Irena Sendler

Life Background

Irena Stanisława Sendler  (15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008), was a Polish humanitarian, social worker, and nurse who served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw.

She was A Christian Catholic, and her financial situation seemed not bad. We can infer that by the fact she was an educated woman with a respectable work.

During the Holocaust

Sendler, who was not Jewish, was shocked and disturbed at what was happening around her in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1939, so she forged a pass to go into the ghetto every day, and convinced parents to let her smuggle their children out for a better chance at keeping them safe. She gave the children new names and places to stay (orphanages, churches, convents, new homes).

She wrote down the old and new information of the children and put it in jars that she buried under a tree.

Unfortunately, the Nazis discovered her operation in 1943 and took her prisoner, breaking her feet and legs in an effort to gain information about the children, but Sendler told them nothing.

She was sentenced to death, but was saved by the Polish underground. After the war, she dug up the jars to hopefully reunite the children with their families.

Notable Achievements

*In 1965, Sendler was recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations.

*In 1983 she was present when a tree was planted in her honor at the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations.

*In 1991, Sendler was made an honorary citizen of Israel.

*On 12 June 1996, she was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. More than that, she received a higher version of this award, the Commander’s Cross with Star, on 7 November 2001.

*In 2000, a group of students in Kansas stumbled upon a fact about Sendler during research for a school project, and couldn’t believe she was so unknown. From there, they eventually got in contact with Sendler, and heard the full story of her, and they were so impressed. Therefore, they wrote a play about her life entitled “Life In A Jar.”