Irena Sendler
1910-2008
A 98 year-old German woman named Irena Sendler recently died. During WWII, Irena worked in the Warsaw Ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist. Irena smuggled Jewish children out; infants in the bottom of the tool box she carried and older children in a burlap sack she carried in the back of her truck. She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers wanted nothing to do with the dog, and the barking covered the kids’ and infants’ noises. Irena managed to smuggle out and save 2500 children. She eventually was caught, and the Nazis broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar buried under a tree in her backyard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and reunited some of the families. Most had been killed. She helped those children get placement into foster family homes or adopted.
Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won - for a slide show on Global Warming.
6 comments:
Amazing. This is woman was the definition of "heroic".
Sadly, I can only agree with the title. Al Gore, with his slideshow on the STILL unproven and not unilaterally accepted THEORY of global warming, beat out a true heroine, a woman whose efforts were the quintessence of valiant and showed the compassion that the entire human race has the capacity for. Yet again, politics takes precedence over real life. Great post.
Most people didn't even know about her until a group of high school students decided to do a film project on her. the video went viral, and a movie was made on her life.
But whats an award anyway? a noble prize pails in comparison to a clean conscious and a life of giving
God knows her deeds...and i'm sure she didn't do what she did for recognition or nobel peace prizes she did it out of the kindness of her heat and knowing right from wrong...i wish more people in the world were like her...
Truly amazing woman. I'm really into the events of the holocaust, as a matter of fact i'm reading a holocaust survivor story right now and I know exactly how much detail, effort and bravery it took putting this plan into action and carrying it out successfully. Death was the least of her worries and she knew that, but yet she still helped to save some of the very people she was told by her government were garbage and worthless. Stories like this inspire me every day, people often ask me how I can stand to read this all the time, this is why. Brave, smart, amazing people who inspire everyone their stories reach. Fuck Bill Gates, she won every prize in my book.
SHE WAS POLISH! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irena_Sendler
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