President Karol Nawrocki stated in Toruń that Christian values underpinned Polish aid to Jews, making Poland a “good home” for them.
Nawrocki Speaks in Toruń
The event took place at the Chapel of Remembrance at the Sanctuary of Our Lady Star of New Evangelization and St. John Paul II in Toruń. President Karol Nawrocki emphasized that the Polish nation, guided by the Gospel and the words of Jesus Christ, built its Christian identity and values such as goodness, love, and mercy.
These values, he stated, made the First Polish Republic a place of life for so many Jews.
The Second Polish Republic as a “Good Home”
The Second Polish Republic also became a place of life for several million Jews. It was not an ideal home, full of social and political tensions, but it was a “good home,” similar to tensions found in many other nations.
According to Nawrocki, the Second Republic was a “good home” for Jews, where they could live and were not murdered, a situation that changed after 1939.
Christian Identity and Rescue Efforts
Poles rescuing Jews during World War II under German occupation may not have been aware of the strategic intentions of the German state, but they understood the chaos unfolding in the Polish territories and the death penalty for aiding Jews.
Nawrocki asserted they acted due to the Christian identity within the Polish national community, citing the lives of Józef and Wiktoria Ulm as examples of love and mercy.
National Day of Remembrance
National Day of Remembrance of Poles Rescuing Jews is a state holiday established by parliament in 2018, at the initiative of then-President Andrzej Duda.
It commemorates the Poles who risked their lives during World War II to help Jews persecuted by the German occupiers.
Markowa and the Ulm Family
The day is observed on March 24th, the anniversary of the tragic events of 1944, when German gendarmes murdered the Ulm family from Markowa (Subcarpathian Voivodeship) for hiding Jewish families.