. First, he conducted catechesis, then baptized, and only then issued baptismal certificates. This activity got known to the Nazis, as the local prison and commandant’s house were close to the priest’s courtyard. His last record in the metrical logbooks was made on January 24, 1943. The parson was arrested in the temple during the liturgy. He addressed his last speech to the believers: “I apologize if I did wrong to someone, I will not come back anymore…”. Andrzej Osikowicz was sent to Majdanek concentration camp, where he died in December 1943. According to the death certificate, the reason was blood circulation disorder. In some publications is information that the priest died of typhus.

In 1995, Andrzej Osikowicz was recognized as the Righteous among the Nations.