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Józef and Wiktoria Ulma secretly gave shelter to eight Jews for nearly two years in German-occupied Poland
Urszula Niemczak retains a daily schedule. Not less than twice per week she rigorously checks whether or not winter decorations or contemporary flowers rising in the summertime on a historic gravesite of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their youngsters look good and are effectively watered. She and her granddaughters maintain the grave in Markowa, in southeastern Poland.
Niemczak’s husband is Wiktoria Ulma’s nephew.
“How may I not come right here and maintain that grave?” Niemczak informed OSV Information. “That is my obligation to this household that I entered, to the sacrifice the Ulmas made for all of us.”
Józef and Wiktoria Ulma secretly gave shelter to eight Jews for nearly two years in German-occupied Poland, hiding them from the Nazi regime throughout the Second World Battle. The Ulmas had seven youngsters, together with the unborn baby in Wiktoria’s womb.
The Nazis, knowledgeable by a neighborhood policeman that Jews have been being hidden within the family, got here early within the morning March 24, 1944, proper earlier than Easter.
First, they killed all eight of the Jewish fugitives. Then they shot Wiktoria and Józef.
“Youngsters have been watching as their mother and father and the Jewish folks they cared for have been being shot,” Mateusz Szpytma, vice chairman of Polish Institute of Nationwide Remembrance, informed OSV Information. He added that “after a brief dialogue amongst themselves,” the Nazi officers determined to shoot the kids too.
The Vatican confirmed the martyrdom of the Ulma household, together with their unborn baby, on Dec. 17, 2022, clearing the way in which for all 9 members of the Ulma household to be beatified. For the primary time in historical past, an unborn baby is on the trail to sainthood.
“They have been good folks. The area people liked them very a lot,” Szpytma informed OSV Information of Józef and Wiktoria, who have been native farmers in Markowa. “Józef was somebody who would additionally deliver new concepts to the local people, he would construct the primary wind-driven energy station within the village and was the primary one to have electrical energy of their home,” he added.
“He would have a group of books that he would hand to different folks to learn, appearing virtually as a neighborhood librarian, he had two trendy cameras with which he would take footage of his household and local people,” Szpytma stated.
Their household life was documented in a variety of images taken by Józef. On the time of their demise in 1944, the oldest, Stasia (Stanislawa) was 8; Barbara, 7; Wladyslaw, 6; Franciszek, 4; Antoni, 3; and Maria, below 2.
In 2016, the Museum of the Ulma Household, devoted to the Poles who hid and guarded Jews throughout the Nazi occupation, was opened in Markowa. Józef’s footage are one of the crucial useful components of the exhibition.
“The exceptional household memorabilia is the Bible, opened to the parable of the great Samaritan,” Szpytma informed OSV Information. The museum additionally retains Stasia’s blood-stained faculty pocket book.
Szpytma was a founding father of the museum and is himself a descendant of the Ulma household. He additionally was the one which found their story for the world.
“It was an obligation I had as a historian and as a member of the family — my grandmother was Wiktoria’s sister,” he stated, including that God helped him alongside the way in which to inform the story of the Polish martyrs.
In 1995, Israel gave the Ulmas the title of Righteous Amongst Nations, an honorific utilized by Israel to explain non-Jews who risked their lives throughout the Holocaust to save lots of Jews. Their sainthood trigger was begun in 2003. Within the case of martyrs, the standard requirement of a miracle previous to beatification is waived, although one is required for canonization. Sources informed OSV Information their beatification will seemingly happen within the fall.
Concerning their recognition as martyrs, “There was a query in regards to the baby not being baptized however the notion all through the method was that the infant was baptized not by water, however by blood,” Szpytma informed OSV Information. Sources within the village confirmed to historians that Wiktoria began to offer start to the seventh baby upon her demise.
“The land of the Ulmas has all the time been satisfied that they’re modern saints,” Niemczak informed OSV Information.
Poland was the one nation in occupied Europe throughout the Second World Battle the place the demise penalty was imposed on anybody that determined to offer shelter or in any approach assist Jews survive.
Six million Jews have been exterminated by the German Nazi regime between 1939-45. Half of them died on the German-occupied Polish territory.
Regardless of the danger of the demise penalty, an estimated 300,000 Polish folks hid and helped Jews of their properties. Over 6,600 Poles maintain the title of Righteous Amongst Nations. Round 1,000 Poles, together with girls and youngsters, have been executed for hiding and serving to Jews.
There have been 120 Jews in Markowa earlier than the battle. Twenty p.c of the Jewish inhabitants of the city survived the battle due to their largely Catholic Polish neighbors. Twenty-nine Jews have been helped and hidden by the inhabitants of the village; 21 of them survived.
The Szylar household have been Ulma’s neighbors in Markowa. They hid the Weltz household, whose descendants nonetheless reside in Brooklyn, New York, the place they moved after the battle.
Chatting with a bunch of scholars from Krakow, Eugeniusz Szylar stated in 2016 that his father would repeat to the youngsters: “With God’s assist, we’ll survive this.”
Szylar was 12 when the Ulmas have been murdered. Szylar’s mother and father hid seven Jews for 18 months. Each households survived. He remembers the day the Ulmas have been killed because the worst in his life.
“The Ulmas reside within the dramatic time of historical past they usually might be patron saints for folks in such instances, but in addition of massive households,” Szpytma informed OSV Information.
“I am happy with my teenage granddaughters. They arrive right here willingly to assist make the Ulma grave fairly,” she stated.
“It is vital subsequent generations keep in mind in regards to the Ulma household sacrifice, about Jews killed with them in order that we always remember that all of them died due to lack of affection within the hearts of the murderers.”
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