She saved the lives of 2,500 Jewish children
Irena Sendler, who died on May 12 aged 98, is credited with having saved the lives of some 2,500 Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War.
By 1942 the Germans had herded some 500,000 Polish Jews into the ghetto to await transportation to the extermination camps. Starvation and disease, especially typhoid, were endemic. Ms. Sendler was a Polish Roman Catholic social worker in the city who already had links with the Council for Aid to Jews, and in December, 1942, she was put in charge of its children's department.
She was sent into the ghetto with food, cloths and medicine, including a vaccine against typhoid. It soon became clear, however, that the ultimate destination of many of the Jews was to be the Treblinka death camp, and Zegota decided to try to save as many children as possible.
Using the codename "Jolanta," and wearing a Star of David armband to identify herself with the Jewish population, Ms. Sendler became part of this escape network. One baby was spirited away in a mechanic's toolbox. Some children were transported in coffins, suitcases and sacks; others escaped through the sewer system beneath the city.
Ms. Sendler kept a list of the names of all the children she saved, in the hope that she could one day reunite them with their families. On the night of October 20, 1943, Ms. Sendler's house was raided by the Gestapo, and her immediate thought was to get rid of the list: "I threw it to my colleague and went to open the door. There were 11 soldiers. The roll of names was saved due to the great courage and intelligence of my colleague, who hid it in her underwear."
The Nazis took Ms. Sendler to the Pawiak prison, where she was tortured; although her legs and feet were broken, and her body left permanently scarred, she refused to betray her network of helpers or the children whom she had saved.
Ms. Sendler was born Irena Krzyzanowska in Warsaw on February 15, 1910, into a Polish Roman Catholic family. Her father was a physician who ran a hospital at the suburb of Otwock, and a number of his patients were impoverished Jews.
Although he died of typhus in 1917, his example was of profound importance to Irena, who later said: "I was taught that if you see a person drowning, you must jump into the water to save them, whether you can swim or not."
In 1965, she became one of the first Righteous Gentiles to be honoured by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem. At that time Poland's Communist leaders would not allow her to travel to Israel, and she was unable to collect the award until 1983.
In 2003, she was awarded Poland's highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle; and last year she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, eventually.
She was the subject of a biography by Anna Mieszkowska, Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Story of Irena Sendler.
In her latter years, Ms. Sendler was cared for in a Warsaw nursing home by Elzbieta Ficowska, who - in July, 1942, at six months old - had been smuggled out of the ghetto by Irena in a carpenter's workbox.
In 2005 Ms. Sendler reflected: "We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes. That term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true - I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little. I could have done more. This regret will follow me to my death."
Irena Sendler's first husband was Mieczyslaw Sendler. The marrige was dissolved, and she later married Stefan Zgrzembski, with whom she had two sons and a daughter. One of the boys died in infancy, and her second son in 1999. Her daughter survives her.
The Daily Telegraph (NATIONAL POST, Friday, May 16, 2008).
Not all Poles were innocent
Re: Don't Blame The Poles, letter to the editor, May 12.
As a child of a Polish Holocaust survivor who lost his entire family, with the exception of one brother, at the hands of the Nazis, I was taken aback by the excessive, blanket approbation by letter-writer Pauline Kosalka of "the Poles' unquestionably noble conduct during the Second World War."
True, there were indeed thousands of Righteous Gentiles who showed individual courage, commitment and selflessness to help Jews, sometimes at the cost of their own safety. Their conduct is indeed a beacon for humanity. But there were also many Poles who informed on the whereabouts of their former Jewish neighbours, colleagues and business associates, collaborated with the Nazis for personal gain, facilitated or participated in open brutality against Jews, watched passively while Jews were disenfranchised, humiliated, abused and confined to ghettos or simply were able to turn their heads away as entire Jewish populations were deported from towns and villages to labour and death camps.
Rabbi Charles Grysman, Vaughan, Ont. ("Letters", NATIONAL POST, Friday, May 16, 2008).
All Poles suffered under Nazism
Re: Not All Poles Were Innocent, letter to the editor; She Saved The Lives Of 2,500 Jewish Children, abituary, both May 16.
During the second World War, Polish Christians who watched Polish Jews being deported from towns and villages and did not help, did so because they could barely help themselves, as they were also considered "subhuman" by the German occupiers.
While the Jewish Poles were the target of a deliberate genocide, their fellow Christian Poles were also being starved, humiliated and abused and could not simply defy the German army and the SS. It was a fight for basic survival. And yet many Poles resisted. One example can be found on obituary page, as Irena Sendler saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto.
Brian Cybulski, Toronto ("Letters", NATIONAL POST, Saturday, May 17, 2008).
06:19 Hrs. Jem sniadanie. Www.cp24.com pokazuje pogode w Toronto: Toronto's Weather A Few Clouds Current Temp 4c.
06:41 Hrs. Budujemy most, po ktorym przejdzie caly swiat - unosi sie w Polskim Radiu Toronto na fali 1320 AM. Sroda. Garbage Day. Wystawiam worki ze smieciami na chodnik. Przerywam czolem pajeczyne. Slonecznie. Zimno. Slychac spiew ptakow. Nakladam sloneczne okulary + rekawiczki. Wlaczam ogrzewanie. W dzienniku: Tusk na wizycie w Peru i w Chile. Samorzadowcy natomiast wizytuja Irak. Gruzja-Rosja napiecie rosnie.
ESSO, Shell, Canadian Tire, Petro-Canada biora za litr paliwa $1.26.0.
15:00 Hrs. Zimno. Deszcz. 6-stopniowo. Wracam do domu. Brak kurczaczkow. Lisy pozjadaly wszystkie malutkie gaski kanadyjskie. Tylko dorosle gesi pasa sie na trawnikach.
15:30 Hrs. Wyjmuje list ze skrzynki. Jest to karta Bozonarodzeniowa od Anii ze Slupska. Na kopercie okragle stemple SLUPSK 8 12 12 07. Ktos tez przekreslil moj adres i napisal RETURN. List zostal wyslany w Slupsku 12 grudnia 2007. Doszedl do Toronto 21 maja 2008. Pol roku. Pieknie.
"I've done coke, heroin, ecstasy, LSD, everything" - ANGELINA JOLIE ("'Drug' video surfaces", 24 HOURS, Wednesday, May 21, 2008).
21:30 Hrs. Zrywam kartke z kalendarza. Dzisiaj sroda. Tajemnice chwalebne. 21 maja 2008. Dzien dluzszy od najkrotszego dnia w roku o 8 godzin i 20 minut. Imieniny Kryspina, Wiktora, Jana, Donata, Walentego, Tymoteusza.
Swiatowy Dzien Kosmosu, obchodzony od 1998 roku.
1868 - Zmarl Stanislaw Wysocki, inzynier drogowy; pionier stosowania nawierzchni bitumicznych; projektant i kierownik budowy Kolei Warszawsko-Wiedenskiej (ur. 1805 r.) ("Kalendarz Rodzinny").
WSPOLNY PRA...PRA... MADONNY, CAMILLII I CELINE DION
Piosenkarki Madonna i Celine Dion oraz malzonka brytyjskiego nastepcy tronu Camilla maja wspolnego praprzodka - francuskiego ciesle - donosi w srode agencja Press Association, powolujac sie na kanadyjskich badaczy.
Dokumenty siegajace 1621 roku, zweryfikowane przez portal http://www.ancestry.co.uk/, zajmujacy sie genealogia, swiadcza, ze praprzodkiem owych trzech pan byl francuski rzemieslnik Zacharie Cloutier.
Dalekim krewnym Amerykanki Madonny, Kanadyjski Dion i brytyjskiej ksieznej Kornwalii jest tez ponoc byly premier Kanady Pierre Trudeau (GAZETA 75, 18 - 20 kwietnia 2008).
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