Rome exhibition honours Poles who helped Jews in WWII
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
28.11.2018 15:15
An exhibition documenting efforts by Poles who helped Jews during World War II has opened in Rome.
Józef Ulma (right) and his wife Wiktoria. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
The exhibition at the Pontifical Urban University focuses on the history of the Polish Ulma family, who were shot by their country’s Nazi German occupiers for hiding Jews.
Józef Ulma, his wife Wiktoria, who was seven months pregnant, and their six children were executed by Germans in 1942 for sheltering Jews on their farm in south-eastern Poland.
During a general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, Pope Francis extended special greetings to the exhibition’s organisers, saying that the sacrifice of the Ulma family can serve as an example of fidelity to God and his commandments, of love and respect for human dignity.
The exhibition has been organised by Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance.
In 1995, the Yad Vashem Remembrance Institute in Jerusalem recognised the Ulma couple as Righteous Among the Nations.
A beatification process for the family, a step toward possible sainthood, is under way in the Roman Catholic Church.
(mk/gs)