National Day of Remembrance of Poles Who Saved Jews Under German Occupation Date in the current year: March 24, 2025

The National Day of Remembrance of Poles Who Saved Jews Under German Occupation was established in 2018 by President Andrzej Duda. It is a public holiday, but not a work-free day unless it falls on a weekend. The main purpose of the holiday is to honor Polish citizens who risked their lives to save their Jewish neighbors from the Holocaust during the German occupation of Poland.

The date of the holiday, March 24, was chosen to commemorate the tragic story of the Ulma family. Józef and Wiktoria Ulma were a Polish Catholic couple who lived in the small village of Markowa near Łańcut. Wiktoria was a housewife, while Józef was a farmer until he was mobilized at the outbreak of World War II.

Before the war there were almost 30 Jewish families in Markowa (about 120 people). In the summer of 1942, the Nazi authorities announced that the Jews were to be resettled; in reality, it was part of Operation Reinhard, aimed at the extermination of Polish Jews. A few Jews from Markowa who reported for the supposed “resettlement” were either executed or transported to an extermination camp. The rest of the Jewish inhabitants of the village went into hiding.

The Ulmas took in eight Jews from two families and hid them in their attic. The Jews remained in hiding on the Ulmas family’s farm until the spring of 1944, doing various odd jobs to help with expenses. The Ulmas were ratted out to the occupation authorities by Włodzimierz Leś, a member of the Blue Police (the Nazi-backed police force in occupied Poland) who wanted to seize the property of one of the Jewish families hidden by the Ulmas.

In the early morning of March 24, 1944, the Germans raided the village and executed all eight Jews staying with the Ulmas, Józef, a pregnant Wiktoria, and their six children, ranging in age from 18 months to 7 years. Despite the murder of the Ulmas, some of their neighbors continued to hide Jews in their homes, helping at least 21 Jews survive the Holocaust.

In 1995, Yad Vashem posthumously recognized Józef and Wiktoria Ulma as Righteous Among the Nations. In all, more than 7,200 Polish citizens who helped Jews during World War II have received this honorary title. Poland has the largest number of Righteous Among the Nations in the world and the fifth largest per capita.

In 2004, a monument was erected in Markowa to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the massacre and honor the memory of the Ulmas. In 2023, Pope Francis beautified Józef and Wiktoria and they are now venerated as martyrs in the Catholic Church. Their feast day is celebrated on July 7 (their wedding anniversary).

The Ulmas have become a symbol of the martyrdom of Poles murdered by the Germans for saving Jews, so celebrating the National Day of Remembrance of Poles Who Saved Jews Under German Occupation on their death anniversary was an obvious choice.