May 12 – Celebration of Irena Sendler's Life

nPostednon May 12, 2016

nWhere’snthe movie “Sendler’s Lists”? n

n Accordingnto Wikipedia, Irena Sendler saved more Jews from the Holocaust thannany other individual, other than diplomats who were able to give outnvisas to help Jews escape from Nazi-occupied Europe.
n

nWhatndid this courageous nurse and social worker do? She served in thenPolish Underground in German-occupied Poland, and she was the mainnplanner of a small group that was responsible for smuggling aboutn2,500 infants and children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. ThesenUnderground workers provided false identity documents for those kids,nalong with shelter outside of the Ghetto, in Polish families ornorphanages or Catholic convents. They almost certainly saved the kidsnfrom the Holocaust.

nSendlernand her co-workers kept lists of the names of the hidden children,nalongside their new identities. They put the lists into jars andnburied them in their yards. The idea was that, after the war wasnover, they would try to find the children’s families so that theyncould reunite them.

Check out the book Irena Sendler and the Children
of the Warsaw Ghetto,
with illustrations by Bill Farnsworth.

nInn1943, Sendler’s activities were discovered by the Gestapo. ThenGestapo broke her legs and arms, beat her severely, tortured her –nall in an effort to uncover more of the Underground, or maybe to findnthe hidden Jewish children. Sendler withstood the beatings andntorture and betrayed no one. n

nShenwas sentenced to death, but the Underground organization bribed somenof the German guards, and she was able to escape during her transitnto her execution.

nYou’dnthink, after such a narrow escape from death, Sendler would escape tonBritain or at least lay low, but she went back to Warsaw undernanother name, and she continued her activity with the Underground.nShe worked as a nurse in a public hospital, and she hid five Jews.nShe continued until the war was over.

nAfternthe war, Sendler and her co-workers gathered all the jars with thenchildren’s names, and they turned the names over to an organizationnthat tried to reunite families. Unfortunately, almost all of thenkids’ parents and families had been killed in concentration camps.

nInthink Sendler’s Lists would be a great movie – very exciting,nheartrending and heartwarming at the same time. But Irena Sendler’snlife and great achievement was kept pretty quiet for a long time…

nWhynwasn’t she recognized as a major hero?

This photo shows Irena Sendler with some
of the people she saved when they were
children.

nIrenanSendler was loyal to the Home Army, the wartime Polish government innexile, and did not immediately join the communist party that tookncontrol of Poland post-WWII. Because of this, she was not allowed tonbe a recognized hero. Yad Vashem recognized her as one of the PolishnRighteous among the Nations, and a tree was planted in her honor atnthe entrance to the Avenue of the Righteous. But she was not allowednto travel out to Israel to receive the honor. n

nWhenncommunist rule of Poland finally ended, in 1991, Sendler finally gotnsome of the recognition that was her due. She was made an honoraryncitizen of Israel, she was given several awards, and students at anhigh school far away in Kansas produced a play based on her lifenstory. Life in a Jar was staged, not just by that Kansas highnschool, but hundreds of times all over the U.S. and the world. Thenplay was adapted for TV as The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler.

nThenLife in a Jar Foundation was formed to reward teachers who promotenthe attitude and message of Sendler. She was nominated for the NobelnPeace Prize three times; she didn’t win, but she received many othernawards in her old age, and even after her death at age 98. Here arenjust a few: