Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma and Children

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Over the years I have written about many saints. Most of them have been little known.  The truth is, I have loved searching  the  treasure troves of stories and essays and autobiographies and biographies of Catholic heroes and heroines. But among them all there has only been one family Beatified together. Please meet the  saintly family that met the criteria for membership. Please allow me to present to you the only Catholic family ever Beatified together. Meet Joe (Jozef) and Vicki (Wiktoria) Ulma and their children.  Joe and Vicki lived in southern Poland in a town called Markowa. Joe, age 44, was a librarian, a photographer, and a bee-keeper. He was active with the local Catholic Youth Organization.

Vicki was 12 years younger than her husband and they had six children. She was pregnant with her seventh and full term. The children were all separated by  a little more than a year apart. Stanislaw was age 8, Barbara, 7, Vladyslaw,  6, Franciszek, age4, Antoni, age3, and Maria, age 2.  The newest member of the family was due any day. Then along came the Nazis.

During the summer of 1942 the Nazi military police began deporting Jewish families from Markow to the death camps. Joe and Vicki, good Catholics who loved their faith and Jesus, knew what they had to do. During the darkness of night they snuck their Jewish neighbors, the Szall family, into their home. Joe and Vicki, knowing the consequences of their actions, had to help those in danger.The Szall family consisted of a mom, dad, four kids and two sisters from the Goldman family. Joe and Vicki hid them in their attic and they remained there for a year and a half. This was toward the end of summer.

A neighbor who had harbored some ill will toward the Szall family eventually informed on them. Early on the morning of March 24, 1944, Lt. Eilert Diekens, led his band of German soldiers to the Ulma house and surrounded it. They promptly found the two adults and six children hiding there. They were all brought outside and several people were ordered to act as witnesses. One by one they each were shot in the head and killed. Then Lt. Diekens ordered Joe, Vicki and their kids outside. Vicki was now pregnant with her seventh child and almost full term. It mattered not to the executioners.

Diekens, enjoying the power he had been given, had the Ulma kids line up facing their mom and dad. Then he made them watch as Joe and Vicki were shot to death right in front of them. The kids began screaming and one of the soldiers, Joseph Kott, asked for permission to silence them. Diekens quickly approved and, in a matter of minutes, 17 people had been executed. The 17^th was Vicki’s baby, who was discovered upon exhumation, to have been almost born as Vicki lay in her grave. What evil there is in the hearts of so many. It is unimaginable and beyond description.

The Ulmas and their neighbors were no different than the rest of us.. They had family and friends whom they loved. They laughed, they cried, they loved to dance and sing, to hug their children and to eat cake. They enjoyed a Sunday picnic and loved Christmas or Passover. And they all had every shred of personal dignity  ripped unmercifully from their very existence.  The crime for the Ulmas, loving their neighbors through Christ. As for me, I need people like that in my life to show me how that is done.

The story of the Ulma family became a symbol of martyrdom of Poles killed by the Germans for hiding and protecting Jews. Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma were declared Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1995. The Ulma Family Museum of Poles saving Jews in World War II was dedicated on March 17,2016. The Polish President, Andrzej Duda, officiated at the ceremony.

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On December 18, 2022, Pope Francis declared the entire Ulma family Venerable. Then on September 10, 2023, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro (at the request of Pope Francis) Beatified the entire Ulma family at the National Shrine of the Church of St. Dorothy in Markowa, Poland. Thousands of people attended

Besides being Beatified in the Catholic Church the Ulmas were declared Righteous Among Nations, and were members of the Association  of the Living Rosary. The Ulma Family can be role models for all Catholic/Christian families.They TRULY LOVED their neighbor.

We can ask the entire Ulma family, Jozef, Wiktoria, and their children, to please pray for us all.  Their Feast day is July 7.

 

copyright 2025 Larry Peterson (revised edition)