After the outbreak of World War I , Sheptytsky was arrested by the Imperial Russian government and imprisoned in monastery of Saint Euthymius , Suzdal . He was released in March 1918 and returned to Lviv from the Russian Empire . Bolsheviks destroyed his parents ' rural house in Prylbychi where he was born . During the destruction there were lost family archives . As a student Sheptytsky learned Hebrew in order to better relate to the Jewish community . During pastoral visits to Jewish villages he was sometimes met with the Torah . During World War II he harbored hundreds of Jews in his residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries . He also issued the pastoral letter , " Thou Shalt Not Kill , " to protest Nazi atrocities . Alone among the church leaders in Nazi-occupied Europe , Sheptytsky openly spoke in defense of the persecuted Jews . He sent an official letter , as the First Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church , to Hitler and Himmler protesting about the destruction of the Jews . In a special Pastoral Letter addressed to his Ukrainian faithful , he strongly forbade them ( under the pain of excommunication ) from participating or helping in the destruction of Jews . In addition , he issued secret instructions to his secular and monastic clergy , ordering them to help the Jews by hiding them on church property , feeding them and smuggling them out of the country . 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 ' " . During this period he secretly consecrated Josyf Slipyj as his successor
Nazi atrocities
The Holocaust
Andrey Sheptytsky