New York: Tribute to the Polish Righteous Among the Nations

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. -- Yad Vashem Institute website

While Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where giving aid to Jews was punishable by execution, not only of the individual, but of their entire family, more Poles are commemorated by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations than citizens of any other country. Among these were the Ulma family  recognized by Yad Vashem in 1995. The Ulma Family Museum honors the memory of eight members of the Ulma family--including six children and their pregnant mother--executed by the Germans for sheltering Jews during the Second World War.

The aim of the Museum, located in Markowa, Poland, is to commemorate and raise awareness of Poles who risked their lives during the Nazi German occupation to give aid to Jewish people sentenced to annihilation by the Third Reich.

The majority of Jewish inhabitants in Markowa were murdered in 1942 during the German Reinhardt operation. Polish peasants managed to save 21 Jews, who after the war emigrated to the US, Canada and Israel.

The Ulma family sheltered the largest group, eight people. Saul Goldman and his four sons from Lancut, and Golda Grufnfeld and Lea Didner along with her daughter.

Jozef Ulma was a gardener and social activist. He documented the life of his home village as an amateur photographer. His wife Wiktoria looked after their children: Stasia, Basia, Wladzio, Franus, Antos and Marysia, and was expecting the birth of her seventh child in the Spring of 1944.

On March 24 1944 German military police arrived at Ulma family house. They shot all the Jews and Poles, including minor children and pregnant Wiktoria. The bodies were buried next to the house. Following the war, the Ulma family was laid to rest in the parish commentary in Markowa, and the Jews in the commentary for World War II victims.

The March 21 program will include a video presentation of the Museum, a report from the March 17 Museum opening, and a showing of the exhibition The Good Samaritans from Markowa.

Special guest Jeannie Opdyke Smith will join us after attending the Museum opening in Markowa on March 17. She is the daughter of Irene Gut Opdyke, a Polish Catholic rescuer who risked her life to shelter twelve Jews during the war. Irene Opdyke's amazing story inspired the 2009 Broadway play Irena's Vow, which was staged in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute New York. In 1982, the Israeli Holocaust Commission honored Opdyke as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. In 2008 she was posthumously awarded the Commanders Cross  the Polish medal of honor, presented by the President and First Lady of Poland, and in 2009 she was granted the Courage to Care award by the Anti-Defamation League at a special ceremony in Washington, DC.

Monday, March 21, 2016
7pm - 10pm
Consulate General of the Republic of Poland
233 Madison Ave
(Jan Karski Corner)
New York, NY 10016
Tickets: Free entry
RSVP: nyc.office@instytutpolski.org