15 Feb 1910 - 12 May 2008 (aged 98)
Warsaw, Poland
I first knew about Irena Sendler when I read about a short post on what she did during WWII. It was a beautiful story during a sad and depressing time, but she was the light and hope of many people and children.
The post read as:
During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids.
Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.
The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.
During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.
Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazi's broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.
Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out, In a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.
In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.
She was not selected.
Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.
Please share this to honor the sacrifice and courage of this fine human being who gave so much and saved so many.
She may have not won the Nobel Peace Prize, but she has won the respect and gratitude from the world for the lives she has saved. I want to let more people know about Irena and the courageous deed she had done.
More about Irena Sendler
I then watched the movie "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009) which showed her story as a social worker/nurse and how she smuggled the children from the Warsaw ghetto and kept track of where they were housed. It was an awesome movie and a great eye opener of how fortunate we are to have lived in this generation beyond the deadly claws of WWII.*photo courtesy of IMdb
*IMdb link
