Irena Sendler (1910-2008)

A Polish nurse, humanitarian, and social worker who served in the Polish Underground in German-occupied Warsaw during World War II, and was head of the children's section of Żegota (the Polish Council to Aid Jews).

Assisted by other Żegotamembers, Sendler smuggled approximately 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then provided them with false identity documents and shelter outside the Ghetto, saving those children from the Holocaust.

Under the pretext of conducting inspections of sanitary conditions within the Ghetto, Sendler and her co-workers smuggled out babies and small children, sometimes in ambulances and trams, sometimes hiding them in packages and suitcases, and using various other means.

Jewish children were placed with Polish Christian families, the Warsaw orphanage of the Sisters of the Family of Mary, or Roman Catholic convents. Sendler worked closely with a group of about 30 volunteers, mostly women.

The children were given fake Christian names and taught Christian prayers in case they were tested. She kept careful documentation listing the children's fake Christian names, their given names, and their current location.The lists she buried in a jar under an apple tree.

In 1943, Irena Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo and severely tortured and sentenced to death by firing squad. Żegota saved her life by bribing the guards on the way to her execution.

Irena Sendler in 1942

After the war, she and her co-workers gathered all of the children's records with the names and locations of the hidden Jewish children and gave them to their Żegota colleague Adolf Berman and his staff at the Central Committee of Polish Jews. However, almost all of the children's parents had been killed at the German Treblinka extermination camp or had gone missing.

In 1965, Irena Sendler was recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the Polish Righteous among the Nations and a tree was planted in her honor at the entrance to the Avenue of the Righteous. However, there was no further public recognition of her wartime resistance and humanitarian work until after the end of communist rule in Poland in 1989.

Irena Sendler's tree on the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in Israel.

In 1991, Irena Sendlerwas made an honorary citizen of Israel.In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Irena Sendler with some people she saved as children, Warsaw, 2005

A newspaper story about the death of Irena Sendler.

A film about Irena Sendler was made in 2009.

True stories from WW2

June 2017

Drawings by Karina Galińska i Karolina StasiukPictures from wikimedia.org

Szkoła Podstawowa nr 9 im. Mikołaja Kopernika Dzierżoniów, Poland