President Andrzej Duda and the President’s Spouse Agata Kornhauser-Duda planted an apple tree in the garden of the Presidential Palace, a symbol of remembrance of Poles who saved Jews during World War II, including the blessed Ulma family, reports the President’s Office.
“The apple trees planted as part of the ‘By their fruits you will know them’ campaign have an extraordinary symbolic dimension; they are directly associated with the Ulma family”, said the Polish president, adding that the apple tree is a meaningful symbol of persistence and development. “It grows, it gives food to people, animals, birds. It bears fruit, and you will know them by their fruits”, he pointed out.
In the President’s opinion, the apple trees planted as part of the ‘By their fruits you will know them’ campaign have an extraordinary symbolic dimension: on the one hand directly associated with the Ulma family, but on the other hand also with an extraordinary life’s work of people who offered themselves to others, who, in spite of the enormous risks, helped their neighbour, fulfilling the commandment: love your neighbour as yourself.
“These fruits are, in a sense, the fruit of the lives of those who rescued their neighbours during the German occupation, neighbours of Jewish origin, their fellow citizens. In the case of the Ulma family, they sometimes paid with their lives for help, with a certain awareness of the risk”, said Andrzej Duda.
The action ‘You will know them by their fruits’ refers to the interests of Józef Ulma, who was passionate about fruit farming and led the grafting of apple trees. It is highly probable that the tree planted in the garden of the presidential palace originates from an apple tree which was brought to Markowa in the Podkarpacie region by Blessed Józef Ulma.
The tree planting ceremony was attended by students from primary and secondary schools in the Podkarpacie region, who brought with them soil from the site of the Ulma family’s martyrdom in Markowa. This earth was spread around the planted apple tree.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński