A holy family of Poland

Markowa, one of the biggest villages in southeastern Poland, was blessed with beautiful weather on September 10, sunny and warm.

In the air were the sights, sounds, and smells of harvest, not unusual for rural areas here. But on this day, the local community lived a unique and historical moment of celebration, one also unprecedented in the history of the Catholic Church, for a family of Markowa natives were beatified that day during a Mass attended by some 32,000 people in the local soccer stadium. The new blesseds were Józef and Wiktoria Ulma along with their seven children: Stasia, 8; Basia, 7, Władzio, 6; Franio, 4; Antoś, 3; Marysia, 2; and their unborn child. 

Yet nearly 80 years before, this same village experienced a night of terror when, on March 24, 1944, the entire Ulmas family was murdered by German police for giving shelter to two Jewish families, shielding from their Nazi persecutors: Saul Goldman from Łańcut, along with his sons Baruch, Mechel, Joachim, and Moses, as well as Markowa neighbors Gołda Grünfeld, Lea Didner, and Reszla Didner.

Wiktoria and Józef Ulma were ordinary people of that time, and relatives and descendants of theirs still live in Markowa. Locals there stress that the Ulmas have been always good and devout people. Before World War II, some 30 Jewish families called Markowa home, living harmoniously with their Catholic neighbors. 

ENTERPRISING JÓZEF

Józef and Wiktoria were each born in Markowa, but Joseph was 12 years her senior. He grew up loving the farming life. For Poles of his time, grain was seen as very precious, as both the daily bread and the Eucharist were made from it. He was passionate about adapting to rural and technical innovations. So, after completing a four-grade primary school, Józef continued his education at an agricultural school in Pilsen.

After learning how to cultivate fruit trees, he set up a tree nursery business in the village and started selling saplings. People remember him always carrying pruning shears with him, ready to repair an incorrectly cut tree. 

He read widely and was an avid fan of a popular science magazine, Wiedza i Życie (“Knowledge and Life”). He built his own windmill to harness power, making his house the first in the village with electricity. Today in Markowa, there are many huge modern windmills used for electricity that resemble Józef’s invention.

Other skills Józef acquired included beekeeping and silkworm breeding. He provided materials to a startup Polish silk clothing company called Milanówek, which is now famous worldwide. He also managed a dairy cooperative for a time. Throughout, he was active in his Catholic parish and was a member of the Catholic Men’s Youth Association and the Rural Youth Union. 

His biggest hobby, however, was photography. He left hundreds of impressive photos capturing the everyday life of his family and the people of Markowa. Thanks to his excellent camera work, much can be learned about life in Markowa before the war.

POOR AND GENEROUS

Wiktoria Ulma (née Niemczak) was born into a large and devout family. Her mother died when she was young, which made her determined to be a loving mother to her own children. She studied at Folk University in nearby Gać but did not graduate, probably because the school began promoting liberal ideas and she wanted to remain faithful to Catholic teaching. Wiktoria acted in an amateur local theater, and it is likely there that she met Józef.

Although they worked hard and were very enterprising, the Ulmas were a humble and poor family, as were most rural families in Poland. Nevertheless, they were always open to helping others. Józef was a handyman and often assisted others in home projects. The Ulmas’ house was open to unexpected guests. 

Interestingly, in their large family Bible, which the Ulmas read and studied attentively, the parable of the Good Samaritan was surrounded with a red-ink box with the annotation “yes.” The context of this note is uncertain, but in Poland the Ulmas have come to be called the “Merciful Samaritans from Markowa.” 

THE MURDEROUS NIGHT

The Ulmas were by far not the only Catholic family to give shelter to Jews, but they were the only ones in Markowa to be killed along with them. 

The tragedy happened after someone had denounced the Ulmas to officials. In the early morning hours, German police raided their house and killed the eight Jews living with them, some of whom were still asleep in the attic. Then they took Józef and Wiktoria outside. First, they shot Józef, and then Wiktoria, who apparently had started giving birth to their unborn seventh child. When the Ulmas’ bodies were exhumed from their common grave and moved into coffins for proper burial a few days after the murders, witnesses saw that the unborn child’s head and part of his arm were already outside the mother’s womb. 

After killing the parents, the Germans did not know what to do with the screaming and crying children, but after a brief conversation they decided to kill them also. People throughout the village heard the screams, and then the shots. Then there was a terrifying silence. 

Stanislawa Kuźniar, a relative and Wladzio’s godmother who would later testify for the beatification process before she died at 102, was an eyewitness to how their house appeared after the execution. “I would never forget it,” she would say later. “The walls were dripping with blood, and in the house, there was silence and emptiness.”

Heroically, even after the murders, other Markowa families continued to hide Jews in their homes. Their selfless conduct is proof of how Poles helped Jews during the World War II. That is why Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to Holocaust victims, recognized the Ulmas as “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1995.

UNIQUE BEATIFICATION

The beatification of the Ulma family is unique for three reasons. They are the first entire family in the history of the Church to be beatified together. For that reason, their designated liturgical feast is not the date of their martyrdom, but rather July 7, the date of Józef and Wiktoria’s wedding. 

The second reason is that the Church hereby honors martyrs who died while protecting Jews. “We can see the change of the mentality,” said Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, emeritus archbishop of Krakow and former secretary to Pope John Paul II. “The fact that Catholics die for Jews is very important. It is an indication for us all: we must live together.” 

A third reason is that the unborn Ulma child, whose sex is unknown, was included in the beatification — another first. Family members recall that Józef and Wiktoria planned to name the child Beniamin if he were a boy and already referred to the child lovingly as Beniaminek. The fact that they gave their lives on March 24, the vigil of the Annunciation, is also meaningful and symbolic. 

“This child is a child of believing Christian parents,” said Cardinal Gerhard Müller prior to the beatification ceremony. “He died together with the entire family. He is a martyr because he suffered. He was baptized by blood, and for that reason he went directly to heaven.”

The cardinal also used the moment to stress the need to defend human life in the womb.

“There are countries where it is legal to kill a child up to the last moment of pregnancy,” he said. “Our testimony is clear: a life begins at conception and continues until death. Whether young or old, we are all children of God.”

He also underlined that the Ulmas are models of faith under persecution.

“These German atheists murdered the entire family,” said Cardinal Müller, noting how the dictatorships of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were based in denial of God. The Ulmas, he went on, “are a great sign for the Christians today to not be afraid of these persecutors. In the end, it will be Christ who wins.”

MODELS OF FAITH

Many believe Wiktoria and Józef Ulma can become inspiring models for Christian families today, especially for large traditional families, married couples, farmers, entrepreneurs — even photographers. The unborn Ulma child is already being seen as a patron for the pro-life cause against abortion.

Today the remains of the entire Ulma family members are interred at St. Dorothy Church in Markowa. Although their previous grave in the parish cemetery is empty, people still visit there to pray and leave flowers. Already there have been numerous requests for their relics from churches around the world. 

In 2016, the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews opened in Markowa. Its cornerstone is also the cornerstone of Wiktoria’s childhood home.