At the Adriano Cinema, at Piazza Cavour, a screening was held of the documentary film “I Save a Human Being. People of the Church in the Face of the Extermination.” This is the third production of the Opoka Foundation under the Polish Bishops’ Conference, created within the project “Polish Energy Changes the World.” Its purpose is to promote the country’s history abroad through the lives of Polish saints.
Monika Stojowska
Three Heroes
The protagonists of the film acted on behalf of Jews imprisoned in ghettos, private homes, and farms, without regard for the consequences. Even though helping Jews was punishable by death—both for the helper and for their family—they chose to provide this help and shelter.
The documentary’s plot is based on narration dedicated to those who saved Jews and their families. They are Polish “righteous ones,” a living Gospel to the world: the Blessed Ulma Family, Fr. Marceli Godlewski, and Mother Matylda Getter, superior of the Warsaw Province of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary.
Mother Matylda
Sr. Matylda Getter, together with other sisters, saved several hundred Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto and from other places in German-occupied Poland. “Whoever comes into our courtyard and asks for help—in the name of Christ, we must not refuse,” the nun said. For a life lived in service of life, she was awarded the Yad Vashem medal of Righteous Among the Nations. The film recalls words that the congregation still interprets as a sign of Divine Providence: “Not a single sister died because of rescuing Jews.”
A Parish in the Ghetto
Fr. Marceli Godlewski, pastor of the All Saints Church in Warsaw—located within the boundaries of the ghetto—issued hundreds of false baptismal certificates to Jews, giving a chance of survival to those who decided to escape to the “Aryan side.” The documents issued by Fr. Godlewski made it possible to take a number of Jewish children out of the ghetto. This was carried out mainly by the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary, who, in cooperation with Fr. Godlewski, opened an orphanage in his home, leaving only one room for the priest’s own use. In the orphanage in Anin, around 20 Jewish children stayed during the war. Fr. Godlewski received the “Righteous Among the Nations” medal in 2009.
The Ulmas of Markowa
A moving thread of the film is the story of the Ulma family of Markowa, today already beatified—a family full of humility and love, with a sense of beauty expressed in simplicity and tender care for one another and for others. The entire family perished. The murder, committed because the Ulmas hid Jews, was carried out even against the pregnant Wiktoria and the child who had begun to be born.
Concern for Values
The screening of the documentary—whose Polish premiere took place at the end of September last year—was held in Rome at the initiative of Adam Kwiatkowski, the Polish ambassador to the Holy See. The ambassador emphasized that the biographies of the film’s protagonists, which are often still being discovered in the universal Church, “not only serve as an inspiration for others, but are also an excellent tool for promoting abroad the true historical narrative about the dark decades of the past century.”
The honorary guest of the screening was Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and the special envoy of Pope Francis to the beatification ceremony of the Ulma Family. The Cardinal emphasized that the Ulmas’ decision to shelter Jews was rooted in faith. “It was not the decision of one person, but of the entire family,” Cardinal Semeraro noted.
Also present at the screening was Bishop Artur Miziński, former Secretary General of the Polish Bishops’ Conference and Chairman of the Opoka Foundation Council (KEP), auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Lublin. Bishop Miziński stressed that, alongside the main protagonists presented in the film—which documents the attitude of Poles toward Jews during the torment of the Jewish people in World War II—the presentation shows many other Catholic names and institutions that contributed to saving human lives. “I thank all those present for accepting the invitation to take part in today’s screening, for your interest in matters important not only for the Polish Nation and Church, but also for the entire Christian world and for all people of good will,” he concluded.