Irena Sendler -The woman who saved 2,500 Jewish children during WW2
Irena Sendler 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 – an area of about one square kilometre – to await transportation to the extermination camps. Starvation and disease, especially typhoid, were endemic.
Irena Sendler was a Polish Roman Catholic social worker in the city who already had links with Zegota, the code name for the Council for Aid to Jews, and in December 1942 Zegota put her in charge of its children's department. Wearing nurses' uniforms, she and a colleague, Irena Schultz, were sent into the ghetto with food, clothes 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, Irena Sendler became part of this escape network. One baby was spirited away in a mechanic's toolbox.
Irena Sendler was a remarkable Polish Roman Catholic social worker who, during World War II, displayed extraordinary courage by rescuing approximately 2,500 Jewish children from certain death. As Nazi Germany tightened its grip on Poland, the Jewish population of Warsaw, the nation's capital, faced an unimaginable plight. Sendler, already deeply involved in social work, quickly found herself drawn into one of the most heroic efforts of the war, risking her life to save thousands.
The Warsaw Ghetto and Żegota
By 1942, the Nazis had herded around 500,000 Polish Jews into a mere one square kilometre of the Warsaw Ghetto. Conditions within the ghetto were dire, with starvation, disease, particularly typhoid, spreading rampantly. The inhabitants awaited transportation to extermination camps such as Treblinka, where death was certain.
Sendler had worked for Warsaw’s Social Welfare Department since before the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Following the occupation, Jews were removed from the department's staff, and it was barred from providing assistance to the city's Jewish population. Unwilling to turn her back on her Jewish colleagues and neighbours, Sendler, along with a group of activists, began forging documents to provide aid to Jewish families. However, this was just the beginning of her larger mission.
In December 1942, Żegota, the underground Council for Aid to Jews, tasked Irena with leading their children's department. Using the codename "Jolanta," Sendler, along with fellow activist Irena Schultz, entered the ghetto wearing nurses’ uniforms. They brought food, clothing, and medicine under the pretext of fighting typhoid, a disease feared by the Germans. But soon it became clear that disease wasn’t the greatest threat: deportations to Treblinka began, and it was evident that the Jews of Warsaw faced total annihilation.
The Rescue of Jewish Children
Żegota’s priority swiftly shifted to rescuing children. Sendler and her team orchestrated escape routes from the ghetto, using any means available. Children were smuggled out in the most ingenious ways – some were hidden in coffins, others in suitcases or sacks. Babies were even carried out in a mechanic’s toolbox. The sewer system beneath the city was another route used for transporting children to safety. In one notable case, an ambulance driver smuggled infants hidden under stretchers. To prevent suspicion, he kept a dog by his side that had been trained to bark, masking the cries of the hidden children.
These operations were perilous. Since October 1941, aiding Jews in any way was punishable by death in Nazi-occupied Poland. This punishment extended not only to the individual providing help but also to their entire family or household. Despite these risks, Sendler was undeterred. She wore a Star of David armband to show solidarity with the Jewish people and continued her work with a sense of unyielding purpose.
Ingenious Schemes and the Role of Żegota
Irena Sendler’s network was one of the most effective within Żegota. Working alongside activists like Jadwiga Piotrowska, Sendler employed a variety of methods to provide fake documents, secure safe houses, and find permanent homes for Jewish children. Many of these children were placed with Polish families or in Roman Catholic convents and orphanages, such as the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Sendler’s operation was the meticulous care she took to preserve the Jewish identities of the children she rescued. She kept detailed records of their real names and the families or institutions they were placed with, hiding this information in jars buried beneath a tree in a friend’s garden. Her hope was to reunite the children with their families after the war, though tragically, most of their parents were murdered in concentration camps like Treblinka.
Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory. - Irena Sendler
Captured by the Gestapo
In October 1943, Irena Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo. The Nazis had discovered her activities, and she was brutally interrogated and tortured. Despite the horrific treatment, she never betrayed any of her comrades or revealed the identities of the children she had saved. She was sentenced to death and sent to Pawiak prison to await execution.
However, Żegota managed to bribe the German guards to spare her life. On the day of her scheduled execution, she was secretly released. Despite her escape, Sendler remained in hiding for the remainder of the war, continuing her work for Żegota under her new alias, Klara Dąbrowska.
After the War
After the war, Sendler gathered the records of the children she had rescued and turned them over to the Central Committee of Polish Jews. Although many of the children’s parents had perished, efforts were made to reunite the children with surviving family members or, where possible, their Jewish community.
Despite her wartime heroics, Irena Sendler did not receive widespread recognition until later in life. In 1965, she was recognised as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial. However, it wasn’t until 2007 that her story gained broader international attention, largely due to a group of American students who wrote a play about her life, titled Life in a Jar.
Irena Sendler passed away in 2008, aged 98, but her legacy as a selfless hero who defied unimaginable danger to save innocent lives continues to inspire. Her story is a testament to the profound impact one person can have in the face of overwhelming evil.
In 2005 Irena 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."
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