Poland honors citizens who helped Jews during Holocaust

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president has taken part in nationwide observances Friday to honor Poles who risked — and often lost — their lives trying to save Jews from the Holocaust during the Nazi German occupation of Poland. He spoke Friday at a memorial site in Markowa, a village in southeastern Poland where Nazi forces shot and killed a man, his pregnant wife and their six children along with eight Jews the family was hiding at their farm. Pope Francis has declared the members of the Ulma family as martyrs. After invading Poland on Sept. 1, 1939 and taking over the country, Nazi Germans punished any form of assisting Jews by killing the helpers and their families.