Poles Who Saved Jews – National Day of Remembrance

March 24 is the National Day of Remembrance of Poles Who Saved Jews Under German Occupation. Today we honor the many thousands of Poles who risked their own lives and the lives of their families and neighbors, to save Jews during the German occupation in World War II. Under the German occupation in Poland, harboring Jews was an offense punishable by immediate execution.

The date of March 24 is linked to the tragic fate of the Ulma family and of the Jews they sheltered. Eighty years ago, on March 24, 1944, as the result of denunciation, the Ulma family and those whom they sheltered were murdered by the Germans in the village of Markowa in the Rzeszów region.

During the German occupation, most probably in late 1942, despite poverty and risk, the Ulmas gave shelter to eight Jews: Saul Goldman and his four sons (in Łańcut, they were referred to as the Szalls), and two daughters and a grand-daughter of Chaim Goldman from Markowa (Lea [Layka] Didner with her daughter (name unknown) and Genia [Golda] Grünfeld). The Ulmas were probably denounced to the Germans for harboring Jews by Włodzimierz Leś, a navy-blue policeman from Łańcut (Leś was executed by Polish Underground soldiers six months later, after a death sentence was issued by the Polish Underground State).

On March 24, 1944, in the morning, five German gendarmes and several navy-blue policemen arrived in front of the Ulmas’ house. They were commanded by Lt. Eilert Dieken. They first shot the Jews, and next Józef and Wiktoria Ulma (Wiktoria was in her seventh month of pregnancy).

Then, Dieken decided to kill the six Ulma children:  8-year-old Stanisława, 6-year-old Barbara, 5-year-old Władysław, 4-year-old Franciszek, 3-year-old Antoni and 1.5-year-old Maria). Within a few minutes, seventeen people lost their lives (including the baby to whom Wiktoria started giving birth at the moment of the execution).

About twenty other Jews were sheltered by Poles in Markowa and survived.

In 1995, Wiktoria and Józef Ulma were posthumously awarded the “Righteous Among the Nations” title by Yad Vashem, joining more than 7,200 other Poles who risked their lives to help Jews—of the 51 nations represented in the Righteous Among Nations, more than 25% of the individuals honored are Poles.

In 2010, the Ulmas were given the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński. In 2003, the Ulmas’ beatification process was initiated in the Diocese of Przemyśl, and is currently under way at the Vatican.

A fantastic museum opened in Markowa in 2016, called the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II. I was fortunate enough to visit this museum a few months after its opening. Its excellent exhibits are innovatively presented and designed to engage and interact with visitors—well worth a visit if you are in the Rzeszów area of southeastern Poland.

Learn more at these links:
The National Day of Remembrance
The Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II
Design of the Ulma Family Museum building
More about the museum and the Ulma family
Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations