Marcin Bogdan: Ulmów household Beatification not only with history

For specified a tiny town it was a immense event, but besides an organizational – logistical challenge. It should be admitted that everything was prepared perfectly, cars and coaches were directed to prepared parking lots, frequently located along narrow local roads rolling on hills. The traffic leaders were very kind and smiling, although the form of the information provided “from there you will walk to the place of the event” was sometimes surprising. It seems that not everyone knows the word celebration, which does not have a purely spiritual dimension and should besides be known to unbelievers.

It can be said that actions are important, not words, but words are besides crucial due to the fact that they bear witness. We could have seen that at the end of the celebration. First, during a direct connection to the Vatican, Pope Francis asked those gathered in St Peter's Square in Rome and in Markowa to "Applause for the Ulma FamilyIt’s okay. ” president Andrzej Duda, speaking a minute later, said "As believers we pray today, we pray present for the Ulm household and for their intercession to the Lord God for the care of our Homeland and all familiesIt’s okay. ” The president spoke of prayer and the Pope asked for applause. Words are crucial due to the fact that words bear witness.

On this peculiar day of Beatification of the Ulmów household the Polish-language media managed by German capital was very uncomfortable. They besides know that words are important. Therefore, they did not focus in their texts either on heroic actions of the Polish household or on the barbarism of the Germans. They besides exhibited, in the titles of texts, how perverse the information that Ulmów released a Polish police officer. Włodzimierz Leś – due to him – was a grenade police officer. The navy police were called by Hans Frank and were the formation of the III Things in occupied Poland. Although there is no hard evidence that it was Forest that denounced the Germans of the Ulms, there are strong indications that this was the case. But there was clear evidence that Forest collaborated with Germany. Therefore, the Polish Underground State issued a death conviction on him, which was effectively executed on September 10, 1944. The Polish State stood at the highest level, passed the exam. Another active associate in Markowa's execution was Czech volksdeutsch, MP Josef Kokott. According to witnesses, he personally murdered at least 3 Ulm children. Kokott lived in Czechoslovakia after the war, and in December 1957 was handed over to the Polish prosecutor as part of extradition. In 1958, he was sentenced to death penalty, which was converted into a life conviction after a year, and after another twelve years, the life conviction was replaced with 25 years imprisonment. Josef Kokott did not live to see freedom, died in the Polish prison 3 years before the final sentence. It can be said, therefore, that Czechoslovakia and the Polish People's Republic have besides taken up the task.

No punishment was suffered by the Germans who participated in this crime. Branch commander who committed a savage murder, Lieutenant Eilert Dieken, after the war had successfully undergone denasification and returned to his hometown of Essens, Lower Saxony, northern Germany. He was a respected resident, father of the family, besides continued to service in the police, which he had begun before the war, and established during the war as commander of the police station in Łańcut. He died in 1960 not only unjudged, but not even charged with crimes committed. In the trials in Poland, it was established that Mark's chieftain Teofil Kielar asked Dieken after the crime he had already committed why he had small, innocent children killed. Eilert Dieken replied: “So the cluster won't have any problem with them.It’s okay. ” erstwhile the issue of the heroism of the Ulm household became more widely known after years, in 2012 Eilert Dieken's daughter Gret wrote in a letter to an IPN historian and at the same time the grandson of Victoria Ulm's murdered sister, Dr. Matthew Szpytma, about his father: “From the letters I know he served in the Chain during the war. To my delight, I besides know that He did good things to people. Besides, I wouldn't anticipate anything else."

Jews whose lives they tried to save were not soldiers or officers of the Polish state. They were murdered only due to the fact that they were Jews. Victoria and Józef Ulmowie were neither soldiers nor officers of the Polish state. They were murdered only due to the fact that they were Poles. If they were Dutch, they could be interned, if they were Belgians they could pay the fine, if they were French they would not bear any consequences due to the fact that there were no rules in France “to aid Jews." The execution of Victoria and Joseph Ulm, their 7 children, including 1 more unborn and the execution of the Jews hidden by them, was part of the genocide committed in Poland by the Germans. And Germany, as a society, has not yet faced this problem fairly. Neither the German state nor the majority of German society can stand up to this day. It is hard to be amazed that Germany reacts so negatively to requests for war reparations directed by the Polish government. Although it seems impossible, a immense crowd of Germans live in ignorance or full lie. They think that their fathers and grandparents “have done much good to people” that their grandparents and Fathers bought works of art in Poland during the war due to the fact that they were rich people and could afford it (the uncovering of Horst von Wächtera, boy of the politician of Galicia, General SS Otto Wächtera in a conversation with Magdalena Orkurek).

Germany must yet stand in the fact and face its history. I don't know if they'll do it, possibly the past of the Ulm household and the beatification done will aid them. I don't know if they will. But if they do, if they do and realize what they've done to us, they'll study their willingness to pay the reparation. The amount has been calculated.