Until July 30, the Museum of the Province of the Bernardine Fathers in Lezajsk is displaying the Icon of the Blessed Ulm Family - the so-called Markov Triptych. The work of Mateusz Środoń is presented in the historic monastery complex of the Bernardine Fathers. At the same time, its presence in Lezajsk refers to the centuries-old Jewish heritage of the city.
Rescued and rescuers together
The icon depicts the blessed Ulma family from Markowa - Jozef, Wiktoria (who was in a blessed state) and their six children - Basia, Stasia, Wladzia, Franio, Antoś and Marysia. The central part of the triptych shows them against the background of the house where they hid Jews. The side wings are dedicated to the Jewish people they hid. They were: Saul Goldman and his four adult sons Baruch, Mechel, Joachim and Moses, known locally as “the Shalls,” as well as Gołda Grünfeld with her 6-year-old daughter Reszla and Lea Didner. All of them perished along with the Ulma Family at the hands of German gendarmes on the morning of March 24, 1944.
In addition, on the left wing, a vaguely outlined group of several women and a child can be seen at a considerable distance. This group was called the Rywki, after the name of the oldest of them, Rywka Tencer. The Ulmas helped them survive the war in the surrounding ravines, providing them with food. “Rywki” was murdered by the Germans in December 1942, at a time when the Ulmas decided to take the Goldman family under their roof.
The special heritage of Lezajsk
The exhibition has a traveling character - it was previously presented in Lancut, Warsaw and Rzeszow, among other places. Its purpose is to spread knowledge about the attitude of the Ulma family and promote the memory of Poles who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
Leżajsk, due to its multicultural heritage, provides an important context for this initiative. Before World War II, the town was one of the important centers of Hasidism - the ohel of Tzaddik Elimelech, to which Jews from all over the world make pilgrimages, still functions here today.
The exhibition is a joint project of the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia in Warsaw and the Good Ground Foundation. The presentation of the Icon of the Blessed Ulm Family at the Museum of the Province of the Bernardine Fathers in Lezajsk takes place within the framework of programming activities aimed at creating an educational platform “School of Ethics of the Ulm Museum.”
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