Irena Sendler

In a discussion with my children the other night, I made the point that rewards and awards are nice, but they are insignificant to the work you do in your life and the lives you touch along the way. I thought of a few examples and shared them. In looking back on that night, I realized that I had forgotten about this story until this morning when someone sent me an email reminding me of it.

Last year, May 12, 2008 to be exact, a small, frail, 92 year-old Polish lady died quietly in her nursing home in Warsaw. Her name was Irena Sendler and while she died peacefully, her life was anything but. She was born in 1910 and during the late 1930’s, when the Nazis invaded Poland, Irena was working as a young Catholic social worker. She joined the Polish resistance and worked to save as many of the young Jewish children as she could.

It was her job to check the Jewish ghetto for Typhus as the Germans did not want the disease to spread out of the ghetto. In this capacity, she was able to smuggle and save as many as 2,500 children of all ages from certain death at the hands of the SS. These children were given to Polish families and catholic convents to raise. Their identities were written on lists Irena made, placed in jars, and buried to keep hidden from the Nazis.

She smuggled these children in packages, in food sacks, in ambulances, and by whatever means she could. In 1943 she was captured by the Gestapo and tortured to give up any information, she was beaten to the point where both her arms and legs were eventually broken and mutilated the rest of her life. She never spoke a word. Sentenced to death, her resistance partners managed to bribe a guard to save her life. On the way to be executed, the guard left her broken body by the roadside, in the woods. After her rescue she continued to work covertly to save as many children as she could.

After the war, during a time when she should have been famous for her efforts, she was persecuted and imprisoned by the new, communist Polish government for collaborating with the West and the Polish government in exile.

Not until 1983 was Irena allowed to leave Poland. That was to attend a presentation in her honor by the Israeli government. Much has happened in the world since the many years of hardship, both at the hands of the Nazis and the Communists. Since that time, Irena has been celebrated by many governments and religious organizations; although, I doubt any award is sufficient given the truly heroic acts managed by this small woman in the face of two of the most tyrannical and horrific regimes in the history of the world.

In 2007, Irena was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace for her work during World War II. She was beaten out for the award by Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – REALLY. Seriously, is the “fight” for a climate change philosophy that is still not scientifically proven a real competitor to someone who accomplished the works Irena Sendler did?

I wonder what those children would say of the slight the Nobel Committee gave to the woman who saved their lives. In the end though, I imagine that the life’s work and the 2,500 or so children she saved make the Nobel Prize look like a pittance. Regardless, I congratulate Irena Sendler for the work she did and know that she is happy, healthy, and rewarded in Heaven for a life of sacrifice here on Earth.

God Speed Irena,
Bill