September 10, 2023

WARSAW (AP) — In an unprecedented initiative, the Vatican planned to beatify on Sunday a Polish family of nine, a couple and their young children, who were executed by the Nazis during World War II for harboring Jews.

Last year, Pope Francis declared the Ulma family, fervent Catholics, martyrs of the faith, including the baby with whom Wiktoria Ulma was pregnant. That paved the way for the beatification Mass in the family’s hometown of Markowa in southeastern Poland.

The Ulmas were murdered in their home by Nazi German troops and local police under Nazi control in the early hours of March 24, 1944, along with the eight Jews who were hiding in the house, apparently following being betrayed.

Josef Ulma, 44, was a farmer, Catholic activist and amateur photographer who documented local and family life. He lived with his 31-year-old wife, Wiktoria, his 7-year-old daughter Stanislawa; Barbara, 6, and Maria, 18 months, and their children Wladyslaw, 5 years old; Franciszek, 3 years old; and Antoni, 2.

Saul Goldman, 70, died with them, along with his sons Baruch, Mechel, Joachim and Mojzesz, as well as Golde Grunfeld and her sister, Lea Didner, with their young daughter Reszla, according to the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). by its Polish acronym), which has thoroughly documented the history of the Ulma.

The Catholic Church faced a dilemma with beatifying Wiktoria’s unborn baby and declaring him a martyr because, among other things, he had not been baptized, which is a requirement for beatification.

The Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints issued a clarification on September 5 indicating that the baby had been born during the murders and received a “baptism of blood” from his martyred mother.

More than 30,000 people were expected to attend Sunday’s mass, the first time an entire family had been beatified.

Poland’s ruling conservative party has emphasized family values ​​and the heroism of Poles during the war, and the ceremony was a welcome addition to its intense political campaign ahead of the Oct. 15 election, in which the party Law and Justice aspires to win a third term, something unprecedented in the country.

After the beatification, a miracle would need to be attributed to the intercession of the Ulma for them to be canonized, as the process in which the Church designates saints is called.

The Yad Vashem Institute of Israel recognized the Ulma in 1995 as people who gave their lives trying to save Jews during the Holocaust.

In Poland they are a symbol of the bravery of thousands of Poles who risked everything to help the Jews. A decree by the Nazi occupiers declared that any aid to Jews was punishable by summary execution.

Poland was the first country invaded by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939. Some 6 million of its citizens died during the war, half of them Jews.

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Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.