Blessed Ulma Family

Yesterday was the feast of the Blessed Ulma Family who were beatified for helping Polish Jews during World War II and were martyred in the process. Yesterday was also the 90th anniversary of the marriage of the blessed Ulma couple. Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma had 6 children with another baby due to be delivered within days. They lived on a farm in Markowa, Poland, and were very devout Catholics, besides being great benefactors to those who needed help. Two families asked for help from them as they were Jewish and were afraid the Nazis would find them and kill them. Josef and Wiktoria were married on July 7, 1935 and had these children: Stanislawa, 8 years, Barbara, 7 years, Wladislaw, 6 years, Franciszek, 4 years, Antoni, 3 and Maria, 2 years old. The Szall family with 2 parents and 4 sons found refuge with the Ulmas, as did the Goldman sisters. They lived in an attic, but occasionally they came out to help in the fields. Yet on the night of March 23 and 24, 1944, someone spied on them, and the Nazis came over to the house and found the Szalls and Goldmans hiding. They were all killed on the spot. Then Jozef and Wiktoria were killed in front of the screaming and crying children. Lastly the young children were killed, one by one, all martyred for being kind and helpful to strangers. The stress that Wiktoria experienced made her deliver the baby she was carrying. Actually this was found out when exhumations of their bodies were done in January 1945, to have them buried in a Catholic cemetery. Wiktoria was found with the upper part of the baby’s body between her legs. These 17 martyrs were all beatified on September 10, 2023. The liturgical feast of the Ulma family will be celebrated on July 7 each year, the date of their wedding. A monument in memory of the Ulma family was erected in Markowa frequently visited by tourists and pilgrims. On September 13, 1995, the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem posthumously honoured Józef and Wiktoria Ulma with the title of “Righteous Among the Nations”. In 2016, a museum named after them was opened in Markowa, which is dedicated to all Poles who saved Jews during the Holocaust.