IRENA SENDLER

The hero who saved Jewish Children

Irena was born in 1910 in Warsaw, in Poland.

She was a catholic.

Her father was a doctor.

Before the II World War, she was already a social worker and she helped poor Jewish families.

BIOGRAPHY

During the German’s Occupation of Poland, the nazis organized a district in the capital (Varsovie) „the Ghetto”, where they packed 450 000 people.

From the beginning of the Second World War (1939-1945), she helped the Jews, by providing them in water, food, clothing and medicines.

Thanks to her job, she had the right to enter in the ghetto.

THE STORY : the gettho

THE STORY : Children

The children were hidden in suitcases carried by firefighters or garbage trucks, or simply hidden under the coats of those who had the right of access to the ghetto.

In 1942, she smuggled out the children to move them in Catholic families or convents.

She was arrested at her home October 20, 1943. Headquarters of the Gestapo, her torturers broke her legs and feet. But she did not speak.

Sentenced to death, she was miraculously released on the way to execution by a German officer that the Polish resistance had managed to corrupt (her name stayed on the list of executed people).

THE STORY : the arrest

She continued her fight illegal under another identity until liberation. After the war, she worked in the supervision of orphanages and retirement homes.

A heroine for many survivor and an example

for all

Irena Sendlerowa led the rescue of 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto

The life of Irena Sendler was one of great testimony, one of courage and love, one of respect for all people, regardless of race, religion and creed.

…She died May 12, 2008… She was 98 years old.

She was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"I call on all people of good will to love,

tolerance and peace, not only in wartime but also

in peacetime“

-she said.

Irena has always refused to be called

« heroine »« I was educated in the idea that we

save someone who is drowning, regardless of religion or

nationality »

She is the definition of an hero : someone who has done something brave and good and is admired by a lot of people.