Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski
About half of the six million European Jews killed in
the Holocaust were Polish. In 1939 a third of the
capital city Warsaw, and 10% of the entire country was
Jewish. By 1945 97% of Poland's Jews were dead.
These eleven examples of Polish resistance do not proport to give an overview of what happened in
Poland during The Holocaust. They have been chosen
to reflect the unimaginably difficult choices made by
both Jews and non-Jews under German occupation –
where every Jew was marked for death and all non-
Jews who assisted their Jewish neighbours were subject
to the same fate.
These individuals were not typical; they were
exceptional, reflecting the relatively small proportion
of the population who refused to be bystanders. But
neither were they super-human. They would recoil
from being labelled as heroes. They symbolise the
power of the human spirit – their actions show that in
even the darkest of times, good can shine through…
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski
Irena Sendler
IRENA SENDLER 1910 - 2008
Irena Sendler was an exceptional woman who
coordinated an Underground Network of rescuers
that enabled many Jewish children to escape the
Warsaw Ghetto and survive The Holocaust. Her
father was a doctor who died during a typhus
epidemic in 1917 after helping many sick Jewish
families who were too poor to afford treatment. Out
of gratitude, members of the community offered to
support Irena’s family after his death and
consequently there was a strong bond of friendship
between Irena’s family and her Jewish neighbours.
As a result she learnt to speak Yiddish, a skill that
was invaluable in her later work. “My parents taught me, that if
a man is drowning, no matter what his religion or nationality, you must help him, whether or
not you can swim yourself.”
UNDER OCCUPATION & THE WARSAW GHETTO
Irena was incapable of ignoring injustice and joined Warsaw’s Social Services
department. She was a natural leader and became the heart of a network of women
who had the shared aim of helping Warsaw’s poorest residents. Under German
occupation it was illegal for Warsaw’s Social Services department to help Jews, so Irena
altered client documents to continue supporting them. Although this was a very risky
thing to do neither Irena nor her colleagues were deterred by the dangers.
Irena’s network distributed food and medicines to the poorest members of Warsaw’s Jewish community.
When the Warsaw Ghetto was created
Irena gained entry by obtaining a Health
Inspector pass so she could continue to smuggle in much needed supplies.
Irena was distressed to see so many children suffer from
starvation and was determined to do something
more to help them.
RESCUE
When residents of the Warsaw Ghetto stared to be
deported to Treblinka death camp, Irena’s network
stepped up their rescue operation by smuggling
children out of the ghetto. This was dangerous as
Germans killed those who helped Jews. Babies were
sedated and hidden in tool boxes or medical bags and
older children were smuggled out through the sewer
system. But the risk remained, even after a child was
living in a secret safe-house. If their real identities
were suspected by a neighbour they would have to be
relocated. This happened quite frequently. “How
many mothers do most children have?” one child
asked Irena. “So far I’ve had three.”
Children were taken to ‘safe houses’ and given non-Jewish identities where they acclimatised to their new circumstances.
It was desperately difficult to hand over a child to
a stranger and Jewish families agonised over such
a painful decision . Those who agreed felt it was
the only chance their child had of surviving. Irena
described this heart-wrenching sacrifice as a
parent’s final act of love. “The real heroes were
the mothers” she would say. She hoped to reunite
the Jewish families after the war and kept
meticulous records of each child, burying lists of
their names in jars next to a friend’s apple tree.
In October 1943 she was arrested by the Gestapo and was driven away for interrogation. Although she was brutally tortured,
Irena refused to provide any information and was sentenced to death, but on the morning of her execution she was pulled
out of line and told to run. Her escape had been bought with a bribe from the Polish Underground.
The tree beside which were buried the real names of the hidden children.
DESPERATE CHOICES
RECOGNITION
“I’ve tried to live a human life, which isn’t always easy”
Irena was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations
by Yad Vashem in 1965. Her close friend Lili Pohlman
spoke widely in the UK about Irena’s work and in 1999
students from Kansas made a play about her life -
finally the world got to learn about this amazing woman
and the network she coordinated.
The tree of righteousness planted in Israel in Irena’s honour with the medal she
received
Lili Pohlman, a Holocaust survivor who was born in Krakow and hidden as a child in Lvov, championing the
work of her close friend Irena Sendler.
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski
Maximilian Kolbe
Father Maximilian Kolbe 1894 - 1941
Raymond Kolbe was born in Zdunska Wola, Poland, to a devout Roman
Catholic family. When he was 12 he had a vision of the Virgin Mary which
changed his life, when he learned that he was to become a martyr. He entered
a seminary at Lvov in 1910 and was ordained as a priest in 1918. He formed a
group called “Knights of the Immaculate” which was dedicated to fighting for
goodness, encouraging people to have an interest in religion and to perform
charitable works. They published a journal which was designed to ‘illuminate
the truth and show the way to true happiness.’ In 1930 he travelled to
Nagasaki, Japan and published the journal in Japanese. Here, he did not try to
impose Christianity, but respected Buddhism and Shintoism looking for ways
to engage in dialogue. He returned to Poland in 1936 and three years later,
when the Germans invaded, he resumed his pamphleteering work and offered
assistance to Polish refugees, both Jewish and non-Jewish.
Kolbe with student priests
His work agitated the Nazi regime and he was imprisoned on many
occasions, eventually being deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was the
most notorious concentration camp that the Nazi’s built on Polish soil –
more than a million of the six million European Jews that were murdered in
the Holocaust died there. It was also were approximately 70,000 non-Jewish
Poles were murdered. Although it was a terrible place of death, many
remarkable stories of heroism have emerged from the testimony of
survivors, - one such example is that of prisoner 16770 - Maximilian Kolbe.
Father Maximilian Kolbe 1894 - 1941
Kolbe was incarcerated in a part of the camp where Polish non-Jewish
prisoners were kept. Even in these dreadful surroundings his instinct was to
reach out to his fellow men. Auschwitz Survivors have reported that he shared
his rations of soup or bread with others and, at night-time, moved from bunk
to bunk, saying: 'I am a Catholic priest. Can I do anything for you?'
The prisoner bunks at Auschwitz (this photo was taken many years after the war)
After the war the prisoner that Kolbe replaced said 'I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could
hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and
voluntarily offers his life for me - a stranger. Was this some dream?’
Father Maximilian Kolbe 1894 - 1941
When it was reported that another prisoner had escaped from the camp, the Nazis decide to starve 10 others in
retaliation. One of the selected men broke down and cried “My wife! My children! I will never see them again!”
Hearing this, Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and asked to die in his place. The Germans granted this request,
probably because the young prisoner was more useful to them as a slave labourer than the much older, frailer Kolbe.
Father Maximilian Kolbe died on 14 August, 1941 and his
body was removed to the crematorium, without dignity or
ceremony, like hundreds of thousands who had gone before
him, and hundreds of thousands more who would follow.
Another survivor declared that the when the news and
circumstances of Father Kolbe's death became known it was
like 'a shock filled with hope - like a powerful shaft of light in
the darkness of the camp.'
The cell in Auschwitz where Father Kolbe died is now a shrine
and he was made a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1981. His
story continues to inspire many people today.
Father Maximilian Kolbe 1894 - 1941
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski Emanuel
Ringelblum
EMANUEL RINGELBLUM 1900 - 1944
Emanuel Ringelblum was born in Buczacz, Poland
(now Ukraine) in 1900 and studied history at the
University of Warsaw. In November 1938 he went to
the border town of Zbaszyn, where 6,000 Jewish
refugees from Germany, with Polish nationality, were
being held. He spent five weeks caring for these
destitute people, who had been expelled by Germany
but whose entry into Poland was being blocked by the
Polish Government, and his experiences had a great
impact. Consequently, after the Germans invaded
Poland, he set up welfare programmes and soup
kitchens for his fellow impoverished Jews who had
been forced to into the Warsaw Ghetto.Emanuel Ringelblum and his son Uri
Polish Jews, expelled from Germany but denied
entry into Poland, being held at the border town
of Zbaszyn in dreadful conditions
In 1939 he started to keep a detailed diary and also encouraged others to gather as much information of day-to-day life
under German occupation possible, to create an account of events from the perspective of the victims of the Nazis.
This had to be a secretive activity, as any recording of German crimes was strictly forbidden by the oppressors. The
group were code-named “the Oneg Shabbat” (The Joy of the Sabbath) as its members met in secret on Saturday
afternoons to collate the reports and testimonies they had collected from Jews who had come to the ghetto.
EMANUEL RINGELBLUM 1900 - 1944
Ringelblum with Rachel Auerbach (right) who became
an important contributor to the Oneg Shabbat Archive
Ringelblum and his co-conspirators knew that what was happening to the Jews was
unprecedented and were determined to record a complete description of the time and
place for future historians. They collected data and wrote articles about towns, villages,
the ghetto, and the resistance movement. They also documented the deportation and
extermination of Polish Jewry. Near the end of the ghetto's existence, the information the
group had collected about the mistreatment of Jews was passed on to the Polish
underground, which in turn smuggled it out of the country. This led to a radio broadcast
by the BBC, helping to expose the Nazis' atrocities to the wider world – although a plea
for the Allies to intervene to prevent the genocide went unheeded…
As Ghetto conditions became more desperate
it was decided to secure the materials by
burying them in the cellar of an apartment in
metal milk cans and boxes (right).
1
2
3 4
5
6 1
2
3
4
5
6
EMANUEL RINGELBLUM 1900 - 1944
The archive contained over 30,000 separate documents and artefacts. Here is a selection of just some…
A wrapper from a sweet making factory in
The Ghetto.
One of a collection of 300 paintings by
Gela Seksztajn
Sign showing the families that are sharing
rooms in one Warsaw apartment.
First sketch of the Treblinka Death Camp,
smuggled into the ghetto by an escapee.
A ghetto ration card
One of the thousands of handwritten
documents that make up the archive.
In March 1943, Ringelblum and his family escaped the ghetto and went into hiding in
the non-Jewish area of Warsaw. A month later he returned to the ghetto, which was
in the midst of an uprising, and was captured and deported to a Trawniki labour
camp. He was able to escape, and re-join his family in hiding. However, in March
1944, just months before the end of the war, their hideout was discovered and he
and his family were taken to the ruins of the ghetto and murdered by the Germans.
After the war two sites where the archive had been
buried were uncovered, in 1946 and 1950; a third
stash of documents has never been located. The
archive materials constitute the most comprehensive
and valuable source of information concerning the
Jews in German-occupied Poland and the
significance of the events that took place.The Archive being retrieved in 1946
Rachel Auerbach and Hersz Wasser, two
Oneg Shabbat survivors inspect the archive
after it’s recovery from the ground
EMANUEL RINGELBLUM 1900 - 1944
EMANUEL RINGELBLUM 1900 - 1944
After the war The Jewish Historical Institute was established, in what was previous a
library next to The Great Synagogue of Warsaw (which was destroyed by the
Germans at the end of the Warsaw Uprising). This is where the contents of the
archive was painstakingly restored and documented to make it one of the most
important sources of information on The Holocaust. A revamped digital exhibition
has been opened there, enabling more people to learn from its contents.
A book about the archive by Samuel Kassow,
entitled Who Will Write Our History?, was
made into a film in 2018.
The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw The new digital exhibition
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski Mordechai
Anielewicz
MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Mordechai Anielewicz was the leader of the Jewish Resistance fighters that
fought back against the German Army between 19th April and 8th May in what
remained of the Warsaw Ghetto. By that time the vast majority of the ghetto’s
residents had been sent to Treblinka death camp and it was when the
Germans attempted to deport the rest that Anielewicz’s fighters attacked.
There was no realistic hope of a military victory – this Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
was purely a final act of resistance in response to the atrocious violence that had
been inflicted on the Jews of Warsaw over the previous three and a half years. It
was an opportunity to get some revenge for the murderous attacks that had been
visited upon their fellow Jews – a change to die with some dignity
MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Anielewicz was 20 when the Germans invaded Poland in
September 1939. Aware of the dangers that Polish Jews were
going to be subjected to, he joined an organisation that tried to
set up an escape route through Romania, which shared a
border with Poland at the time. However, he was imprisoned
by Soviet troops and, on release, returned to Warsaw. By mid-
1941 he had began to train youth groups in the ghetto in
armed resistance and reached out to other underground
movements to help supply weapons for a possible uprising.
Mordechai Anielewicz (top right) with other members of the
youth movement he was part of before the war which became a
crucial part of the Ghetto Uprising in April 1943.
MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Anielewicz was engaged in underground work in southern
Poland when he learnt about the deportations from Warsaw. He
immediately returned to the capital with the intention of
organising an armed resistance movement against the Germans.
Previously the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto were reluctant to
sanction attacks on the occupiers for fear of inciting even more
reprisals. But attitudes changed after the deportations – few
realistically expected to survive the war.
The deportations to Treblinka during the summer of 1942 reduced the population of The
Warsaw Ghetto drastically. As a result, the southern part of the former ghetto was subsumed
into the rest of the city and most of the wall that had previously separated the Jewish
population from the rest of the city was demolished. Consequently, during the winter of 1942
the surviving Jews were crammed into the northern section of the former ghetto – close to
where the transports departed from Warsaw to Treblinka. The residents knew it was only a
matter of time until the Germans would complete the liquidation of the ghetto…
Mordechai Anielewicz (circled) with a group of Jewish resistance fighters
MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
…this happened in January 1943. But to the Germans' surprise they were
met by Anielewicz’s resistance fighters. Twelve fighters secretly slipped
themselves into the lines off people being led into the loading area (the
Umschlagplatz) and, at a signal, each shot the nearest soldier. In the
confusion many Jews were able to escape back into the ghetto. Although
all 12 fighters died, this first act of resistance was seen as a victory and
was a source of great encouragement to Anielewicz’s organisation.
The Germans were forced to abandon the planned
final liquidation of The Ghetto and the fighters
used that lull to prepare for the inevitable final
attack. They prepared as much home-made
ammunition as possible and did all they could to
smuggle in weapons as well. In preparation for
what was inevitably going to be an ambush-based
attack, the fighters set up cells in the basements of
the what remained of the ghetto.
Many female couriers posed as non-Jews to
establish lines of communication with other
underground organisations. They past on messages
and smuggled in weapons and ammunition, often
paying for such bravery with their lives.
A basement bunker that housed a fighting unit.
MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
In the days leading up to the final battles of The Ghetto Uprising, German troops began
to encircle the area and they made their move in the early hours of April 19th. The
resistance fighters predicted that the Germans would enter through an entrance near to a
brush-making factory – which is where they decided to set their trap. Armed fighters
positioned themselves on roof tops and others, with improvised “Molotov cocktail”
bombs, crouched below windows that looked down at the street below. The German’s had
no idea that as their column of tanks and trucks slowly made its way into the ghetto that
they were about to be ambushed. It was when the first tank was over a landmine-bomb
that had been buried in the road, that the attack happened. The explosion that set the tank
on fire was the cue for the hidden fighters to start their attack and the German’s retreated.
Compared to the German troops the Uprising
fighters were poorly armed. They relied mostly
on petrol-bombs known as “Molotov
Cocktails” and had a limited number of
weapons with very little ammunition.
Anielewicz wrote in a letter a few days later –
It is impossible to put into words what we have been through. One thing is clear, what happened exceeded our boldest dreams. The Germans ran twice from the ghetto. One of our
companies held out for 40 minutes and another for more than 6 hours. The mine set in the "brushmakers" area exploded. Several of our companies attacked the dispersing Germans. Our losses in manpower are minimal… the dream of my life has risen to become fact. Self-
defence in the ghetto will have been a reality. Jewish armed resistance and revenge are facts. I have been a witness to the magnificent, heroic fighting of Jewish men in battle.
MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising lasted 28 days.
Eventually the Germans resorted to systematically
burning the ghetto, building by building, to finally
quell the resistance. They flushed out any remaining
cells by dropping grenades into the basement
bunkers - Mordechai Anielewicz, along with the
surviving fighters he was hiding with, chose to kill
themselves rather than be captured by the Germans.
Some of the ghetto residents managed to
escape through the sewer system, but most
of the remaining Jews were either executed
in Warsaw or sent to Treblinka.
MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
It’s unlikely that the events that took place in the Warsaw Ghetto in the early months of 1943 resulted in
many more Jews surviving the war. But the symbol of resistance against what was perceived to be an
invincible enemy had a hugely significant impact. The Ghetto Uprising, which took place two years
before the end of the war, was seen by surviving Jews as an expression of resistance and showed that
world that, in the words of Mordechai Anielewicz, not all Jews “went to their deaths like lambs to the slaughter”.
Monuments in Warsaw that remember the Ghetto Uprising. The structure on the left commemorates where in Warsaw the fighting took
place and the monument on the right signifies the location, in Mila 18, of the bunker where Anielewicz died.
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski
Witold Pilecki
WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948
Pilecki was born on 13 May 1901 in Olonets – a small town in
what was then the Russian Empire. After serving in the Polish
Army, he married Maria Ostrowska, a schoolteacher, in 1931 and
had two children, Andrzej and Zofia. He devoted himself to
running the family farm and enjoyed painting and writing poetry.
Witold Pilecki is the only inmate known to be voluntarily
imprisoned at Auschwitz. His incredible story of self- sacrifice
remained hidden for over 40 years after his execution.
WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948
In August 1939, when Poland was invaded by Germany, Pilecki was called up to the army. After Poland’s defeat he
made his way to Warsaw to fight with the underground resistance. In August 1940, news arrived of the death of a
group of Polish political opponents who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz. This caused alarm within the Polish
underground and Pilecki volunteered to investigate. On 19 September 1940, he intentionally allowed himself to be
arrested by the Nazis and was detained nearby for two days with an estimated 1,800 Polish political prisoners before
being transported to Auschwitz. He remained there for the next two and a half years as prisoner 4859. Pilecki’s
mission was to raise the morale of Polish political prisoners by bringing news from outside the camp, as well as to
report on camp conditions to the Home Army in Warsaw. In October 1940, he successfully sent out his first report
with a released inmate. It reached the Polish Government-in-exile in March 1941, who passed it onto the Allies.
WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948
While imprisoned in the camp Pilecki witnessed the horrifying mistreatment of inmates. His reports described the
early experiments conducted on Soviet prisoners of war, who were murdered with poisonous gas. This laid the
foundations for the mass-murder of many Jews in the purpose-built gas chambers and crematoria. Pilecki also
reported on the suffering of the Roma and Sinti prisoners undergoing sterilisation experiments against their will;
many of who died from their injuries. Pilecki eventually created an underground organisation within Auschwitz.
They built a radio transmitter from parts smuggled in by civilians who worked at the camp. This enabled him to
report on camp conditions and the number of deaths until the risk of discovery became too high.
Pilecki’s bravery and will-power cannot be overstated.
In his report he describes the hunger as ‘the hardest
battle of his life’ and was overwhelmed by the task he
had set himself but refused to admit this to his
colleagues in case it damaged their morale.
The English translation of the sign above the gates of Auschwitz is “Work Liberates”. The aim was to give the impression that this German
concentration camp was only a labour camp.
WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948
At first escape attempts were discouraged because of the group punishment inflicted on the inmates left behind.
However, once group punishment was abandoned, the organisation actively assisted escapees. On one occasion, Pilecki
gave his own planned escape route to an inmate in more imminent danger. He eventually escaped in April 1943 - he and
two companions successfully removed the bolts from a heavy door whilst the guards’ backs were turned. They journeyed
for 100km on foot which took them a week. He returned to Warsaw and fought in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 but that
defeat led to Pilecki’s further imprisonment in POW camps in Germany, where he earned the nickname ‘Daddy’ from the
younger inmates he looked after. When the camps were liberated at the end of the war, Pilecki was sent to Italy where he
joined the Polish Armed Forces and wrote comprehensively about his time in Auschwitz.
‘The game which I was now playing in
Auschwitz was dangerous. This sentence
does not really convey the reality; in fact, I
had gone far beyond what people in the
real world would consider dangerous…’
WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948
Despite his relative safety in Italy, Pilecki returned
once again to Warsaw to gather intelligence on the
newly established Polish Communist government.
The Nazis had been overthrown, but so had the
Polish Government-in-exile. To Pilecki and the
Home Army, Poland was subservient to their
Soviet liberators and therefore still not free. Witold
Pilecki was captured by the Communist Polish
authorities on 8 May 1947 and accused of spying
and of planning to assassinate key figures in the
Polish police. He was tortured into signing his
‘confession’ and put through a sham-trial, where he
was not permitted to testify, and no witnesses were
called. The trial was used to deter any other
opposition to the Soviet Communist regime.
WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948
He was subsequently executed
on 25 May 1948. In 1990,
shortly after the collapse of
the Soviet Union and the
Communist regime in Poland,
Pilecki was finally exonerated
and recognised for his actions
during World War Two.
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski
Janusz Korczak
JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942
Janusz Korczak was the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit. He
was born in Warsaw, to an assimilated Jewish family.
After school he became a medical doctor, doing his best to help
the poorest in society. He also began to write prolifically, and his
first books aroused great interest. Both as a doctor and a writer,
Korczak was drawn to the world of the child. He worked in a
Jewish children’s hospital and took groups of children to
summer camps, and in 1908 he began to work with orphans.
JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942
In 1912 he was appointed director of a new and spacious Jewish
orphanage in Warsaw. Throughout his life, his partner in his work was
Stefania Wilczynska, who dedicated her life to the care of orphans and
greatly influenced Korczak and his career as an educator.
In the orphanage, Korczak developed an approach to child
care that called for an understanding of the emotional life of
children and urged that children be respected. A child was not
to be regarded as something to be shaped and trained to suit
adults, but rather as someone whose soul was rich in
perception and ideas, who should be observed and listened to
within his or her own autonomous sphere. Korczak
maintained that every child should be seen as an individual.
JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942
After the war he returned to the newly independent Poland. He resumed his
role in the Jewish orphanage but was also asked to take charge of an
orphanage for Polish children. Thus the 1920’s were a period of intensive and
fruitful work in Korczak’s life – he was in charge of two orphanages and
served as an instructor at other boarding schools and summer camps, as well
as being a lecturer at universities and seminaries. In the late 1920’s, he
established a weekly newspaper for children that was also written by children,
who related their experiences and their deepest thoughts.
In 1914 Korczak was called up for military service in the
Russian army, and it was in military hospitals and bases
that he wrote his important work Loving Every Child.
JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942
But in the mid-1930’s, Korczak’s public career underwent a change.
Following the death of the Polish leader, Jozef Pilsudski, political
power in the country fell into radical nationalistic and openly anti-
Semitic hands. Korczak was removed from many of the positions in
which he had been active, including an extremely popular radio
broadcast that had made him famous across the country.
He visited Palestine twice, in 1934 and 1936, showing particular interest
in the state of education, especially the educational achievements of the
kibbutz movement. On the eve of World War Two Korczak was
considering emigration, but his idea failed to reach fruition.
JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942
As the situation got worse and the Jews of Warsaw were imprisoned in the
ghetto, Korczak concentrated all his efforts on the orphanage. The only
thing that gave him the strength to carry on was the duty he felt to preserve
and protect his children. Polish friends of Dr Korczak tried to persuade
him to escape from the ghetto but he refused to abandon the children.
On Thursday 6 August 1942 the Germans deported Korczak, his assistants
and the two hundred children. A witness described the scene as follows:
“This was not a march to the railway cars - this was an organised, wordless
protest against the murder. The children marched in rows of four, with
Korczak leading them, looking straight ahead, and holding a child’s hand
on each side. Another column was led by Stefania Wilczynska, her children
carrying blue knapsacks on their backs.”
From the very beginning of the war, Korczak dedicated himself to the welfare of
children. At first, he refused to acknowledge the German occupation and heed its rules,
even refusing to wear the Jewish star, which earned him a prison sentence.
JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942
After the war, associations bearing Korczak’s name were formed in Poland, Israel,
Germany and other countries, to keep his memory alive and to promote his
message and his work. Books, plays and films have all been produced about
Korczak, and his own writings have been translated into many languages.
Korczak, his assistants and all of the children, were killed in Treblinka.
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski
Jan Karski
JAN KARSKI 1914 - 2000
Jan Karski was born Jan Kozielewski to a
Roman Catholic family in Lodz in 1914.
After completing his university studies,
Karski joined the Polish diplomatic service.
At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, he joined the Polish army but was taken
prisoner by the Soviets and sent to a detention camp. Karski managed to conceal the fact that
he was an officer, which enabled him to avoid the Katyń massacre where 22,000 Polish officers
were executed. He eventually escaped and joined the Polish underground movement.
JAN KARSKI 1914 - 2000
With his knowledge of geography and foreign languages and a
remarkable memory, Karski became a resourceful courier. He
conveyed secret information between the resistance and the
Polish government-in-exile. In late 1940, while on a mission, he
was captured by the German police and tortured in prison. Afraid
that he might give away secret information he attempted to kill
himself. He was found alive and transferred to a hospital where
he managed to make contact with a fellow undercover agent, who
told him that his escape was being planned. Karski feigned illness
until the night of his rescue was scheduled.
JAN KARSKI 1914 - 2000
In late 1942 Karski was smuggled in and out of the Warsaw ghetto and
a transit camp at Izbica, where he saw for himself the horrors suffered
by Jews under Nazi occupation, including mass starvation and
transports of Jews to the Belzec death camp. Karski then travelled to
London where he delivered a report to the Polish government-in-exile
and to senior British authorities including Foreign Minister Anthony
Eden. He described what he had seen and warned of Nazi Germany’s
plans to murder European Jews. In July 1943 Karski went to
Washington and met with American President Franklin D. Roosevelt to
give the same warning and plead for action. Much to his dismay, Allied
governments were focused on the military defeat of Germany, and
Karski’s message was greeted with disbelief or indifference. Karski’s report – one of the earliest comprehensive descriptions of what was happening to the Jews of Poland
JAN KARSKI 1914 - 2000
Disheartened, Karski remained in the United States. He wrote a
book about his time during the war called The Secret State.
He refused to return to Communist Poland and
remained in Washington promoting Polish freedom
and serving for many decades as a professor at
Georgetown University. When Poland regained it’s
freedom from communist rule he was honoured by the
then Prime Minister Lech Wałęsa.
JAN KARSKI 1914 - 2000
He is seen as a pillar of humanity all over the world. There are
many “Karski Benches” to commemorate his memory.
Jan Karski is honoured by Yad Vashem as Righteous
Among the Nations. He was also granted honorary
citizenship of Israel in honour of his deeds during the war.
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski Zofia Kossak-
Szczucka
ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ZEGOTA NETWORK
The story of Zofia Kossak-Szczucka illustrates the complex relations between Jewish and
non-Jewish Poles were before and during the German occupation of the country. Before
the war she was well known for her intolerant views towards Jews but eventually became
one of the main co-ordinators of an organisation that helped many hundreds of Jews
escape the dangers of the Nazi regime and continue to support them when in hiding.
In 1936, three years before the German occupation, she wrote –
“Jews are so terribly alien to us… they are a race apart… Their argumentativeness, the set of
their eyes, the shape of their ears, the winking of their eyelids, the line of their lips,
everything…”
In 1942, after the Nazis commenced the extermination of the inhabitants of the Warsaw
ghetto, she wrote –
“The world is watching the most horrible crime that has ever taken place in history, and
keeps silent. The slaughter of millions of defenceless people is being carried out amidst
general and ominous silence… We must not tolerate this silence any longer. He who keeps
silent in the face of slaughter becomes an accomplice to murder. He who doesn’t condemn,
complies with the murder.”
ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA 1890 -1968
ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ŻEGOTA NETWORK
The organisation that Zofia Kossak-Szczucka helped to set up was known as “Żegota” – the codename for
the “Council to Aid Jews”. This was a secret underground network that resisted the German occupation in
Poland. Żegota was linked to the Polish Government in Exile, which was made up of Polish political
leaders who had escaped occupied Poland and who remotely coordinated acts of resistance in their
homeland. When Żegota was formed the Polish Government in Exile was based in London.
(left) British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill with Władysław Sikorski, the
Prime Minister of the Polish Government
in exile, until he tragically died in an air
crash in July 1943.
Members of the Polish Government in Exile that was based in London for most of the war
ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ŻEGOTA NETWORK
Julian Grobelny (whose code name was Trojan) was the president of Żegota since its
establishment in 1942. Together with his wife, Halina, he was personally involved in the
rescue of a large number of Jewish children. Both Julian and Halina devoted most of
their time and energy to their rescue work, turning their small house in into a temporary
shelter for Jewish children until they could move into more permanent accommodations.
The Grobelnys were in close contact with Irena Sendler, who by then was the head of
the children’s section of Żegota. They also helped Jewish adults who fled from the
ghetto, by supplying them with “Aryan” documents, money and medicines.
At considerable personal risk, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka devoted her time and energy to bringing together
a wide range of people to help organise rescue and assistance to Jews in occupied Poland. Half of the 6
million Jews who died during The Holocaust were Polish and in that context, despite Żegota’s best
efforts, only a tiny number of people could be helped. But rather than judge its impact on purely
numerical terms (approximately 5,000 people received, financial assistance, forged identity documents or
a safe place to hide) it should be remembered that, in a time of such hopelessness, where the Jews of
Europe felt abandoned, Żegota was a symbol of humanity and resistance…
Here are some of the prominent members of this remarkable organisation…
ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ŻEGOTA NETWORK
Another important figure in the organisation was Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz. She was not
new to underground resistance activities, as in 1906, during the time when Poland was still
partitioned among Russia, Germany and Austria, she participated in a bombing attack on the
then Russian Governor-General of Warsaw. She was a Socialist activist and the wife of a
former Ambassador to the United States. She used her considerable influence to persuade
others to support the rescue operation both with their time and, if they were based outside
Poland, with their financial support. Using the code-name ”Alicja,” as well as helping to
coordinate the wider organisation, she offered shelter to Jews in her own home.
Leon Feiner was chairman of Żegota from August ‘44 to January ‘45. He was imprisoned in the USSR
when the Germans invaded in June 1941 and escaped to Warsaw where he joined the underground
network. In October 1942 he managed to send a telegram to the Polish Government-in-Exile in London,
with information of what was happening to Poland’s Jews. He also met with Jan Karski and made the
following appeal - " The Germans are not trying to make us slaves as they are doing with other peoples -
we are being systematically murdered. Our entire people will be destroyed. A few can probably be saved,
but the fate of three million Jews is sealed… the earth should be shaken to its very foundations and the
world needs to be roused. Maybe then, it will wake up, understand and see".
ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ŻEGOTA NETWORK
Władysław Bartoszewski was in Auschwitz as a Polish prisoner from the autumn of 1940 to
the spring of 1941. From then on her resolved never to turn his back on suffering. Zofia
Kossak persuaded him to join the underground and he began to use his close contacts in the
Jewish community to help ghetto escapees find employment and obtained medical assistance
for children. He also organised over 50,000 forged identity documents. “Did every document
save a life? Who knows? We didn’t keep those statistics. People needed to be rescued. We did
whatever we could”. After the war he worked as a historian, journalist and diplomat and when
Poland regained independence he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Until the deportations to Treblinka in the summer of 1942 Dr Adolf Bermann was
involved in providing help for Jewish children in the Warsaw Ghetto. He managed to
escape to the “Aryan” side of the city and forged links between the Polish and Jewish
Underground networks. Although he had a new non-Jewish identity it was still highly
risky to move about the city. Eventually he was denounced to the Germans by
blackmailers and captured by the Gestapo. Zegota paid a bride to secure his release
and Bermann resumed his clandestine work. After the war he devoted his time to
supporting fellow Holocaust survivors and eventually moved to Israel.
ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ŻEGOTA NETWORK
A memorial to Żegota is situated outside POLIN, the Museum to the History of Poland’s Jews in Warsaw and a
special tree of remembrance has been planted in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski Father Marceli
Godlewski
FATHER MARCELI GODLEWSKI 1865 - 1945
When the German Army invaded Poland in September 1939 Father Marceli Godlewski had
been the parish priest of the All Saints' Church in Warsaw for almost 25 years and was
planning to spend his retirement in Anin, a small town just east of the Polish capital.
All Saints’ Church dominated Grzybowska Square in Warsaw
since its completion in 1883
Between the end of World War One, when Poland
regained it’s independence, and the eve of World War Two,
Warsaw’s population grew by 30%. The city struggled to
cope with this increase in humanity and many families lived
in unsanitary, over-crowded conditions, relying upon the
charity of the Catholic Church to alleviate the effects of
the such poverty. Father Godlewski considered it to be his
duty to do everything he could to help his parishioners,
but although about a third of the city was Jewish he refused to extend a helping hand to
them. Both in sermons from the pulpit and in his many newspaper articles he urged his
fellow Catholics to avoid any dealing with Jews. “ ‘Each to his own’ is a wonderful slogan”
he once said. In fact his anti-Jewish views were widely known, which makes the acts of
rescue and resistance he embarked upon during the German occupation of Poland all the
more remarkable. This one-time hater of Jews was to risk his life to save hundreds…
THE CHURCH IN THE GHETTO
In the weeks prior to The Warsaw
Ghetto being sealed, in November
1940, there was a massive forced
movement of people – Jews who
lived outside the boundaries had to
move inside and non-Jews who lived
where The Ghetto was to be, had to
leave. There were also about 2000
“baptised Jews”, who had converted
All Saints’ Church was situated within The Warsaw Ghetto
to Christianity. Although they no longer considered themselves to be
Jewish, the Germans did and so they were forced to live within The
Ghetto walls as well. All Saints Church was now located within The
Ghetto and Father Godlewski chose to remain inside as well, so that
this small group of people could continue to worship.
Part of The Ghetto wall being built
But Father Godlewski was providing much more than just the chance for people to pray…
Movement into and out of the ghetto was restricted to those who had been
issued with official passes from the German authorities. As priests Father
Godlewski and his staff were able to obtain these passes, which enabled them
to smuggle in much needed food and medicine. At first such assistance was
specifically for the parishioners of the church, but as starvation and disease
claimed more and more lives, Father Godlewski decreed that, as all life is of
equal worth, then all residents of the ghetto were deserving of help.
RESCUE AND RESISTANCE
A soup-kitchen was established in the church where starving ghetto
residents could supplement their meagre diet and part of the
building was turned into a temporary shelter for those who could no
longer afford to rent their own homes. And as conditions
deteriorated, and more and more desperate Jewish ghetto residents
decided to risk escape, Father Godlewski issued false baptismal and
identity documents to help them survive.
Starvation ravaged the ghetto residents
A queue outside a ghetto soup-kitchen
Father Godlewski was particularly concerned with the plight of
orphaned children begging on the streets. At first he organised
a kindergarten in the grounds of the church, but later, through
his contacts in convents around Warsaw, he arranged for
children to be secretly taken out of the ghetto and placed in the
care of the Franciscan Sisters. Many of these convents were
run by Sister Matylda Getter, who never refused to take on
another child despite the considerable risks. Father Godlewski
eventually gave the building he was planning to retire to in
Anin to the Franciscan Sisters who established an orphanage.
Sister Matylda Getter
When the daily transports of Jews to the Treblinka Death Camp began in July 1942, the boundaries of the ghetto
shrunk. Eventually All Saints Church was no longer in the restricted area of the city, but Father Godlewski
continued to support the many people he knew who were in hiding, despite the fact that if he had been discovered
by the Germans he would have been killed. It is impossible to say how many people benefited from the work that
Father Godlewski undertook, as most of them would have died in Treblinka. But those who managed to survive
the Holocaust because of his efforts always emphasised how much they owe him.
Orphaned Jewish child in The Warsaw Ghetto
RESCUE AND RESISTANCE
Father Godlewski and many of the Priests and Sisters who worked with him have
been recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. It is particularly
significant that a person who was once openly antisemitic was able to alter his views
and put himself in considerable danger by devoting his life to saving Jews.
LEGACY
All Saints Church was extensively damaged during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising In 2017 All Saints Church was declared a “House of Life” due tot he work that Father Godlewski undertook.
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski Jan & Antonina
Zabinski
JAN (1897-1974) & ANTONINA (1908-1971) ZABINSKI
By the mid-1930's the Warsaw Zoo had
become one of Europe's largest zoos and
when war broke out in 1939 Jan Zabinski was
the zoo director. Over the course of the
German occupation of the city Jan, along with
his wife Antonina, provided refuge for many
Jews in the bombed out cages and the empty
basement rooms in their villa. During the
bombardment many animals were killed and
lions and tigers that had escaped from their
cages had to be shot as they roamed the streets.
After the Germans entered Warsaw many of
the surviving animals were taken to zoos in
Austria and Germany by German zoologists. .
The Zabinski villa, where many Jews were
hidden from the Nazis. It is now a museum that
tells the story of the events that took place there.
The first victims of the German
occupation that Jan and Antonina
Zabinski helped were physically
disabled Poles, who were the first
vulnerable group targeted by the Nazis.
The Warsaw Zoo
THE LOCATION OF THE WARSAW ZOO
The zoo was situated on the east bank
of the Vistula river in the Praga district
of Warsaw. By the time the Warsaw
Ghetto was established, in late 1940, it
was no longer a functioning zoo.
This illustration made by Jan Zabinski in 1940 shows that much of the zoo, by then, was used to grow vegetables and breed pigs for local consumption.
Szymon Tenenbaum was a fellow zoologist and close friend of
Jan Zabinski who specialised in the study of insects. His beetle
collection was being stored in the zoo for safety when, to his
complete surprise, one of the occupying German officers asked
Szymon to show it to him. When he took the officer to the zoo to
view the collection, Jan immediately befriended him and exploited
this contact to obtain permission to enter the ghetto.
Szymon Tenenbaum and part of his huge collection of beetles.
To begin with Jan would smuggle food and supplies into the ghetto,
but as conditions worsened he decided to offer shelter to Jews who
were willing to risk escaping. On several occasions he personally
smuggled Jews out where, because of the friendly relationships he had
cultivated with German guards, he was able to casually walk Jews out
of the ghetto without raising suspicion.
The Warsaw Ghetto, which covered 1.3 square miles and held over 400,000 Jews, was the most populace of the many
ghettos created in Poland by the Germans.
GAINING ENTRY TO THE GHETTO
As part of the Polish Underground Jan and Antonina decided to provide temporary shelter at the
zoo for escapees from the ghetto until a more permanent place of refuge could be found and forged
identity documents could be produced. They were helped in this dangerous undertaking by their
young son, Ryszard, who supplied food and looked after the needs of the many “guests”.
Ryszard on the zoo’s baby
elephant, Tuzinka
The Zabinskis bred pigs on the zoo grounds and supplied
them to local Nazi officers. It wasn’t uncommon for these
Germans to visit the villa to negotiate their sale. When this
happened a special code-tune was played on the piano to
warn the Jews hidden in the basement below that there was a
Nazi in the building and not to make a sound.
IN HIDING
Jan Zabinski was injured during in the Warsaw Uprising
in August and September 1944 and was taken as a
prisoner to Germany. His wife continued his work,
looking after the needs of some of the Jews left behind in
the ruins of the city. The Zabinskis were honoured by
Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1965.
RECOGNITION
Created by With support from
STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE
Józef &
Wiktoria
Ulma
Irena
Sendler
Maximilian
Kolbe Emanuel
Ringelblum
Mordechai
Anielewicz
Witold
Pilecki
Janusz
Korczak
Jan
Karski
Father
Marceli
Godlewski
Zofia
Kossak-
Szczucka
Jan &
Antonina
Zabinski Józef & Wiktoria
Ulma
JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA
Rzeszów
Markowa
Despite the fact that the
occupying German Army
executed Poles who gave shelter to
Jews, they hid eight Jewish people
in the attic of their home for over
a year. On 24th March 1944, after
this act of rescue was reported to
the local Gestapo by a vindictive,
antisemitic neighbour, they were
shot, along with their six children
and the hidden Jews.
Józef and Wiktoria Ulma lived in Markowa, in the
Podkarpackie Province, in the south east of Poland.
JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA
The Ulmas were farmers who lived in a remote part of the countryside.
They produced a wide range of vegetables and nuts and kept many
beehives as well as silkworms. Józef was very active in the local
community, but his biggest passion was photography. Consequently, there
are many images of life on the Ulma farm before and during the war.
JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA
By the summer of 1942 most of Markowa’s 1000 Jews
had either been shot by German death squads or were
deported to Bełżec extermination camp. From July the
Germans led hunts in the surrounding forests to search
for any Jews who were hiding there. For the few who
remained the only option was to hope that a friendly
Polish family would agree to offer them shelter. One
such family was the Goldmans. They had previously
leant their home to a Polish policeman called
Włodzimierz Leś in return for supplies, but Leś deceived
the family and claimed the property for himself.
One evening in the autumn of 1942, Saul, the father of
the family, arrived at the farm with his four sons. He had
known the Ulmas before the war and knew them to be
humane principled people. Józef agreed to offer them
shelter in their attic. A few weeks later they were joined
by Saul’s two daughters and a granddaughter.
JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA
A neighbour, Stanislaw Niemczak, testified after the war that - “They stayed on the premises and slept in the attic of the house...
They never hid in particular, since all of them were busy helping to run the farm. They helped in tanning animal hides and chopped
wood from the nearby forest for fuel.” This went on for over a year. Józef even photographed them at work (above).
But this act of rescue was tragically brought to an end on March 24th 1944…
JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA
The Goldman family contacted Włodzimierz Leś, who had taken up residence in
their home, to request that he at least return some of their property. Instead of
agreeing to this request, Leś responded by reporting the Ulma family to the local
German authorities. Consequently, German police came to Markowa, found the
Jews on the Ulma farm and executed them.
Afterwards they summoned the entire Ulma family to stand beside their murdered
guests and they too were shot - Józef, Wiktoria, who was seven months pregnant, and
their children - Stanislawa, Barbara, Wladyslawa, Franciszka, Maria, and Antoni.
JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA
The German’s brought local people to see the bodies in order to warn other
family’s who were sheltering Jews of the consequences of being caught.
News of the Ulma atrocity spread fear amongst the local population and
there is evidence that this terror-tactic had a profound and tragic effect on
the population. Yehuda Erlich, a Jewish man who was hiding in a village a
couple of miles from Markowa, wrote after the war - “Searches were
conducted both by the Germans and the Polish peasants themselves, who
wanted to find the hiding Jews. In spring 1944 a Jewish family (the Goldmans)
was discovered hiding with Polish peasants (the Ulmas). The Polish family –
eight souls, including the pregnant wife – was killed with the hiding Jews. As
a result, there was enormous panic among the Polish peasants who were
hiding Jews. In the days after these murders the bodies of 24 other Jews
were discovered in the fields - they had been murdered by the peasants who
had been sheltering them for the past two years”.
The fact that rescuers could so quickly become murderers illustrates how terrified the local population were of the
German authorities – they decided that the only certain way of hiding the fact that they had been sheltering Jews was
to silence the very people they had been hiding and anonymously leave their remains in a field. But many other
family’s in Markowa and the surroundings continued to shelter the Jews.
A monument to the Ulma Family in Markowa
JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA
A museum in honour of the Ulmas and other Polish rescuers in the region,
opened in 2016. It teaches about the compassionate and self-sacrificing rescuers
who helped Jews during World War II, as well as the more shameful aspects of
Polish-Jewish relations during German occupation. The aim of this museum is
to promote honest dialogue and mutual respect against the background of the
tragic events experienced by Poland and Europe during World War II.
The Ulma family are recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad
Vashem and there is a process underway to have Józef and Wiktoria
recognised as saints by The Vatican. In March each year the museum in
Markowa marks the National Day of Remembrance of Poles who saved
Jews from the Holocaust during World War Two.