The Ulma Family
by Theresa Cavicchio, OFS
March 24, 2024, marked the 80th anniversary of a tragic World War II event brought to the forefront of global attention only fairly recently: the execution of seventeen human beings, ranging in age from adult to barely born.
The Ulma Family Here:
Markowa, a small Polish village near the border with Ukraine, was home to Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma. They lived in a very humble homestead on the outskirts, farming the land and raising their family. The menacing atmosphere of war was pervasive in the German occupation of Poland, especially for the Ulmas’ Jewish neighbors seeking protection from Nazi threats of extermination. Yet their family’s busy, happy life was filled with hard work underscored by steadfast Catholic faith.
The family had grown quickly. By March of 1944, it included six children ranging in age from 8 down to 2: Stanislawa, Barbara, Wladyslaw, Franciszek, Antoni, and Maria. A seventh was expected soon.
Various accounts paint a portrait of a true domestic church – a close-knit family living, working, and praying together in an atmosphere filled with laughter and love.
Intelligent and widely curious, Jozef and Wiktoria enhanced their family life with hobbies and outside interests. For Jozef, these included photography, beekeeping, farming innovations, and the relatively new field of electricity. Wiktoria had attended some university classes, and both spouses participated in amateur theater. They were well-known for kindness and outreach to those in need.
The underlying foundation of all these activities was their Catholic faith. Notations in the well-used family Bible reveal their firm dedication to the altruistic Gospel message. Two underlined passages in particular provide clear testimony: the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37), the word Yes handwritten beside it; and Jesus’ dictum: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34).
By 1942, many Jews in Markowa had been killed or rounded up and transported to work camps. Non-Jewish residents understood that the penalty for sheltering Jews was death. Still, when the Ulma family was asked for help late that year, they agreed to take into their home eight Jewish persons: Saul Goldman and sons Baruch, Mechel, Joachim, and Moses; Golda Grunfeld and her sister Lea Didner and her young daughter Reshla.
Wiktoria Ulma
For over a year, they lived in the attic of the Ulma home, risking their lives to help out on the farm as they were able. The family willingly shared the little they had with their Jewish guests.
Tragically, in time, the situation was reported by a local informant. In the early morning hours of March 24, 1944, the Ulma home was surrounded by Nazis. They lost no time, killing first the eight Jewish persons, then Jozef and Wiktoria, and finally, all six Ulma children. Wiktoria went into labor, her seventh child in the act of being born as she lay dying.
Together the Ulma family lived, and together they died.
And Hereafter:
In 1995, Yad Vashem, Israel’s World Holocaust Remembrance Center, recognized Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma among thousands of Poles who had aided Jews, designating them as Righteous among the Nations. The entire family, however, was still to be honored with a most significant recognition in the spiritual realm.
On December 17, 2022, Pope Francis issued a Decree of Martyrdom for the Ulma family, paving the way for the process of beatification. For the first time, an entire family would be beatified, including the unnamed baby born and died during the massacre, having received a baptism of blood by reason of martyrdom.
On September 10, 2023, a Mass of Beatification was held in the family’s parish church at Markowa. Numerous members of the clergy were headed by the celebrant, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
On that same date, Pope Francis shared news of this unique event with the crowd gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for his weekly Angelus address.
The Holy Father stated: “Today in Markowa, Poland, the martyrs Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma, and their seven children, were beatified: an entire family exterminated by the Nazis on 24 March 1944 for having given shelter to a number of persecuted Jews. They opposed the hatred and violence that characterized that time with evangelical love. May this Polish family, which represented a ray of light in the darkness of the Second World War, be for all of us a model to imitate in the zeal for goodness and service to those in need.”
The feast day for the Ulma Family will be July 7th, the wedding anniversary of Jozef and Wiktoria. Their marriage provided the framework for their domestic church, with openness to life and cooperation with the dictates of the Gospel, no matter the cost.
In his homily at the Mass of Beatification, Cardinal Semeraro characterized the Ulma family’s life as having “a holiness that was not only marital but was fully embedded in their entire family,” describing their home as “an inn where the despised, outcast, and death-stricken was welcomed and cared for.”
His homily leads into our conclusion: “This beatification has a more current message than ever” through the voice of the “little innocent child … [calling] out to the modern world to accept, love and protect life from the moment of conception until natural death, especially the lives of the defenseless and marginalized. His innocent voice wants to shock the conscience of a society in which abortion, euthanasia and contempt for life perceived as a burden and not as a gift are rampant.”
“With a little child to guide” us (see Is 11:6), let us heed this “innocent voice”, challenging us to work toward a world where all life is treasured and respected: a world of peace, justice, and harmony among all of God’s creatures.
Blessed Ulma Family, ever together, pray for us!
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