Irena
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She was born on February 15, 1910 in the town of Otwock in Poland to a Catholic family. Her father was a doctor and most of his patients were Jewish. When World War Two started, Irena Sendler was a 29 years old. She was a social worker in the welfare department of the Warsaw City Hall and a catholic nurse. In 1931 she married Michislaw Sendler. They had no children and in 1947 they got divorced. Then she married a Jewish friend from the university named Stefan Zagrazembsky. They had three children, one of them passed away at birth. But then she remarried to her first husband Michislav Shoemaker, and then divorced again.
The following pictures are:
1. A picture of her as a child
2. Where she worked (the city hall of Warsaw)
3. Her as a catholic nurse
while she was working as a social worker she got a permit that allowed her to enter the Warsaw ghetto. After entering the ghetto, she contacted Jewish relief agencies and began helping them. She assisted in smuggling Jews from the ghetto into the “Aryan” part of the city, and helped to find hiding places for them.
In 1943, she was appointed Director of the Department of Jewish Child Care in Zagota and received an underground name – Jolanta. She used her connections in orphanages and abandoned children’s institutions to send them Jewish children.
In 1943, she was arrested. She was sentenced to death and sent to Pawiak Prison, but released with bribes. After four months, she was released, and although she knew the authorities were following her, she continued to help the Jews. Because of the danger, she had to hide herself. The need to act secretly prevented her among other things from attending her mother’s funeral.
Today, the number of children she rescues is estimated at more than 2,500 Jewish children.
Published: Jan 29, 2020
Latest Revision: Jan 29, 2020
Ourboox Unique Identifier: OB-722622
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