„The World of Józef” in TVP1
The documentary is devoted to the tragic murder of Józef Ulma from the village of Markowa, his family and the Jews they were hiding.
Rafał Wieczyński said the following words about the Polish Righteous: “Such people as the Ulmas, raise our standards, show us the way we should act in our everyday life, which enables us to make the right decisions in difficult situations. (…) Those who decided to give their lives for this gesture of Christian mercy are heroes of the Fighting Poland. We should and have the right to be proud of them”.
In Autumn 1942 Józef Ulma and his wife Wiktoria née Niemczak, living with their six children, were asked for help by the Jewish Szall family – a father who was cattle merchant before the war, and his four sons.
The Ulmas took them in. Shortly after that they also gave shelter to Gołda Goldman and her sister Lajka with her daughter.
A Blue Policeman, Włodzimierz Leś, denounced the Ulmas. On March 24th, 1944 German soldiers murdered the eight Jews and the Poles who were hiding them: Józef Ulma, his wife, who was in the last month of her pregnancy, and their six children: Staś, Basia, Władzio, Franuś, Antoś and Marysia. The oldest of them was 8 years old.
Józef and Wiktoria Ulma were honored with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1985. More about the Ulma family
The Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in the Podkarpacie Region will be created in Markowa in 2013. The Museum will be a modern institution, using the newest multimedia technologies. The interactivity of the exposition will be a crucial factor, as well as a meticulous reconstruction of the realities of the time of the Second World War. Apart from a showroom, a research office and a lecture hall in which film screenings will be organized – the Ulmas house and the hiding place of the Jews will be reconstructed as part of the future Museum.
