Irena Sendler

Irena SendlerKate Klein       

     Have you heard of Irena Sendler? When World War II broke out in Poland, Irena Sendler was a 29 year old social worker in Poland. She was employed be the Welfare department of the Warsaw Municipality. Irena Sendler is known for saving the lives of 2,500 children during the Holocaust and even reuniting a few of them with their families after the war. To me, a hero is someone who takes care of others and helps people for common reasons because they are compelled to, not because of selfish reasons, like money or power. I admire Irena Sendler  because she saved the Jews and risked her life to help people in need. She truly cared about other people, and was willing to risk her life to help others.

     Irena Sendler was born with a different name. She was born as Irena Krzyżanowska on February 15, 1910 in Warsaw to Dr. Stanisław Krzyżanowski, who was a physician and would not refuse to treat anyone, and his wife, Irena’s Mother, Janina. Irena’s father died in 1917 from typhus, a disease he had gotten by treating Jewish patients with typhus that no other doctor would. After his death, Jewish leaders offered to pay for Irena’s education in return for what Irena’s father had done for them and their families. Irena went to Warsaw University. She did not like the ghetto-bench system that existed at some prewar Polish universities and publicly protested by defacing her grade card. In response to her public protest, she was suspended from Warsaw University for three years.       

     Irena was in charge of the Children’s Division of Zegota (a Polish underground group to help and cure Jewish people). Irena’s pass allowed her passage inside the ghetto to help Jews that were dying from disease. The Germans thought that she was just going inside the ghetto to give out food and medicine. Irena had a different idea in mind. She was thinking that she would smuggle out children from the ghetto.  She knew that she would have a hard task ahead of her. Convincing parents to give up their children to a complete stranger would be hard, and smuggling them out would be even harder. She would smuggle the children out in coffins or sacks, and load them into a cart, which she would tell the guards that they were empty as she left. She would then drop the children off at an orphanage or a foster home. She would change the child's name and would tell them that they were now Christian.

     She wrote the children's real names, fake names, and where to find them at the end of the war. Irena (code name Jolanta) was arrested on October 20, 1943. She was placed in the notorious Pawiak prison, where she was questioned day and night. You can imagine how exhausting that would be. No matter what, she never gave up names and she stayed strong. The Germans chose to sentence her to death but Zegota members bribed a German guard to let Irena  escape. Irena wanted to go back to work but she realized it was too risky, and she lived in hiding for the rest of the war.

     This is why Irena Sendler is my hero. She saved countless lives while risking her own life. She managed to do what very few other people were able to do. Because of what she did, she earned the nickname “The Female Schindler.” Schindler was also someone that risked his own life to help others in the Holocaust. There is a story written about him by my friend, Lyndsey, check out her story. Thanks for reading this!