“I am pleased that once again we could honour the Polish Righteous among the Nations. Through music, we want to commemorate the heroism of our compatriots,” said in an interview with the Family News Service Bogdan Romaniuk, Director of the Festival of David’s Psalms, held on March 24 at the Garrison Command Club in Warsaw. The event is organised by the SOAR Ulma Family Foundation.
Photo: Tadeusz Poźniak Photography
Bogdan Romaniuk recalled that March 24 is the National Day of Remembrance for Poles who rescued Jews under the German occupation. It is also the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Ulma family and the Jews they were protecting. The family of nine, including an unborn child, were proclaimed blessed on 10 September 2023. „We are immensely grateful to Pope Francis for approving the decree on the martyrdom of the Ulmas in December that year,” the Festival director noted. On 27 August, the Foundation held a thanksgiving concert for the Ulmas. Similar concerts were also held in October in Israel and in December in Rome.
Among the guests of the latest edition of the Festival were the President of the Polish Society of the Righteous Among the Nations Anna Stupnicka-Bando, Head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Repression Jan Józef Kasprzyk, and ministers of the Polish government. Guests could watch and listen to a number of outstanding artists. The festival was divided into the Jewish and the Polish parts. „Through this project, representatives of two religions and two nations, have the opportunity to meet on a single platform of psalms, singing praise to God and expressing thanks for the fact that Poles were able to behave so heroically in that difficult time”, Bogdan Romaniuk told the Family News Service.
The most recent edition of the Festival featured: in the Jewish part, cantor Yaakov Lemmer and pianist Menachem Bristowski. The Polish part featured conductors Janusz Wierzgacz, Marcin Pospieszalski, Piotr Rubik, musicians Michał Lorenc, Michał Jurkiewicz, Golec uOrkiestra and again Piotr Rubik, soloists Andrzej Lampert, Barbara Giewont, Izabela Szafrańska, Dariusz Malejonek, Ricky Lion, Grzegorz Kupczyk, Grzegorz Wilk, Aleksandra Tocka, and once again Michał Jurkiewicz and Golec Orkiestra, with Agata Galik oin the harp, the Polish Film Music Orchestra, and the Sienna Gospel Choir. The meeting was hosted by Anna Popek and Grzegorz Boratyn. The artistic director of the event was Michał Jurkiewicz, and Symcha Keller and Fr. Tomasz Ryczek were the narrators.
The Festival of David’s Psalms was held for the first time in 2016. From its inception, the initiative has been part of the mission of the Museum of Poles Saving Jews to show the history of the rescue of Jews by Poles during World War II, Polish-Jewish relations during the Holocaust, and the dissemination of knowledge about the fate of the Ulma Family from Markowa.
The SOAR Ulma Family Foundation, organiser of the Festival of David’s Psalms, was inspired by the life and death of the Ulmas. „The Foundation was established in 2015 in order to promote the Polish Righteous. Through the Psalms of David Festivals we want to reach out to as many Poles as possible in Poland and abroad, where these concerts also take place”.
On 24 March 1944, in Markowa (Podkarpackie Voivodeship, formerly Lviv Voivodeship), the Ulma family and the Jews they were hiding were killed after a tip-off at the hands of German gendarmes. In 1995, the Ulmas were posthumously honoured as the Righteous Among the Nations. In 2010, they were awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczyński. On 10 September 2023, they were proclaimed blessed as a family of nine, including one unborn child, an unprecedented case in the history of the Church.
The National Day of Remembrance of Poles who rescued Jews under German occupation honours all Polish citizens, regardless of nationality, who helped Jews facing genocide and extermination by the German occupiers.