Ulma Family: Living Parable of Good Samaritan in Wartime

At the very center of the Ulmas’s lives was their profound Catholic faith. They were active in the Living Rosary Association at St. Dorothy’s Parish in Markowa. Years after the Ulmas’s execution, their family Bible was found. In it, two passages were underlined in red: a fragment of the Sermon on the Mount (“For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?”) and the parable of the Good Samaritan, next to which one word (tak, or “yes”) was written. The Ulmas have since been dubbed the “Good Samaritans of Markowa.” During the German occupation, the Ulmas gave shelter to eight Jews: the Goldmans, Didners, and Grünfelds. They certainly knew the risks. Posters with Hans Frank’s execution order were widely circulated across Poland. Shootings and hangings of Polish benefactors of Jews often took place publicly so that the subjugated population knew that the death sentence for altruism was not a dead law.