Irena Sendler, who died [May 12th, at] age 98, is credited with having saved the lives of 2,500 Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War.
Irena Sendler [pictured above] was a Polish Roman Catholic social worker who had links with Zegota, the code name for the Council for Aid to Jews. [T]he ultimate destination 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" Irena Sendler [led] 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.
In later life Irena Sendler recalled the heartbreak of Jewish mothers having to part from their children: "We witnessed terrible scenes. Father agreed, but mother didn't. We sometimes had to leave those unfortunate families without taking their children from them. I'd go back there the next day and often found that everyone had been taken to the railway for transport to the death camps."
Irena Sendler [pictured above] was a Polish Roman Catholic social worker who had links with Zegota, the code name for the Council for Aid to Jews. [T]he ultimate destination 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" Irena Sendler [led] 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.
In later life Irena Sendler recalled the heartbreak of Jewish mothers having to part from their children: "We witnessed terrible scenes. Father agreed, but mother didn't. We sometimes had to leave those unfortunate families without taking their children from them. I'd go back there the next day and often found that everyone had been taken to the railway for transport to the death camps."
[In] 1943, her house was raided by the Gestapo and the Nazis took Sendler to the 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. Sentenced to death, she escaped thanks to Zegota, who bribed a guard to set her free. She immediately returned to her work using a new identity.
In her later years Irena Sendler was cared for in a Warsaw nursing home by Elzbieta Ficowska, who - in 1942, at six months old - had been smuggled out of the ghetto by Irena in a carpenter's workbox.
In her later years Irena Sendler was cared for in a Warsaw nursing home by Elzbieta Ficowska, who - in 1942, at six months old - had been smuggled out of the ghetto by Irena in a carpenter's workbox.
(Telegraph-UK)
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