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Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler, Holocaust Heroine, Dies at 98
May 12, 2008 4:15 PM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
by Liz Colville
Sendler, who helped thousands of Jewish children into hiding during the Holocaust, died May 12 in Warsaw, Poland, after a long illness.
Sendler, who helped thousands of Jewish children into hiding during the Holocaust, died May 12 in Warsaw, Poland, after a long illness.
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During World War II, Irena Sendler worked for a unit of the Polish underground, Zegota, which was formed to help Jewish children in hiding. As a health worker, Sendler had access to the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1942 and 1943, she led some 2,500 children—twice as many as Oscar Schindler—out of the ghetto to safe hiding places.
Sendler came from a Catholic family, and her father, an early Polish Socialist, was a doctor who attended mostly poor Jewish patients. When Sendler began her work for Zegota, she relied on religious establishments to traffic and protect the children, forging thousands of documents for children who “entered the church as Jews and exited as Christians.”
In October of 1943, Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo after a colleague gave away her name while being tortured. Sendler herself was then imprisoned and tortured, but refused to give away any names, either of colleagues or children in hiding. Sentenced to death, Sendler was saved at the last minute when an associate bribed a German officer, allowing her to escape prison.
Honored for her work years after the war and no longer anonymous, Sendler received calls over the years from many of the children she had helped protect. In 2007 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (the award went to Al Gore). Though many knew of Sendler’s work, a play written by four high school girls in Kansas in 1999 is largely responsible for sharing Sendler’s story with a larger audience and helping nominate her for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sendler came from a Catholic family, and her father, an early Polish Socialist, was a doctor who attended mostly poor Jewish patients. When Sendler began her work for Zegota, she relied on religious establishments to traffic and protect the children, forging thousands of documents for children who “entered the church as Jews and exited as Christians.”
In October of 1943, Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo after a colleague gave away her name while being tortured. Sendler herself was then imprisoned and tortured, but refused to give away any names, either of colleagues or children in hiding. Sentenced to death, Sendler was saved at the last minute when an associate bribed a German officer, allowing her to escape prison.
Honored for her work years after the war and no longer anonymous, Sendler received calls over the years from many of the children she had helped protect. In 2007 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (the award went to Al Gore). Though many knew of Sendler’s work, a play written by four high school girls in Kansas in 1999 is largely responsible for sharing Sendler’s story with a larger audience and helping nominate her for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Headline Link: ‘Female Schindler’ Dies in Warsaw
Dubbed the “Female Schindler,” Sendler saved babies and children while wearing a Star of David armband to show solidarity with her Jewish protectorates, writes the Telegraph in its obituary of Sendler. Though Sendler was technically a welfare worker, distributing medicine and supplies in the Warsaw Ghetto, she simultaneously “formulated extraordinary schemes to spirit children to safety.” Just a year before her death, Sendler was honored as a national heroine by Polish parliament, around the same time as her Nobel Peace Prize nomination. She was also honored with the title “righteous gentile” by the Israeli Holocaust Memoriam Centre, Yad Vashem.
Source: The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)
Background: Sharing Sendler’s Story
A historical Holocaust site tributes several of the heroes of the event, including Irena Sendler, whose story shows how building a vast network of associates and covertly planning could deliver Holocaust victims to safety in convents and other havens. Children were sometimes sedated and carried in potato sacks or coffins. They were given Christian names, though Sendler secretly kept records of all the children’s real names so they could later rediscover their families and religion.
Source: The Holocaust: Crimes, Heroes and Villains
Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. The New York Sun commemorated Sendler with an article describing her achievements and goals during the Holocaust, particularly her desire to keep every child’s real name in the hopes she could restore their identities to them after the war. “Mrs. Sendler stashed the identities of the children she saved in jars and buried the jars under an apple tree. Her plan was to dig up the jars after the war and reunite the children with their families.” The Sun notes that Sendler’s nomination is partly due to the efforts of the four schoolgirls from Kansas and their play, “Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project,” which has been performed thousands of times in the U.S. and Poland since it was first written in 1999.
Source: The New York Sun
Reference: ‘Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project’
The play honoring the life of Irena Sendler was also made into a documentary film. The play and film have been shown at thousands of schools, and are accompanied by a Web site. The site provides a link to purchase the DVD, a schedule of “Life in a Jar” performances, and more on the story behind the girls, their research, and their encounters with Sendler and others in Poland connected to her story.
Source: Life in Jar: The Irena Sendler Project
A thorough biography of Sendler’s journey is available on the Jewish Virtual Library, recounting how Sendler gained access to the Warsaw Ghetto, housing thousands of Jews awaiting death, and her decision to help save its resident children. In addition to sacks, body bags, and coffins, Sendler also used ambulances to smuggle children out of the sealed area. Sendler has remarked that the cooperation of many other people helped her efforts: “No one ever refused to take a child from me."
Source: Jewish Virtual Library
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