Friday, 24 March, will mark the National Day of Remembrance of Poles who rescued Jews under German occupation passed by the parliament on the initiative of President Andrzej Duda. On that day, the Polish President will visit Markowa in the Podkarpacie region and inaugurate the activities of the Committee for the Celebrations Accompanying the Beatification of the Ulma Family.
The date of this holiday is not coincidental, as on 24 March 1944 German occupiers executed a Polish family from the village of Markowa in the Podkarpacie region – Józef and Wiktoria Ulma together with their seven young children, including one who was still unborn”, recalls Grażyna Ignaczak-Bandych, Head of the Chancellery of the President of Poland.
During the German occupation, probably at the end of 1942, despite poverty and danger to their lives, the Ulmas gave shelter to eight Jews: Saul Goldman and his four sons (in Łańcut they were called the Shalls), as well as two daughters and Chaim Goldman’s granddaughter from Markowa – Lea (Layka) Didner with a daughter of unknown name and Geni (Gołda) Grünfeld. The fact that the Ulma family were hiding Jews was probably reported to the Germans by Włodzimierz Leś, a blue policeman from Łańcut.
In the morning of 24 March 1944, five German military policemen and several blue policemen arrived in front of their house. They were commanded by Lieutenant Eilert Dieken. First the Jews were murdered, then Józef and Wiktoria (who was seven months pregnant). Then Dieken made the decision to kill the children.
About twenty Jews hidden in Markowa survived.
In 1995. Wiktoria and Józef Ulma were honoured posthumously with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. In 2010, the President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczyński awarded them the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
According to the decision of Pope Francis, the beatification of the Ulma family will take place on 10 September 2023 in Markowa. The celebrations accompanying the beatification were held under the honorary patronage of the President of Poland.
Adrian Andrzejewski