Culture ministry to support Polish museum
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
23.06.2017 14:47
The Polish culture ministry will support most of the costs of the Museum of Poles who saved Jews during World War II.
The Ulma Museum. Photo: Facebook.com/ulmamuseum
The museum is based in the southeastern Podkarpackie region in the village of Markowa, and is named in honour of the Polish Ulma family, who was shot there by the Nazi-German occupiers for sheltering Jews.
The ministry will finance 95 percent of the museum’s activities, with Minister Piotr Gliński signing an agreement on Friday in Markowa.
“A new stage of the museum's activity has begun,” said Anna Stróż, the head of the museum.
She added that until now, the museum was a branch of the Castle Museum in Łańcut, “and now it will become an independent unit”.
Financing from the state budget will eventually allow for research and education, Stróż said, adding that “so far there was no possibility for this to happen”.
On 24 March 1944, German policemen shot eight Jews who were being sheltered by the Ulmas, together with Józef Ulma and Wiktoria Ulma (who was pregnant) and their six children.
Over 6,600 ethnic Poles are commemorated in Israel's Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem for aiding Jews during World War II. (rg)