Jump to content

Irena Sendler: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→During World War II: Factually incorrect (the same order was also in Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia for instance) - from a questionable author in a self-published sourced (iUniverse)
Undid revision 840170557 by Icewhiz (talk)
Line 47: Line 47:


300,000 Jews were crowded into a small portion of the city designated as the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] and the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]] sealed the area in November 1940.<ref name="Bikont Sendler 75-84">Bikont, ''Sendlerowa'', pp. 75–84</ref> As employees of the Social Welfare and Public Health Department,<ref name="Bikont Sendler 20">Bikont, ''Sendlerowa'', p. 20</ref> Sendler and Schultz gained access to special permits for entering the ghetto to check for signs of [[typhus]], a disease the Germans feared would spread beyond the ghetto.<ref name="usnews" /><ref name="JVL">{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/irenasendler.html|title=Irena Sendler|publisher=Jewish Virtual Library}}</ref><ref name="Bikont Sendler 75-84"/> Under the pretext of conducting sanitary inspections, they brought medications and hygiene items and sneaked clothing, food, and other necessities into the ghetto. For Sendler, one initial motivation for the expanding ghetto aid operation were her friends, acquaintances and former colleagues who ended up on the Jewish side of the wall, beginning with Adam Celnikier (he managed to leave the ghetto at the time of [[Grossaktion Warsaw (1942)|its liquidation]]).<ref name="Bikont Sendler 75-84"/> Sendler and other social workers would eventually help the Jews who escaped or arrange for smuggling out babies and small children from the ghetto using various means available.<ref name="Polish Holocaust hero dies at age 98" /> Transferring Jews out of the ghetto and facilitating their survival elsewhere became an urgent priority in the summer of 1942, at the time of the [[Grossaktion Warsaw (1942)|Great Action]].<ref name="Bikont Sendler 90-91">Bikont, ''Sendlerowa'', pp. 90–91</ref>
300,000 Jews were crowded into a small portion of the city designated as the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] and the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]] sealed the area in November 1940.<ref name="Bikont Sendler 75-84">Bikont, ''Sendlerowa'', pp. 75–84</ref> As employees of the Social Welfare and Public Health Department,<ref name="Bikont Sendler 20">Bikont, ''Sendlerowa'', p. 20</ref> Sendler and Schultz gained access to special permits for entering the ghetto to check for signs of [[typhus]], a disease the Germans feared would spread beyond the ghetto.<ref name="usnews" /><ref name="JVL">{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/irenasendler.html|title=Irena Sendler|publisher=Jewish Virtual Library}}</ref><ref name="Bikont Sendler 75-84"/> Under the pretext of conducting sanitary inspections, they brought medications and hygiene items and sneaked clothing, food, and other necessities into the ghetto. For Sendler, one initial motivation for the expanding ghetto aid operation were her friends, acquaintances and former colleagues who ended up on the Jewish side of the wall, beginning with Adam Celnikier (he managed to leave the ghetto at the time of [[Grossaktion Warsaw (1942)|its liquidation]]).<ref name="Bikont Sendler 75-84"/> Sendler and other social workers would eventually help the Jews who escaped or arrange for smuggling out babies and small children from the ghetto using various means available.<ref name="Polish Holocaust hero dies at age 98" /> Transferring Jews out of the ghetto and facilitating their survival elsewhere became an urgent priority in the summer of 1942, at the time of the [[Grossaktion Warsaw (1942)|Great Action]].<ref name="Bikont Sendler 90-91">Bikont, ''Sendlerowa'', pp. 90–91</ref>

This work was done at huge risk, as—since October 1941—giving any kind of assistance to Jews in [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]] was punishable by death, not just for the person who was providing the help but also for their entire family or household. Poland was the only country in German-occupied Europe in which such a death penalty was applied.<ref name="Kurek2012">{{cite book|author=Ewa Kurek|title=Polish-Jewish Relations 1939–1945: Beyond the Limits of Solidarity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xDNpdbdhNIgC&pg=PA305|date=2 August 2012|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-1-4759-3832-6|page=305}}</ref>


Sendler joined the Polish Socialists, a left-wing branch of the [[Polish Socialist Party]] (PPS). The Polish Socialists evolved into the Polish Socialist Workers' Party (RPPS), which cooperated with the communist [[Polish Workers' Party]] (PPR). Sendler was known there by her conspiratorial pseudonym Klara and among her duties were searching for places to stay, issuing fake documents and being a liaison, guiding activists to clandestine meetings. In the RPPS there were Poles she knew, involved in saving Jews, as well as Jews that she had helped. Sendler participated in the secret life of the ghetto. She described a commemoration event there, on the anniversary of the [[October Revolution]] but in the spirit of the Polish leftist tradition; it included artistic performances by children.<ref name="Bikont Sendler 84-86">Bikont, ''Sendlerowa'', pp. 84–86</ref> While in the ghetto, she wore a [[Star of David]] as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish people.<ref name="JVL"/>
Sendler joined the Polish Socialists, a left-wing branch of the [[Polish Socialist Party]] (PPS). The Polish Socialists evolved into the Polish Socialist Workers' Party (RPPS), which cooperated with the communist [[Polish Workers' Party]] (PPR). Sendler was known there by her conspiratorial pseudonym Klara and among her duties were searching for places to stay, issuing fake documents and being a liaison, guiding activists to clandestine meetings. In the RPPS there were Poles she knew, involved in saving Jews, as well as Jews that she had helped. Sendler participated in the secret life of the ghetto. She described a commemoration event there, on the anniversary of the [[October Revolution]] but in the spirit of the Polish leftist tradition; it included artistic performances by children.<ref name="Bikont Sendler 84-86">Bikont, ''Sendlerowa'', pp. 84–86</ref> While in the ghetto, she wore a [[Star of David]] as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish people.<ref name="JVL"/>

Revision as of 10:04, 8 May 2018

Irena Sendler
Sendler c. 1942
Born
Irena Krzyżanowska

(1910-02-15)15 February 1910
Otwock, Congress Poland
Died12 May 2008(2008-05-12) (aged 98)
Warsaw, Poland
Occupation(s)Social worker, humanitarian, administrator, educator
Spouse(s)Mieczyslaw Sendler (1931–1947; divorced)
Stefan Zgrzembski (from 1947; separated from 1957; 3 children)
Mieczyslaw Sendler (1961–1971; divorced again)
Parent(s)Stanisław Krzyżanowski
Janina Krzyżanowska
ReligionRoman Catholic
Righteous
Among the Nations
By country

Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska), also referred to as Irena Sendlerowa in Poland, nom de guerre "Jolanta" (15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008),[1] was a Polish nurse, humanitarian, and social worker who served in the Polish Underground during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw, and was head of the children's section of Żegota,[2] the Polish Council to Aid Jews (Template:Lang-pl), which was active from 1942 to 1945.

With dozens of other Żegota-supported volunteers, mostly women, Sendler participated in smuggling Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then provided them with false identity documents and shelter with willing Polish families or in orphanages and other care facilities, including Catholic nun convents, saving those children from the Holocaust.[3][4]

The German occupiers suspected her involvement in the Polish Underground and Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo, but she managed to hide the list of the names and locations of the rescued Jewish children, preventing this information from falling into the hands of the Gestapo. Withstanding torture and imprisonment, Sendler never revealed anything about her work or the location of the saved children. Nonetheless, she was eventually sentenced to death, narrowly escaping on the day of her scheduled execution when Żegota bribed a German soldier to obtain her release.

In 1965, Sendler was recognised by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations.[5] Among the many decorations Sendler received were the Gold Cross of Merit granted her in 1946 for the saving of Jews and the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honour, awarded late in Sendler's life for her wartime humanitarian efforts.

Biography

Before World War II

Sendler was born Irena Krzyżanowska on 15 February 1910 in Warsaw,[6] to Dr. Stanisław Krzyżanowski, a physician, and his wife, Janina.[7] She grew up in Otwock, a town about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Warsaw, where there was a vibrant Jewish community.[8] Her father, a humanitarian who treated the very poor, including Jews, free of charge,[9] died in February 1917 from typhus contracted from his patients.[10] After his death, the Jewish community offered financial help for the widow and her daughter, though Janina Krzyżanowska declined their assistance.[7][11]

From 1927, Sendler studied law for two years and then Polish literature at the University of Warsaw, interrupting her studies for several years (1932 to 1937).[7][12] She opposed the ghetto benches system practiced in the 1930s at many Polish institutions of higher learning (from 1937 at the University of Warsaw) and defaced the "non-Jewish" identification on her grade card.[13][14][15] She reported having suffered from academic disciplinary measures because of her activities and reputation as a communist and philo-Semite. By the outbreak of World War II she submitted her magister degree thesis, but had not taken the final exams.[15] Sendler joined the Union of Polish Democratic Youth (Związek Polskiej Młodzieży Demokratycznej) in 1928; during the war she became a member of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS).[15][16][17] She was repeatedly refused employment in the Warsaw school system because of negative recommendations issued by the university, which ascribed radically leftist views to her.[12]

Sendler became associated with social and educational units of the Free Polish University (Wolna Wszechnica Polska), where she met and was influenced by activists from the illegal Communist Party of Poland. At Wszechnica Sendler belonged to a group of social workers led by Professor Helena Radlińska; a dozen or more women from that circle would later engage in rescuing Jews. From her social work on-site interviews Sendler recalled many cases of extreme poverty that she encountered among the Jewish population of Warsaw.[14][18]

Sendler was employed in a legal counseling and social help clinic, the Section for Mother and Child Assistance at the Citizen Committee for Helping the Unemployed. She published two pieces in 1934, both concerned with the situation of children born out of wedlock and their mothers. She worked mostly in the field, crisscrossing Warsaw's impoverished neighborhoods, and her clients were helpless, socially disadvantaged women.[19] In 1935, the government abolished the section. Many of its members became employees of the City of Warsaw, including Sendler in the Department of Social Welfare and Public Health.[20]

She married Mieczysław Sendler in 1931.[7] He was mobilized for war, captured as a soldier in September 1939 and remained in a German prisoner of war camp until 1945; they divorced in 1947.[21][22] She then married Stefan Zgrzembski (born Adam Celnikier), a Jewish friend and wartime companion, by whom she had three children, Janina, Andrzej (who died in infancy), and Adam (who died of heart failure in 1999). In 1957 Zgrzembski left the family; he died in 1961 and Irena remarried her first husband, Mieczysław Sendler. Ten years later they divorced again.[23]

During World War II

Nazi German poster in German and Polish (Warsaw, 1942) threatening death to any Pole who aided Jews

Soon after the German invasion, on 1 November 1939, the German occupier authorities ordered Jews removed from the staff of the municipal Social Welfare Department where Sendler worked and barred the department from providing any assistance to Warsaw's Jewish citizens. Sendler with her colleagues and activists from the department's PPS cell became involved in helping the wounded and sick Polish soldiers. On Sendler's initiative the cell began generating false medical documents, needed by the soldiers and poor families to obtain aid. Her PPS comrades unaware, Sendler extended such assistance also to her Jewish charges, who were now officially served only by the Jewish community institutions.[16] With Jadwiga Piotrowska, Jadwiga Sałek-Deneko and Irena Schultz, Sendler also created other false references and pursued ingenious schemes in order to help Jewish families and children excluded from their department's social welfare protection.[7][16]

300,000 Jews were crowded into a small portion of the city designated as the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazis sealed the area in November 1940.[24] As employees of the Social Welfare and Public Health Department,[25] Sendler and Schultz gained access to special permits for entering the ghetto to check for signs of typhus, a disease the Germans feared would spread beyond the ghetto.[26][27][24] Under the pretext of conducting sanitary inspections, they brought medications and hygiene items and sneaked clothing, food, and other necessities into the ghetto. For Sendler, one initial motivation for the expanding ghetto aid operation were her friends, acquaintances and former colleagues who ended up on the Jewish side of the wall, beginning with Adam Celnikier (he managed to leave the ghetto at the time of its liquidation).[24] Sendler and other social workers would eventually help the Jews who escaped or arrange for smuggling out babies and small children from the ghetto using various means available.[28] Transferring Jews out of the ghetto and facilitating their survival elsewhere became an urgent priority in the summer of 1942, at the time of the Great Action.[29]

This work was done at huge risk, as—since October 1941—giving any kind of assistance to Jews in German-occupied Poland was punishable by death, not just for the person who was providing the help but also for their entire family or household. Poland was the only country in German-occupied Europe in which such a death penalty was applied.[30]

Sendler joined the Polish Socialists, a left-wing branch of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). The Polish Socialists evolved into the Polish Socialist Workers' Party (RPPS), which cooperated with the communist Polish Workers' Party (PPR). Sendler was known there by her conspiratorial pseudonym Klara and among her duties were searching for places to stay, issuing fake documents and being a liaison, guiding activists to clandestine meetings. In the RPPS there were Poles she knew, involved in saving Jews, as well as Jews that she had helped. Sendler participated in the secret life of the ghetto. She described a commemoration event there, on the anniversary of the October Revolution but in the spirit of the Polish leftist tradition; it included artistic performances by children.[17] While in the ghetto, she wore a Star of David as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish people.[27]

Jewish children in the Warsaw Ghetto

The Jewish ghetto was a functioning community and to many Jews seemed the safest available place for themselves and their children. In addition, survival on the outside was plausible only for people with access to financial resources. This calculus lost its validity in July 1942, when the Germans proceeded with liquidation of the ghetto in Warsaw, to be followed by extermination of its residents. Sendler and her associates—as related by Jonas Turkow—could take a small number of children, and a certain number could be accepted and supported by Christian institutions, but larger-scale action was prevented by the lack of funds. Initial funds for transfer and maintenance of ghetto children were provided by members of the Jewish community, still in existence, in cooperation with women from the Welfare Department. Sendler and others, in accordance with their mission, wanted to help the most needy children (such as orphans) first. Turkow, who contacted Wanda Wyrobek and Sendler to take out of the ghetto and arrange care for his daughter Margarita, wanted to prioritize children of the most "deserving" (accomplished) people. During the Great Action, Sendler kept entering or trying to enter the ghetto. She made desperate attempts to save her friends, but among her former Welfare Department associates unable or unwilling to leave the ghetto were Ewa Rechtman and Ala Gołąb-Grynberg. According to Jadwiga Piotrowska, who saved numerous Jewish children,[31] during the Great Action people from the Welfare Department operated individually (had no organization or leader). Other accounts suggest that women from that group concentrated on making arrangements for Jews who had already left the ghetto, and that Sendler in particular took care of adults and adolescents.[32]

In August 1943, Sendler, by then known by her nom de guerre Jolanta, was nominated by Żegota (the Council to Aid Jews) to head its children's section. Żegota was an underground organization that originated on 27 September 1942 as the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews, led by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, a resistance fighter and writer.[14][33][34] By that time, most Polish Jews were no longer alive. Żegota, established on 4 December 1942, was a new form of the committee, expanded by the participation of Jewish parties and chaired by Julian Grobelny.[34] It was financed by the founder of the Provisional Committee, the Government Delegation for Poland, a Polish Underground State institution representing the Polish government-in-exile.[34] Working for Żegota from January 1943, Sendler functioned as a coordinator of the Welfare Department network. They distributed money grants that became available from Żegota. Regular payments, however insufficient for the needs, enhanced their ability to assist the hiding Jews.[35] In regard to the action of saving Jewish children, according to a 1975 opinion written by Sendler's former Welfare Department co-workers, she was the most active and organizationally gifted of participants.[32]

During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a network of emergency shelters was created by Sendler's group: private residencies where Jews could be temporary housed, while Żegota worked on producing documents and finding longer-term locations for them. Many Jewish children went through the home of Izabella Kuczkowska, as well as those of other social workers.[36] Helena Rybak and Jadwiga Koszutska were activists from the communist underground.[37]

Permanently, Jewish children were placed by Sendler's network with Polish families (25%), in Warsaw orphanage of the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary led by Mother Provincial Matylda Getter, Roman Catholic convents such as the Sister Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Turkowice, Lublin Voivodeship (sisters Aniela Polechajłło and Antonina Manaszczuk) or the Felician Sisters, in Boduen Home charity facilities for children, and other orphanages (75%).[38][39] A nun convent offered the best opportunity for a Jewish child to survive and be taken care of. To accomplish the transfers and placement of children, Sendler worked closely with other volunteers.[33][38][b] The children were often given Christian names and taught Christian prayers in case they were tested.[40] Sendler wanted to preserve the children's Jewish identities, so she kept careful documentation listing their Christian names, given names, and current locations.[40]

Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory.

-- Irena Sendler

According to American historian Debórah Dwork, Sendler was the inspiration and the prime mover for the whole network that saved Jewish children.[41] She and her co-workers buried lists of the hidden children in jars in order to keep track of their original and new identities. The aim was to return the children to their original families, if still alive after the war.[13]

In October 1943, Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo.[14] As they ransacked her house, Sendler tossed the lists of children to her friend, who hid the list in her loose clothing.[40] Should the Gestapo access this information, all children would be compromised, but her friend was never searched. The Gestapo beat Sendler brutally upon her arrest. Despite this, she refused to betray any of her comrades or the children they rescued, and was sentenced to death by firing squad. In February 1944, Żegota saved her life by bribing the guards on the way to the execution.[14][27] After her escape, she hid from the Germans, but returned to Warsaw under a fake name and continued her involvement with Żegota.[7] During the Warsaw Uprising, Sendler worked as a nurse in a public hospital, where she hid five Jews.[7] She continued to work as a nurse until the Germans left Warsaw, retreating before the advancing Soviet troops.[7]

After World War II

After the war, Sendler and her co-workers gathered all of the records with the names and locations of the hidden Jewish children and gave them to their Żegota colleague Adolf Berman and his staff at the Central Committee of Polish Jews.[42] Almost all of the children's parents had been killed at the Treblinka extermination camp or had gone missing.[27][7]

Sendler joined the communist Polish Workers' Party in 1947 and remained a member of its successor, the Polish United Workers' Party, until the party's dissolution in 1990.[43] According to the research done by Anna Bikont, in 1947 Sendler advanced to the party executive by becoming a member of the Social Welfare Section at the Central Committee's Social-Vocational Department. From then she continuously held a succession of high-level party and administrative posts during the entire Stalinist period and until 1962, when she ceased being a department director in the Ministry of Health. After the fall of communism, however, Sendler claimed having been brutally interrogated in 1949 by the communist Ministry of Public Security, accused of hiding among her employees former members of the Home Army (AK), a resistance organization loyal during the war to the Polish government-in-exile.[14][43][44] She attributed the premature birth of her son Andrzej, who did not survive, to such persecution.[7][10] Anna Bikont quoted Władysław Bartoszewski, who asserted before his death in 2015 that Sendler was not persecuted in communist Poland. In the Polish People's Republic, Sendler received at least six decorations, including in 1946 the Gold Cross of Merit (Złoty Krzyż Zasługi) for the wartime saving of Jews, another Gold Cross of Merit in 1956, and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1963.[45][10] Materials dealing with her activities during the war were published, but Sendler became a well-known public personality only after being "rediscovered" by the group from an American high school in 2000. She was recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations and received her award at the embassy of Israel in Warsaw in 1965.[27] In 1983 she traveled to Israel, invited by Yad Vashem Institute for the tree-planting ceremony.[7][46][47]

From 1962, Sendler worked as deputy director in several Warsaw trade medical schools, and also for the Ministry of Education in a supervisory role.[44][48] She was active in various social work programs, helping organize a number of orphanages and care centers for children, families and the elderly, as well as a center for prostitutes in Henryków.[44]

In the spring of 1967, suffering from a heart condition, Sendler applied for disability pension. She was dismissed from the school's vice-principal position in May 1967, shortly before the Arab–Israeli War. From the fall of 1967, she continued working at the same school as a teacher, manager of teacher workshops and librarian, until her 1983 retirement.[7] According to Sendler, in 1967 her daughter Janina Zgrzembska was removed from the already published list of students admitted to the University of Warsaw, but Janina reported that she had simply failed to satisfy the admission requirements.[14] In the newspaper report by Magdalena Grochowska published in 2008, Sendler was quoted as saying that following World War II and until the 1960s she was a victim of politically motivated harassment.[14]

In 1980 she joined the Solidarity movement.[7] Sendler lived in Warsaw for the remainder of her life. She died on 12 May 2008, aged 98, and is buried in Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery.[28][45][49][50]

Recognition and remembrance

Sendler with some people she saved as children, Warsaw, 2005

In 1965, Sendler was recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations.[a] In 1983 she was present when a tree was planted in her honor at the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations.[51]

In 1991, Sendler was made an honorary citizen of Israel.[52] On 12 June 1996, she was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.[53][54] She received a higher version of this award, the Commander's Cross with Star, on 7 November 2001.[55]

Irena Sendler's achievements were largely unknown in North America until 1999, when students at a high school in Uniontown, Kansas, led by their teacher Norman Conard, produced a play based on their research into her life story, which they called Life in a Jar. The play was a surprising success, staged over 200 times in the United States and abroad, and it significantly contributed to publicizing Sendler's story.[56] In March 2002, B'nai Jehudah Temple of Kansas City presented Sendler, Conard, and the students who produced the play with its annual award "for contributions made to saving the world" (Tikkun olam award). The play was adapted for television as The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009), directed by John Kent Harrison, in which Sendler was portrayed by actress Anna Paquin.[57][58]

In 2003, Pope John Paul II sent Sendler a personal letter praising her wartime efforts.[59][60] On 10 November 2003, she received the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest civilian decoration,[61] and the Polish-American award, the Jan Karski Award "For Courage and Heart", given by the American Center of Polish Culture in Washington, D.C.[62]

In 2006, Polish NGOs Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej and Stowarzyszenie Dzieci Holocaustu, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, and the Life in a Jar Foundation established the Irena Sendler's Award "For Repairing the World" (pl:Nagroda imienia Ireny Sendlerowej "Za naprawianie świata"), awarded to Polish and American teachers.[63][64] The Life in a Jar Foundation is a foundation dedicated to promoting the attitude and message of Irena Sendler.[64]

In 2007, and again in 2008, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize,[65] with support from numerous prominent personalities along with the International Federation of Social Workers.[51] On 14 March 2007, Sendler was honoured by the Senate of Poland,[66] and a year later, on 30 July, by the United States Congress. On 11 April 2007, she received the Order of the Smile; at that time, she was the oldest recipient of the award.[67][68] In 2007 she became an honorary citizen of the cities of Warsaw and Tarczyn.[69]

Posthumously

Irena Sendler in 2005

In April 2009 she was posthumously granted the Humanitarian of the Year award from The Sister Rose Thering Endowment,[70] and in May 2009, Sendler was posthumously granted the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award.[71]

Around this time American filmmaker Mary Skinner filmed a documentary, Irena Sendler, In the Name of Their Mothers (Polish: Dzieci Ireny Sendlerowej), featuring the last interviews Sendler gave before her death. The film made its national U.S. broadcast premiere through KQED Presents on PBS in May 2011 in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day[72] and went on to receive several awards, including the 2012 Gracie Award for outstanding public television documentaries.[73]

In 2013 the walkway in front of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw was named after Irena Sendler.[74]

In 2010 a memorial plaque commemorating Sendler was added to the wall of 2 Pawińskiego Street in Warsaw – a building in which she worked from 1932 to 1935. In 2015 she was honoured with another memorial plaque at 6 Ludwiki Street, where she lived from the 1930s to 1943.[75] Several schools in Poland have also been named after her.[76]

Literature

In 2010, Polish historian Anna Mieszkowska wrote a biography Irena Sendler: Mother of the Children of the Holocaust.[77] In 2011, Jack Mayer tells the story of the four Kansas school girls and their discovery of Irena Sendler in his novel Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project.[76]

In 2016, Irena's Children, a book about Sendler written by Tilar J. Mazzeo, was released by Simon & Schuster. A version adapted to be read by children was created by Mary Cronk Farell.[78] Another children's picture book titled Jars of Hope: How One Woman Helped Save 2,500 Children During the Holocaust, is written by Jennifer Roy.

Sendlerowa. W ukryciu ('Sendler: In Hiding'), a biography and book about the people and events related to Sendler's wartime activities, was written by Anna Bikont and published in 2017.

  • Irena Sendler in 1942 (colourised photo).
    Irena Sendler in 1942 (colourised photo).
  • Irena Sendler in 1944.
    Irena Sendler in 1944.
  • Irena Sendler's tree on the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in Israel.
    Irena Sendler's tree on the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in Israel.
  • Irena Sendler's funeral, May 2008.
    Irena Sendler's funeral, May 2008.
  • Irena Sendler's grave in Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery.
    Irena Sendler's grave in Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery.
  • The headstone on Irena Sendler's grave.
    The headstone on Irena Sendler's grave.
  • A memorial plaque on the wall of 2 Pawińskiego Street in Warsaw.
    A memorial plaque on the wall of 2 Pawińskiego Street in Warsaw.
  • The walkway in front of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews named after Irena Sendler.
    The walkway in front of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews named after Irena Sendler.
  • Irena Sendler Avenue.
    Irena Sendler Avenue.
  • A bronze plaque in Piotrków Trybunalski telling some of her story.
    A bronze plaque in Piotrków Trybunalski telling some of her story.

See also

Notes

a.^ Sendler was one of the first Poles recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations due to the efforts of Jonas Turkow, who stated for a Polish language periodical in Israel: "This noble woman ... worked for Żegota and saved hundreds of Jewish children, placing them in orphanages, convents and other places".[79]

b.^ Actual events that took place tend to be difficult to reconstruct because later, purposely or inadvertently, for different audiences and at different times, Sendler told different stories with aspects that were mutually incompatible, or contrary to known facts.[38]

References

  1. ^ Irena Sendler. An unsung heroine. Lest We Forget. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  2. ^ Mordecai Paldiel, The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, Ktav Publishing House (January 1993), ISBN 0-88125-376-6
  3. ^ Baczynska, Gabriela (12 May 2008). Jon Boyle (ed.). "Sendler, savior of Warsaw Ghetto children, dies". Reuters. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  4. ^ "Rethinking the Polish Underground". Yeshiva University News.
  5. ^ Atwood, Kathryn (2011). Women Heroes of World War II. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. p. 48. ISBN 9781556529610.
  6. ^ "Facts about Irena — Life in a Jar". Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Polscy Sprawiedliwi – Przywracanie Pamięci". sprawiedliwi.org.pl (in Polish).
  8. ^ "Irena Sendler — Rescuer of the Children of Warsaw". www.chabad.org. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  9. ^ Joshua D. Zimmerman (2015). The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939–1945. Cambridge University Press. p. 304.
  10. ^ a b c "Biografia Ireny Sendlerowej". tak.opole.pl (in Polish). Zespół Szkół TAK im. Ireny Sendlerowej.
  11. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 55–56
  12. ^ a b Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 60–61
  13. ^ a b Staff writer (22 May 2008), The Economist obituary. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Magdalena Grochowska (12 May 2008), "Lista Sendlerowej – reportaż z 2001 roku" (The Sendler list – newspaper report from 2001) at DzieciHolocaustu.org.pl. See also: Lista Sendlerowej (pay per view) at Gazeta Wyborcza. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  15. ^ a b c Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 65–69
  16. ^ a b c Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 71–75
  17. ^ a b Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 84–86
  18. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 61–62
  19. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 52–55
  20. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, p. 64
  21. ^ Anna Mieszkowska (January 2011). Irena Sendler: Mother of the Children of the Holocaust. Praeger. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-313-38593-3.
  22. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 70–71
  23. ^ "Irena Sendler: we tell you the story of a Holocaust heroine". Mail Online.
  24. ^ a b c Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 75–84
  25. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, p. 20
  26. ^ Richard Z. Chesnoff, "The Other Schindlers: Steven Spielberg's epic film focuses on only one of many unsung heroes" (archive), U.S. News and World Report, 13 March 1994.
  27. ^ a b c d e "Irena Sendler". Jewish Virtual Library.
  28. ^ a b Monika Scislowska, Associated Press Writer (12 May 2008). "Polish Holocaust hero dies at age 98". USA Today. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  29. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 90–91
  30. ^ Ewa Kurek (2 August 2012). Polish-Jewish Relations 1939–1945: Beyond the Limits of Solidarity. iUniverse. p. 305. ISBN 978-1-4759-3832-6.
  31. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 155–168
  32. ^ a b Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 92–108
  33. ^ a b Mordecai Paldiel "Churches and the Holocaust: unholy teaching, good samaritans, and reconciliation" pp. 209–10, KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 2006, ISBN 978-0-88125-908-7
  34. ^ a b c Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 135–139
  35. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 139–143
  36. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 152–154
  37. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 172–199
  38. ^ a b c Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 109–133
  39. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 144–145
  40. ^ a b c Atwood, Kathryn (2011). Women Heroes of World War II. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. p. 46. ISBN 9781556529610.
  41. ^ Hevesi, Dennis (13 May 2008). "Irena Sendler, Lifeline to Young Jews, Is Dead at 98". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  42. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, p. 12
  43. ^ a b Olga Wróbel, Bikont: Na każdym kroku pilnie wykluczano Żydów z polskiej społeczności ('Bikont: The Jews were diligently excluded from Polish society at every step'). 2 February 2018. Bikont: Na każdym kroku. Krytyka Polityczna. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  44. ^ a b c "Sendler Irena – WIEM, darmowa encyklopedia" (in Polish). PortalWiedzy.onet.pl. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  45. ^ a b "Irena Stanisława Sendler (1910–2008) – dzieje.pl" (in Polish). Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  46. ^ "Irena Sendler, who saved 2,500 Jews from Holocaust, dies at 98". Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  47. ^ "The Story of Irena Sendler (February 15, 1910 — May 12, 2008)". Taube Philanthropies. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) [Also in:] "Award named for Righteous Gentile". European Jewish Congress. 2 June 2008 – via Internet Archive. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  48. ^ "She was a mother to the whole world – daughter of Irena Sendler speaks" [To była matka całego świata – córka Ireny Sendler opowiedziała nam o swojej mamie] (in Polish). Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 26 August 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  49. ^ Louette Harding (1 August 2008). "Irena Sendler: a Holocaust heroine". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  50. ^ David M. Dastych (16 May 2008). "Irena Sendler: Compassion and Courage". CanadaFreePress.com. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  51. ^ a b Zawadzka, Maria. "TREES OF IRENA SENDLER AND JAN KARSKI IN THE GARDEN OF THE RIGHTEOUS". Polish Righteous. POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  52. ^ "Irena Sendler". Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  53. ^ .P. 1996 nr 58 poz. 538, citation: "za pełną poświęcenia i ofiarności postawę w niesienui pomocy dzieciom żydowskim oraz za działalnośċ spoleczną i zawodową" (Polish)
  54. ^ "Krzyz Komandorski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski..." (in Polish). Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  55. ^ M.P. 2002 nr 3 poz. 55, citation: "w uznanui wybitnych zasług w nieseniu pomocy potrzebującym" (Polish)
  56. ^ "About the Project – Life in a Jar". Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  57. ^ The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler at CBS.com Archived 21 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  58. ^ Richard Maurer (ram-30) (19 April 2009). "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (TV Movie 2009)". IMDb.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  59. ^ "List Papieża do Ireny Sendler [Letter of the Pope to Irena Sendler]". wyborcza.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  60. ^ Scott T. Allison; George R. Goethals (2011). Heroes: What They Do and Why We Need Them. Oxford University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-19-973974-5.
  61. ^ M.P. 2004 nr 13 poz. 212, citation: "za bohaterstwo i niezwykłą odwagę, za szczególne zasługi w ratowaniu życia ludzkiego" ("for heroism and extraordinary courage, for outstanding merits in saving human lives") (Polish)
  62. ^ Warszawa, Grupa. "The Association of "Children of the Holocaust" in Poland". www.dzieciholocaustu.org.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  63. ^ "Opis konkursu". Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  64. ^ a b "Polscy Sprawiedliwi – Przywracanie Pamięci". www.sprawiedliwi.org.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  65. ^ Dana Platter. "Poland's hero, Irena Sendler, nominated to Nobel Prize" [Irena Sendler – polska bohaterka nominowana do Nagrody Nobla]. PoloniaInfo. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  66. ^ Wyszyński, Kuba. "Irena Sendler nie żyje". www.jewish.org.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  67. ^ "IRENA SENDLEROWA Kawalerem Orderun Uśmiechu". OrderUsmiechu.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  68. ^ "Nagroda im. Ireny Sendlerowej". NagrodaIrenySendlerowej.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  69. ^ Tarczyn official website (2017), "Irena Sendler." Honorary citizen, lived in Tarczyn before the invasion.
  70. ^ Smolen, Courtney. "Executive Director of NJ Commission on Holocaust Education to Bestow Honorary Award to CSE Professor, April 19". NJ.com. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  71. ^ "Irena Sendler awarded the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award". www.audrey1.org. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  72. ^ "PBS National Premiere of IRENA SENDLER In the Name of Their Mothers on May 1st, National Holocaust Remembrance Day". KQED's Pressroom.
  73. ^ "SF-Krakow Sister Cities Association – Irena Sendler Documentary Film Wins 2012 Gracie Award". www.sfkrakow.org. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  74. ^ "Aleja Ireny Sendlerowej, Honorowej Obywatelki m.st. Warszawy". www.radawarszawy.um.warszawa.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  75. ^ "Odsłonięto tablicę upamiętniającą Irenę Sendlerową" (in Polish). Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  76. ^ a b "About the Project". Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  77. ^ Mieszkowska, Anna. "Prawdziwa historia Ireny Sendlerowej". Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  78. ^ "Three Twice-told stories". Toronto Star, 12 November 2016, page E22.
  79. ^ Bikont, Sendlerowa, pp. 13–14

Bibliography

  • Anna Bikont, Sendlerowa. W ukryciu ('Sendler: In Hiding'), Wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec 2017, ISBN 978-83-8049-609-5
  • Yitta Halberstam & Judith Leventhal, Small Miracles of the Holocaust, The Lyons Press; 1st edition (13 August 2008), ISBN 978-1-59921-407-8
  • Richard Lukas, Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation ISBN 978-0-7006-1350-2
  • Anna Mieszkowska, IRENA SENDLER Mother of the Holocaust Children Publisher: Praeger; Tra edition (18 November 2010) Language: English ISBN 978-0-313-38593-3
  • Mordecai Paldiel, The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, Ktav Publishing House (January 1993), ISBN 9780881253764
  • Irene Tomaszewski & Tecia Werblowski, Zegota: The Council to Aid Jews in Occupied Poland 1942–1945, Price-Patterson, ISBN 1-896881-15-7
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Irena Sendlerowa.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Irena Sendler.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Irena_Sendler&oldid=840197091"
pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy