The Opening of The Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews

The Opening of The Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II

The Ulma Family Museum of Poles who Rescued Jews during World War II in the town of Markowa, south-east Poland, is scheduled for opening today, 17 March (CET). President of Poland Andrzej Duda is expected to attend the celebrations.

The Ulma Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews in Markowa commemorates Poles who risked their lives trying to save or saving Jewish lives under German occupation during the Second World War.

The museum was established in the village of Markowa in the Podkarpacie region, where on 24 March 1944 the German gendarmes murdered eight Jews from the Szall and Goldman families and the people who were sheltering them: Józef Ulma and his nine-month pregnant wife, Wiktoria. They also killed six Ulma children, including the oldest, eight-year-old Stasia.

The museum’s mission is to commemorate and spread the knowledge of those Poles who, despite the risk of death sentence, were helping Jewish people doomed to extermination by the Third Reich.

“The heart of the place is the recreated house of the Ulma family,” said Mateusz Szpytma, director of the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews in Markowa. “The dark red rust on the walls has a symbolic dimension here,” he added.

“We have a huge body of iconographic material,” noted Mr Szpytma. “Józef Ulma was a photographer and took pictures of his family, neighbours, Jews.” Photos by Józef Ulma of Markowa and its inhabitants from the interwar and war period will be displayed on the permanent exhibition. The collection features some original photos, including ones taken in 1940 and stained with blood of the victims of the German crime of 24 March 1944. The exhibits include bullet-riddled doors from the execution of the Baranek family, which was killed by the Germans for aiding the Jews. The stories of Poles who helped Jews during the war will be also on display. Foreseen events will include film screenings, museum lessons for school pupils, discussion meetings, and scientific conferences.

According to Mr Władysław Ortyl, the marshal of the province of Podkarpacie, the museum will also provide education programmes for youngsters from Israel. “Back in 2015, when the museum was not finished yet, Markowa was visited by five thousand young Jews.”

Jan Dziedziczak, secretary of state at the MFA, presented a broadcast schedule of inauguration events prepared by the ministry and addressed to 18 missions abroad: embassies, consulates and institutes in 14 countries. “The theme of Poles who saved Jews is to be an important area for Polish diplomacy in the effective fight against stereotypes that hurt Poland and Polish people, and to popularise knowledge and historical memory,” he emphasised. The exhibition Samaritans of Markowa will be an accompanying event and, Mr Dziedziczak said, it will travel to 27 diplomatic and cultural missions in 24 countries worldwide. A film showcasing the museum will be presented at 22 Polish diplomatic and cultural missions in 24 countries. The exhibition will be shown in New Zealand in the second half of this year.

The council of the province of Podkarpacie made a decision to build the museum in 2008. An area of 500 sq m features a recreated house of the Ulma family, an exhibition room, a lecture hall, and a science room. Building works officially began on 8 October 2013, and were completed in the first half of 2015.

Józef Ulma was born on 2 March 1900 in Markowa. He completed primary education, and went on to take agricultural training in Pilzno. He worked in gardening, beekeeping, silk farming, and bookbinding. His greatest passion was photography. He took thousands of photos chronicling the life of Markowa residents, including weddings, christenings, and amateur theatre performances. He was active in a Catholic youth organization, and then joined the Polish Rural Youth Union Wici, where he was a librarian and head of the horticultural section.

Wiktoria Ulma nee Niemczak was born on 10 December 1912 in Markowa. After finishing the primary school in Markowa, she would attend training programmes organized by the folk school in the town of Gac. She would also perform in the amateur theatre of Markowa.

Józef and Wiktoria got married in 1935. During nine years of their relationship they had six children: Stanisława (born 1936), Barbara (born 1937), Władysław (born 1938), Franciszek (born 1940), Antoni (born 1941), and Maria (born 1942).

Probably towards the end of 1942, despite poverty and risking their lives, the Ulmas gave shelter to eight Jews: Saul Goldman and his four sons whose names are unknown (they went by the name “Szalls” in Markowa), as well as two daughters and a granddaughter of Chaim Goldman from Markowa: Lea/Layka Didner with a daughter whose name is unknown, and Genia/Gołda Gruenfeld.

It was most likely a member of the so-called blue police from Lancut who told the Germans that the Ulmas were hiding Jews. In the morning of 24 March 1944, five German gendarmes and several policemen pulled up in front of the Ulmas’ house. Their commander was Lt Eilert Dieken. They first murdered the Jews, and then killed Józef and Wiktoria, who was seven months pregnant. Next, Dieken decided to kill the Ulmas’ children. Seventeen people lost their lives.

The Ulmas were laid to rest at a cemetery in Markowa, the Jews were buried in the village of Jagiella, which is the burial ground of 41 other Holocaust victims from Markowa.

In Markowa, a town of 4,500 people, the Ulmas were not the only family to have hidden Jews. At least 20 other Jews survived the occupation in five peasant cottages. Before World War Two Markowa was home to roughly 120 Jews.

In 1995, Israel’s Yad Vashem institute posthumously honoured Wiktoria and Józef Ulma as Righteous among the Nations. Their beatification process began in the Przemysl diocese in 2003. In 2004, a monument commemorating these heroic people was unveiled in Markowa, and in 2010, Poland’s President Lech Kaczyński conferred the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta on them.

In 2013, Yad Vashem wrote on its website: “The murder of the Ulma family – an entire family that was killed together with the Jews they were hiding – has become a symbol of Polish sacrifice and martyrdom during the German occupation.”

ENDS

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