Ulma family

Józef Ulma (2 March 1900  24 March 1944), and his spouse Wiktoria Ulma (10 December 1912  24 March 1944), along with their seven children (all of them died on 24 March 1944), were Polish Roman Catholic martyrs, farmers, and people awarded with the title of Righteous Among the Nations from the rural village of Markowa (near Przemyśl), which is located in Gmina Markowa, in Łańcut County, in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in Poland who were tortured and executed along with their seven children, all of them were below the age of nine, outside their house in Markowa by the Germans in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust for hiding and protecting two Polish Jewish families in their house. Jozef, his spouse Wiktoria Ulma, and their seven children were tortured and executed by German officers on 24 March 1944 in Markowa, after being denounced and betrayed by a Eastern Catholic Ruthenian collaborator, after he discovered they were hiding Jews in their house, and reported them to German SS officers. 

After their torture and execution, while the execution of Jozef and Wikitoria Ulma and their seven children was supposed to instill severe fear in the village, people from the village (including the Ulma's neighbors and friends) courageously continued to hide more Jews, while taking more precaution, in their home until Red Army troops liberated southeastern Poland from German occupation four months later in July 1944. Out of the 120 Jews who lived in Markowa, 21 of those Jews survived the German occupation and the Holocaust thanks to the farmers from the rural village who agreed to help and shelter them in their houses. The village of Markowa itself was recognized for their efforts after the war.

In 1995, Józef and Wiktoria Ulma were recognized by the State of Israel and posthumously awarded with the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for risking their lives to save Jews, when it was illegal to do so and punishable by torture and/or execution in German-occupied Europe during World War II. In 2021, Józef and Wiktoria Ulma were beautified as martyrs along with their murdered seven children by Pope Francis and were venerated by the Roman Catholic Church, and their feast day is celebrated on 7 July (wedding day of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma).

Józef and Wiktoria Ulma are the patron saints of their village, Markowa, along with Saint Dorothy of Caesarea, whom the Roman Catholic church is named after there.

Category:Polish people
Category:Righteous Among the Nations