Józef and Wiktoria Ulma
Encyclopedia
Józef and Wiktoria Ulma, a Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
husband and wife, living in Markowa
Markowa
Markowa is a village in Łańcut County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Markowa. It lies approximately south-east of Łańcut and east of the regional capital Rzeszów...
near Rzeszów
Rzeszów
Rzeszów is a city in southeastern Poland with a population of 179,455 in 2010. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River, in the heartland of the Sandomierska Valley...
in south-eastern Poland during the Nazi German occupation in World War II, were the Righteous
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
who attempted to rescue Polish Jewish families by hiding them in their own home during the Holocaust. They and their children were summarily executed for doing so, like thousands of their Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
countrymen, along with the Jews they were hiding.
The rescuers and the rescued
At the onset of World War II, Józef Ulma (born in 1900) was a prominent citizen in the village of Markowa: a librarian, a photographer, active in social life and the local Catholic Youth Association. He was an educated fruit grower and a bee-keeper. His wife Wiktoria néeNEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Niemczak (born in 1912), was a homemaker. The Ulmas had six children: Stanisława, age 8, Barbara, age 7, Władysław, age 6, Franciszek, age 4, Antoni, age 3 and Maria, age 2. Another child was due to be born just days after the family's summary execution in 1944.
A year and a half earlier, in the summer and autumn of 1942, the Nazi military police
Military police
Military police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
deported several Jewish families of Markowa to their deaths as part of the German Final solution to the Jewish question. Only those who were hidden in Polish peasants' homes survived. Eight Jews found shelter with the Ulmas: six members of the Szall (Szali) family from Łańcut including father, mother and four sons, as well as the two daughters of Chaim Goldman, Golda and Layka. Józef Ulma put all eight Jews in the attic. They learned to help him with supplementary jobs while in hiding, to ease the incurred expenses.
Punished by death
On early morning of March 24, 1944 a patrol of German police from Łańcut under Lieutenant Eilert Dieken came to the Ulmas house which was at the end on the village. They were informed ahead of time about the Jews in hiding by Włodzimierz Leś – an ethnic Ukrainian police constable – who knew the Szall family from Łańcut and who took over their property there. The Germans surrounded the house and caught all eight Jews belonging to the Szall and Goldman families. They shot them in the back of the head – as told by the eye-witness Edward Nawojski and others, who were ordered to look at the executions. Then the German gendarmes killed the pregnant Wiktoria and her husband, so that the villagers would see what punishment awaited them for hiding Jews. The six children began to scream at the sight of their parents' bodies. After consulting with his superior, 23 year old Joseph (Jan) Kokott, a Czech VolksdeutscheVolksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
from Sudetenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...
serving with the German police, shot three or four of them. Within several minutes 17 people were killed. The names of the other Nazi executioners are also known due to their frequent presence in the village. They were: Eilert Dieken, Michael Dziewulski and Erich Wilde. The village Vogt
Vogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...
Teofil Kielar was ordered to bury the victims with the help from other witnesses. He asked the German commander whom he had known from prior inspections and food acquisitions, why the children were also killed. Dieken answered in German, 'So that you would not have any problems with them.' On January 11, 1945, in defiance of the Nazi prohibition, the closest family of Ulmas exhumed the bodies to bury them in the cemetery, and found out that Wiktoria's seventh child was almost born in the grave pit of its parents.
Commemoration
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
by Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
. Their medals of honor were presented to Józef's surviving brother, Władysław Ulma. Their certificate informs that they tried to save Jews at the risk of their lives, but fails to mention that they died for them, as noted in the book Godni synowie naszej Ojczyzny.
On the 60th anniversary of their execution, a stone memorial was erected in the village of Markowa to honor the memory of Ulma family. The inscription on the monument reads:
Saving the lives of others they laid down their own lives. Hiding eight elder brothers in faith, they were killed with them. May their sacrifice be a call for respect and love to every human being! They were the sons and daughters of this land; they will remain in our hearts.
At the unveiling of the monument, the Archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
of Przemyśl
Przemysl
Przemyśl is a city in south-eastern Poland with 66,756 inhabitants, as of June 2009. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship....
, Jozef Michalik – the President of the Polish Bishops' Conference – celebrated a solemn Mass.
The local diocesan level of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
in Poland initiated the Ulmas beatification
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
process in 2003. The Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
Cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
Tarcisio Bertone spoke of the heroic Polish family at the Roman Capitol on 24 January 2007 during the inauguration of the Italian edition of Martin Gilbert
Martin Gilbert
Sir Martin John Gilbert, CBE, PC is a British historian and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history...
's book I giusti. Gli eroi sconosciuti dell'Olocausto (The Righteous. Unknown Heroes of the Holocaust). On 24 March 2007 – 63 years after the families of Ulma, Szall and Goldman were massacred – there were special commemorations held in Markowa. Mass was celebrated, followed by the Way of the Cross in the intention of the Servant of God the Ulma family's beatification. Among the guests was the President of the Council of Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, who put flowers at the monument to the dead. The students of the local high-school presented their own interpretation of the Ulmas' family decision to hide Jews in a short performance entitled 'Eight Beatitudes'. There was also an evening of poetry dedicated to the memory of the murdered. Older neighbors and relatives who knew them spoke about the life of the Ulmas. One historian from the Institute of National Remembrance presented archival documents; and, the Catholic diocesan postulator
Postulator
The person who guides a Cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church is known as the postulator. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the Norms to be Observed in Inquiries made by Bishops in the...
explained the requirements of the beatification process. On May 24th 2011, the completed documentation of their martyrdom was passed on to Rome for completion of the beautification process.
A new Polish national holiday has been proposed by brother of the late Polish President, ex–Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, Esq.
Esquire
Esquire is a term of West European origin . Depending on the country, the term has different meanings...
, that would be named after the very family.