Markowa massacre

The Markowa massacre was the murder of 16 Polish and Jewish individuals carried out by German occupiers in the village of Markowa near Łańcut.
Sometime around the end of 1942, Józef and Wiktoria Ulma took in two Jewish families from Łańcut and Markowa. Likely due to a denunciation by a Blue Police officer named Włodzimierz Leś, their hiding place was discovered by the Germans. On 24 March 1944, gendarmes from the Łańcut station murdered Józef, Wiktoria (who was heavily pregnant), and their 6 children, the oldest of whom was 8 years old, and the youngest only a year and a half. The eight Jews they were hiding, including two women and a child, were also killed.
The Markowa massacre has become a symbol of the martyrdom of Poles who were murdered for aiding Jews.
==Prelude==
===Extermination of Jews in Markowa===
Before World War II, nearly 30 Jewish families (about 120 people) lived in Markowa, near Łańcut. After the beginning of the German occupation, the village was incorporated into the Jarosław County within the General Government.
In late July or early August 1942, Jarosław County became part of Operation Reinhard. The local Jews were gathered in a transit camp in Pełkinie, from where they were transported either to the Belzec extermination camp or executed in the forests near Wólka Pełkińska. In some villages and settlements, residents were murdered on the spot.
Only a few Jews from Markowa, probably no more than 6 or 8 people, heeded the German authorities' call and reported for the supposed "resettlement". The rest, numbering around several dozen, went into hiding.Some found shelter with Polish families, while others hid in farm buildings without the knowledge of the owners or roamed the nearby forests and fields. The fugitives were hunted by German gendarmes and Polish Blue Police officers, who killed any Jews they captured.
The largest manhunt for Jews hiding in Markowa occurred on 13 December 1942. It was ordered by the village head, Andrzej Kud, at the behest of the German authorities. Members of the local fire brigade and village watch, possibly supported by Blue Police officers and ordinary villagers, participated in the manhunt. Between a dozen and 25 Jewish men, women, and children were captured. They spent the night of 13/14 December in the local jail. The next day, German gendarmes arrived from Łańcut and executed all the Jews at an old trench, which was also used as an animal burial site. According to Jakub Einhorn, a Jew from Markowa who survived the German occupation, the Poles involved in the manhunt were notably zealous and even brutal. The Jews detained in the jail were reportedly tortured and robbed; a young Jewish woman was said to have been repeatedly raped. However, the credibility of Einhorn's account is disputed.After the war, criminal proceedings were initiated against several residents of Markowa on suspicion of involvement in crimes against the Jewish population. The accusations were mostly based on the testimony of Jakub Einhorn. However, none of the suspects were ultimately convicted. This was partly due to the courts deeming Einhorn's testimony insufficiently credible. During the proceedings, it was demonstrated that some of the events he claimed to have witnessed firsthand were, in fact, known to him only through third-party accounts .</ref>
===Aid given to Jews by the Ulma family===
Among the residents of Markowa who were involved in helping Jews was the farming couple Józef and Wiktoria Ulma. Józef was an active member of the community, involved in the and the. He was also known locally for his passions in gardening, beekeeping, bookbinding, and photography.Despite having a large family and modest income, Józef and Wiktoria took in two Jewish families, totaling 8 people, probably towards the end of 1942.In the report from the commander of the local district of the , it was mentioned that the Jews had been hiding with the Ulma family for only a few days. For this reason, point out that there is uncertainty regarding the exact duration of time the fugitives stayed at the Ulma farm. The Jews hidden by the Ulmas were:
* Saul Goldman, a cattle trader from Łańcut, around 60 years old, along with his four sons: Baruch, Mechel, Joachim, and Moses. This family was commonly referred to in the area as Szallami.
* Gołda (Genia) Grünfeld and Lea Didner, along with her young daughter Reszla. These women were married daughters of Chaim Chaim Goldman was most likely the brother of Saul Goldman from Łańcut.</ref> and Estera Goldman from Markowa.
Józef Ulma also helped the Tencer family construct an underground shelter in a nearby ravine. This hideout sheltered Rywka Tencer, her two daughters, and granddaughter. Ulma supplied them with food. Unfortunately, the hideout was discovered during a raid on 13 December 1942, and the next day, all four Jewish women were killed by German gendarmes.
The two Jewish families hidden by the Ulmas stayed at their farm until the spring of 1944. No extraordinary precautions were taken to hide them. The Jews lived in the attic of the house and sometimes assisted the Ulmas with daily tasks, such as tanning hides. They retreated to the attic only at night or in times of danger. The Ulmas were supported in their efforts by Józef’s close friend, Antoni Szpytma.
It is highly likely that the Germans discovered the hidden Jews due to a tip-off by Włodzimierz Leś, a constable in the Łańcut Blue Police. As a Greek Catholic from the village of Biała near Rzeszów, which was considered "Ruthenian", he is often referred to as Ukrainian in various sources. are highly critical of attributing Ukrainian origins to Leś. In their view, this assumption, repeated in all texts about the Ulma family, serves to diffuse responsibility for the betrayal. Before the war, Leś had connections with the Goldman family. In the early period of the occupation, he agreed to shelter them in exchange for part of their property. However, when the Germans intensified their repression against those hiding Jews, Leś refused further help and seized the property left under his care. The Goldman family then took refuge with the Ulmas, but they continued to demand the return of their property from Leś. Probably wanting to rid himself of the rightful owners of the seized property, Leś betrayed the Goldman family and the Ulma family hiding them to the German gendarmerie. He had previously visited the Ulmas under the pretense of asking for a photograph, ensuring during that visit that the Goldman family was hiding in their home.
==Course of the massacre==
On 23 March 1944, an order was issued from the gendarmerie post in Łańcut, instructing four coachmen with horses and carts to report to the town stables and await further instructions. According to the German orders, each coachman was to come from a different village, with none from Markowa. On March 24, around 1:00 AM, the coachmen were ordered to drive to the gendarmerie post and transport a group of German gendarmes and Polish Blue Policemen to Markowa. The expedition was personally led by Lieutenant , the commander of the Łańcut gendarmerie. He was accompanied by four other Germans: Josef Kokott (a Volksdeutsche from Czechoslovakia), Michael Dziewulski, Gustaw Unbehend, and Erich Wilde (a Volksdeutsche from the Lublin Land). Additionally, from 4 to 6 members of the Polish Blue Police participated in the operation. The names of two policemen were identified: Eustachy Kolman and Włodzimierz Leś.
Just before dawn, the wagons arrived in Markowa. The Germans ordered the coachmen to stay aside while they, along with the Blue Policemen, proceeded to the Ulma farm. Leaving the policemen as guards, the German gendarmes stormed the house and began the massacre. Two of the Goldman brothers and Gołda Grünfeld were shot while still asleep. The Germans then ordered the Polish coachmen to witness the execution as a warning. In their presence, the remaining Goldman brothers, Lea Didner, and her child were shot. The last of the Jews to be killed was the 70-year-old father of the Goldman brothers. Afterwards, Józef Ulma and his pregnant wife, Wiktoria, were brought outside. The couple was shot in front of their children. A witness of the exhumation later testified that when Wiktoria's body was unearthed, the head and chest of a newborn were visible, protruding from her womb.
Following the murder of the Ulmas, the Germans deliberated on what to do with their six children. After a brief discussion, Dieken ordered that they too be executed. In the presence of the Polish coachmen, the children – 8-year-old Stanisława, 6-year-old Barbara, 5-year-old Władysław, 4-year-old Franciszek, 3-year-old Antoni, and 1.5-year-old Maria – were all shot. Josef Kokott, known for his brutality, personally shot three or four of the children, shouting to the coachmen, Look how these Polish pigs die for hiding Jews.
After the massacre, the Germans began looting the Ulma farm and the belongings of the murdered Jews. Kokott seized a box of valuables found on Gołda Grünfeld's body. The plundering was so extensive that Dieken had to summon two additional wagons from Markowa to transport all the stolen goods. He also summoned the village leader, Teofil Kielar, and ordered him to gather some men to bury the bodies. When the shocked village leader asked Dieken why the Ulma children were also killed, he responded, So the community won't have trouble with them.Another gendarme, Gustaw Unbehend, asked a similar question, to which Dieken replied, I am the commander, and I know what I'm doing.
At the request of the Poles who had been brought to bury the dead, the gendarmes agreed to bury the Ulmas and the Jews in separate graves.The massacre concluded with a drinking session held at the scene (for which the village leader had to supply the Germans with three liters of vodka). After it ended, the gendarmes and Blue Policemen returned to Łańcut with six wagons full of looted goods.
==Aftermath==
A report from the local commander of the People's Security Guard noted that the massacre of the Ulma family made a very unpleasant impression on the Polish population. Yehuda Erlich, who had been hiding in the vicinity of Markowa during the occupation, wrote an account in which he mentioned that the crime had so profoundly shocked the local population that 24 Jews were later found dead in the area around Markowa, killed by their Polish caretakers out of fear of denunciation. His account is cited, among other places, in the information about the Ulma family on the Yad Vashem Institute's website.</ref>
In 2011, , a historian at the Institute of National Remembrance and a researcher of the Ulma family's history, speculated in the magazine ' that the massacre Erlich mentioned may have occurred in the neighboring village of Sietesz, likely two years before the Ulmas' deaths. In an article published three years later, he pointed out that no other account or archival document confirms that bodies of murdered Jews were found in the fields near Markowa. He also suggested that Erlich's memory might have conflated the execution of the Ulma family with the roundups of Jews hiding in Markowa and Sietesz, which took place in 1942 with the involvement of local Poles.At the same time, Erlich was not an eyewitness to any of these events However, Jan Grabowski and Dariusz Libionka are convinced of the accuracy of Erlich's account.
A few days after the massacre, five men from Markowa dug up the Ulmas' grave, and despite strict German orders, placed the bodies in four separate coffins, which were then buried next to the house. On 11 January 1945, after the end of the German occupation, the remains of the Ulma family were exhumed and reburied in the parish cemetery in Markowa. The bodies of the murdered Jews were exhumed in February 1947 and transferred to the Cemetery of Victims of Hitlerism in Jagiełła.
At least 21 Jews survived the war in Markowa, hiding with Polish families, although not all of the survivors were residents of the village.
==Commemoration==
The massacre in Markowa became a symbol of the martyrdom of Poles who were murdered by the Germans for helping Jews.
On 13 September 1995, the Ulma couple was posthumously awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations. By a decree of President Lech Kaczyński on 25 January 2010, they were also posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. On 25 March 2011, the Polish Sejm commemorated the 67th anniversary of the Ulma family's death with a special resolution.
On 17 September 2003, Bishop Jan Bernard Szlaga of Pelplin opened the beatification process for 122 Polish victims of German Nazism, including Józef and Wiktoria Ulma, their six children, and their seventh unborn child. On 20 February 2017, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints authorized the separation of the Ulma family's beatification process from that of the other Polish martyrs, transferring it to the Archdiocese of Przemyśl. On 17 December 2022, Pope Francis signed a decree recognizing the martyrdom of the Ulma family, paving the way for their beatification. Józef and Wiktoria Ulma, along with their seven children, were beatified on 10 September 2023, marking the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church that an entire family was beatified.
On 24 March 2004, a monument dedicated to the Ulma family was unveiled in Markowa.
In 2007, the initiative to create a museum in Markowa to commemorate Poles who helped Jews during the German occupation was born. A year later, the Subcarpathian Voivodeship Assembly passed a resolution on the matter, and in November 2013, the cornerstone for the museum's construction was laid. The Markowa Ulma-Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews in World War II was officially opened on 17 March 2016.
In March 2012, the National Bank of Poland issued commemorative coins honoring three Polish families murdered for helping Jews: the Ulmas from Markowa, the Kowalskis from Stary Ciepielów, and the Barankas from Siedliska.
==Accountability of the perpetrators==
Shortly after the Germans murdered the Ulma family and the Jews they were sheltering, the local unit of the People's Security Guard initiated actions to identify the informant.Their investigation suggested that Włodzimierz Leś betrayed the Ulma family. The officer did not survive the war; on 10 September 1944, a few weeks after the Red Army entered Łańcut, he was shot by the Polish underground.It is possible that he was executed by the verdict of the Civil Special Court in Przemyśl,although neither the sentence nor its justification has survived.
Only one of the German participants in the murder of the Ulma family and the Jews they sheltered was brought to justice: the gendarme Josef Kokott. He was arrested in Czechoslovakia in 1957 and extradited to Poland. On 30 August 1958, the provincial court in Rzeszów sentenced him to death. However, the State Council of the Polish People's Republic commuted his sentence to life imprisonment and later to 25 years in prison. Kokott died in 1980 in a prison in Racibórz(according to other sources, in Bytom).
The leader of the punitive expedition, Lieutenant Eilert Dieken, worked as a policeman in Esens, West Germany, after the war. The Dortmund prosecutor's office investigated his activities in occupied Poland as part of an inquiry into crimes committed in Jarosław County. However, the investigation was closed in 1971 after it was determined that Dieken had died many years earlier of natural causes (in 1960).
Erich Wilde died in August 1944. Michael Dziewulski evaded criminal responsibility after the war.
==See also==
* Stary Ciepielów and Rekówka massacre
Category:World War II
Category:The Holocaust in Poland
Category:History of Subcarpathian Voivodeship
Category:Polish Righteous Among the Nations
Category:Massacres in Poland