Senator Jan Żaryn: we do not share the responsibility for Holocaust

In 2016, The Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews during World War II was opened in Markowa. On Polish Radio 24, Prof. Jan Żaryn told the story of Poles who, notwithstanding the risk of losing their own lives, were helping Jewish people threatened with extermination by the Third Reich.

“Józef and Wiktoria Ulma, who had seven children, protected two Jewish families. They were exposed after denunciation and Nazi Germans took revenge on them for helping Jews in a monstrously violent manner. They murdered the whole family; Wiktoria was then eight months pregnant. The physician who pronounced her death had also to pronounce the death of the child who was to be born. This death should have shocked the residents of Markowa – said Prof. Jan Żaryn. – However, despite this tragic event that was to teach the local community not to protect Jews, twenty-one people of Jewish origin were still being hidden in the town, until the Soviet army entered the Polish land – added the historian.

Prof. Jan Żaryn underlined that Poland and Poles are in no way jointly responsible for Holocaust, the evidence of which is e.g. the conduct of the Ulma family. – All structures of the Polish Underground State were, starting from 1942, engaged in rescuing Jewish people. The goal was to help Jews, and not implementing this programme was treated as collaboration (...) – said the guest of Polish Radio 24. – Markowa is a special place on the map of Europe and the whole World. What is more, the heroism of the residents of Markowa is, to some extent, a reflection of the heroism of Poland – concluded Prof. Jan Żaryn.

Polish Radio 24

REKLAMA