The Ulma family

The cause for canonization for an entire family is nearing its completion. The Ulma family were all murdered for hiding eight Jews inside their small house, trying to protect them. The Germans had created a law in Poland that for any type of help, even a piece of bread given to a Jew, the person would be killed. More than 190,000 Polish people were killed as a result of this law, including the Ulma family: the father, pregnant mother and their six children, ranging in age from eight to two. They were killed on March 24, 1944, by German soldiers, immediately after the soldiers killed the Jews hiding out in the house. If canonized, the Ulma's would be an exceptionally rare case of raising an entire family to the altars in the Catholic Church as saints.
Józef Ulma was a prominent citizen in the village of Markowa: a librarian, a photographer, active in social life and the local Catholic Youth Association. He was an educated fruit grower and a bee-keeper. His wife Wiktoria was a homemaker. The Ulmas had six children: Stanisława, age 8, Barbara, age 7, Władysław, age 6, Franciszek, age 4, Antoni, age 3 and Maria, age 2. Another child was due to be born just days after the family's execution on March 24, 1944.
Eight Jews had found shelter with the Ulmas: six members of the Szall family, including father, mother and four sons, as well as the two daughters of the Goldman family. Józef Ulma put all eight Jews in the attic. They learned to help him with supplementary jobs while in hiding, to ease the incurred expenses
The Germans surrounded the house and caught all eight Jews belonging to the Szall and Goldman families. They shot them in the back of the head. Then the German gendarmes killed the pregnant Wiktoria and her husband, followed by the six screaming Polish children. Within several minutes 17 people were killed.