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Polish family that saved Jews in WWII to be beatified on September 10

14.02.2023 19:00
Poland’s Roman Catholic Church has announced that the Polish Ulma family, who lost their lives for hiding Jews during World War II, will be beatified on September 10. 
Plaques on the wall of the Ulma Family Museum, at Markowa in the southeast of Poland, commemorating those who risked their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust during World War II.
Plaques on the wall of the Ulma Family Museum, at Markowa in the southeast of Poland, commemorating those who risked their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust during World War II.Photo: PAP/Darek Delmanowicz

The ceremony, in the village of Markowa in southeastern Poland, where the family lived, will be officiated by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, acting as Pope Francis’ representative, church officials said.

The pope in December approved a decree recognizing the martyrdom of the family of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma, the Catholic Church said.

In the Catholic Church, beatification is one stage short of being declared a saint.

In the autumn of 1942, a Jewish family of eight from the town of Łańcut came to Markowa to find shelter. When they asked Józef and Wiktoria Ulma to hide them, the couple agreed.

Over a year later, the Jews’ presence on the Ulmas' farm was discovered. In the spring of 1944, German police, under the command of Eilert Dieken, shot the hiding Jews to death and murdered the entire Ulma family, Józef, Wiktoria, who was seven months pregnant, and their six children, Stanisława, aged 8, Barbara, 7, Władysław, 6, Franciszek, 4, Antoni, 3, and Maria, 2.

In 1995, the Yad Vashem Remembrance Institute in Jerusalem recognized Jozef Ulma and his wife as Righteous Among the Nations.

The Ulma Family Museum, dedicated to those who saved Jews during the Holocaust, opened in Markowa in 2016.

(mk/gs)