THE GOOD SAMARITANS OF MARKOWA | KAIROS GLOBAL | APRIL 2023

Author: Vincy Stephenson

Intro: A big family with seven children, including an unborn close to beatification! Why would that be? Vincy Stephenson writes about it.

His Holiness Pope Francis signed a decree approving the beatification of the Polish family, Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children – including an unborn child, who were killed by Nazis during World War II, for hiding Jews. They will soon be raised to sainthood, for which preparations are underway. Having an entire family beatified on the same day will be an extremely rare event. They were killed in ‘hatred of faith’. 

Here is a ‘must-read’ real-life story for anyone who has ever wondered about the difficulties of leading a witnessing life as a family! 

‘The Samaritans of Markowa’ – that was how the Ulma family was known. Little wonder that the Parable of the Good Samaritan was underlined in red, in the family Bible, recovered from their house after their martyrdom. They were good Samaritans to whomever they came across in life.

The Markowa village, where these holy souls lived, is in South-Eastern Poland, in the diocese of Przemysl, about 300 km and 200 km from the city of Warsaw and Krakow East, respectively. This was one of the biggest villages in Poland, where majority of residents were Catholics. Along with the Poles, there were a few (nearly 30 families) Jews who lived in this village. Though generally Poles and Jews never got along, here in Markowa, both the communities lived in harmony, supporting each other in every way possible. 

The Saintly Couple

Józef Ulma, a farmer, was a familiar personality in the village. A well-educated person, he worked as a librarian and was also an accomplished photographer. Józef was remembered as an innovative person, one who would come up with new ideas for the local community. It was he who built the first wind-driven power station in the village and was the first one to have electricity in their house. 

His wife Wiktoria, 12 years junior to him, was a homemaker. She was talented, acted in an amateur theater and had attended courses at the Folk University in Gacia. The couple were blessed with three girls (Stanisława, Barbara, and Maria), three boys (Władysław, Franciszek, and Antoni) and an unborn child. 

Living the Commandment of Love

By mid-1942 tragedy struck. Nazi Germany had been occupying Poland since 1939, and then World War II broke out. As part of the mass killing (by implementing the diabolical ‘Final Solution’ to the ‘Jewish Question’) planned in the Wannsee Conference, the extermination of European Jewry began. While the Polish Jewish families in Markowa were being deported to death camps, eight Jews among them found refuge with the Ulma family. The Ulmas sheltered these Jews in their house for a year-and-a-half. This included six members of the Szall (Szali) family from Łańcut, and the two daughters of Chaim Goldman, Golda (Gienia) and Layka (Lea) Didner. During the daytime, they helped the Ulmas on their farm, to help them meet the extra expenses, and hid in the Ulma’s attic during the night. 

Heroic Death

The Germans used to conduct regular roundups in search of Jews in the area. Those spotted were either taken to the extermination camp in Bełżec, or killed on the spot. Unfortunately, no longer could the Ulmas hide the Jewish refugees. In 1944, Włodzimierz Leś, a Blue Police, who had initially sheltered the Szall family in exchange for their property, betrayed them. At the early hours of dawn on 24th March 1944, having received a tip-off, the German police surrounded the Ulmas’ house. All eight Jews of the Szall and Goldman families were caught and executed on the spot. Józef and Wiktoria Ulma were executed the same way. Wiktoria was seven months pregnant at the time of execution! The German cops forced the local villagers to watch this brutal crime, to make it a lesson to those who helped the Jews. The Nazi police shot the innocent children too – who were screaming and crying at the sight of their parents’ murder. Stanisława (age 8), Barbara (age 7), Władysław (age 7), Franciszek (age 4), Antoni (age 3), and Maria (age 2).

After having committed the brutal crime, one of the villagers was tasked with burying their bodies in crude graves. A week later, when relatives came to bury them properly in coffins, it was then discovered that Wiktoria had gone into labour at the moment of her death, with the baby’s body in a semi-delivered state. 

The Mission Continues…

The entire village of Markowa village was shocked by the horrific, tragic event. But though these holy souls left for their heavenly abode, they continued to live in the hearts and through deeds of the villagers. These villagers were more empowered by the faith and courage of the Ulma family to protect the vulnerable. Thousands of Jews were saved by the Poles. In Markowa, there were 120 Jews before the war. With the help of these Catholic Polish, twenty percent of them survived. This means the Ulma’s mission continued even after their death.

The Ulmas are on the road to sainthood and will be beatified in 2023.

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‘They built their family on the foundation of faith with fidelity to the two essential commandments: the commandment to love God and the commandment to love one's neighbour,’ said Father Witold Burda, the postulator for the Ulma family. ‘Józef and Wiktoria were willing to help anyone who knocked on their door,’ he added.

A stone memorial was erected in the village, in remembrance of these martyrs on the 60th anniversary of their execution. The inscription on this monument reads, ‘Saving the lives of others, they laid down their own lives. Hiding eight elder brothers in faith, they were killed with them. May their sacrifice be a call for respect and love to every human being! They were the sons and daughters of this land; they will remain in our hearts.’ The Bible, opened to the parable of the Good Samaritan, is a remarkable memorabilia here.

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The Ulmas, not only lived the life of a Good Samaritan, but sacrificed their lives to the point of death, for their fellow beings. 

Wiktoria who, at her death, went into the labour of her seventh child holds a heroic image in this modern times. We, especially the pro-lifers, now have a pro-life family for their intercession in heaven, very specially a newborn, who is baptised in the blood of martyrdom. May the Ulmas who died because of the absence of love in the hearts of their murderers, be the intercessors for the millions of unborn who are killed in their mother’s womb for the very same reason.

‘There is no greater love than to sacrifice one's life for a loved one.

Vincy Stephenson is a content writer and translator by profession. She  lives in Trivandrum, India with her husband, Sybin and their 3 children.