A short story of the Life of a woman who refused to give in...

[rasputin1952]

The power of one person to stand up against all odds to save others...


Irena Sendler was a Senior Social Worker in Warsaw during WWII, a Catholic, she was granted entrance into the Ghetto for various reasons. She knew what was going to happen, and became a member of the Underground unit, Zegota, formed to help Jews in occupied Poland. She, and others in Zegota are credited with saving 2,500 infants from certain death.

These infants were smuggled out of the Ghetto.

To be able to enter the Ghetto legally, Irena managed to be issued a pass from Warsaw's Epidemic Control Department and she visited the Ghetto daily, reestablished contacts and brought food, medicines and clothing. But 5,000 people were dying a month from starvation and disease in the Ghetto, and she decided to help the Jewish children to get out. For Irena , a young mother herself, persuading parents to part with their children was in itself a horrendous task. Finding families willing to shelter the children, and thereby willing to risk their life if the Nazis ever found out, was also not easy.

She who wore a star armband as a sign of her solidarity to Jews, began smuggling children out in an ambulance. She recruited at least one person from each of the ten centers of the Social Welfare Department. With their help, she issued hundreds of false documents with forged signatures. Irena successfully smuggled almost 2,500 Jewish children to safety and gave them temporary new identities.

Some children were taken out in gunnysacks or body bags. Some were buried inside loads of goods. A mechanic took a baby out in his toolbox. Some kids were carried out in potato sacks, others were placed in coffins, some entered a church in the Ghetto which had two entrances. One entrance opened into the Ghetto, the other opened into the Aryan side of Warsaw. They entered the church as Jews and exited as Christians. "`Can you guarantee they will live?'" Irena later recalled the distraught parents asking. But she could only guarantee they would die if they stayed. "In my dreams," she said, "I still hear the cries when they left their parents."

Sendler accomplished her incredible deeds with the active assistance of the church. "I sent most of the children to religious establishments," she recalled. "I knew I could count on the Sisters." Irena also had a remarkable record of cooperation when placing the youngsters: "No one ever refused to take a child from me," she said. The children were given false identities and placed in homes, orphanages and convents. She carefully noted, in coded form, the children's original names and their new identities. She kept the only record of their true identities in jars buried beneath an apple tree in a neighbor's back yard, across the street from German barracks, hoping she could someday dig up the jars, locate the children and inform them of their past.

Sendler did not think of herself as a hero. She claimed no credit for her actions. "I could have done more," she said. "This regret will follow me to my death."

She was nominated for 2007 The Nobel Peace Prize, but did not win. During the ceremony Elzbieta Ficowska, who was just six months old when she was saved by Irena, read out a letter on her behalf: “Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory,” Sendler said in the letter, “Over a half-century has passed since the hell of the Holocaust, but its spectre still hangs over the world and doesn’t allow us to forget.”



She passed away on 12 May 2008 in her native Poland


http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/sendler.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDEjca8nYqg

http://www.auschwitz.dk/Sendler.htm

[pnorman]

1. This is a FANTASTIC story!

I thought that I was pretty well informed about that period in history, but this was brand new to me!

[kestrel91316]

2. WOW.

[asdjrocky]

3. Thank you for teaching me something I didn't know.

This is why this place is still special to me.

[BeFree]

4. Yep

DU is great. Stories like this are an inspiration.

[proteus_lives]

5. A true hero.

[Skittles]

33. yup: true heroes don't bask in what they did

like this gal, they regret they couldn't do more

[rasputin1952]

35. I found that part of the story wrencing at my heartstrings...

there was nothing of "me" in there, it was all about others, ans especially those she could not save.

A truly remarkable person...

[Joe Chi Minh]

6. And this, from your first link: 'In 1943, she was captured by the Nazis and tortured but refused

to tell her captors who her co-conspirators were or where the bottles were buried.

(snip)

'During one particularly brutal torture session, her captors broke her feet and legs, and she passed out. When she awoke, a Gestapo officer told her he had accepted a bribe from her comrades in the resistance to help her escape. The officer added her name to a list of executed prisoners. Sendler went into hiding but continued her rescue efforts.'(!!!!!)

[rasputin1952]

7. Yes, the story is amazing...

and for it to be "buried" for all these years...

These are the stories that should be told, and thankfully those kids in KS are doing just that!

I found it profoundly inspirational.

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. 'Epic' hardly covers it, does it? There are some other wonderful stories

on that page.

[rasputin1952]

9. There are stories we rarely hear of...

stories of incredible strength of character, and the lie dormant. How many gazillion times do we hear of the atrocities committed the world over, and rarely, if ever those who stand up against them?

I'm not a "hero-worshipper" in any sense of the term...but when I see a humble 4'11 woman taking on one of the worst atrocities of all time, through sheer will and against unsurmountable odds...well, it is impossible for me not to affected.

I'm proud I could have passed her story on...and the stories of other people who made a stand...

[Joe Chi Minh]

58. They say, 'Good things come in little packages.'

[rasputin1952]

59. ...

[HughMoran]

41. Wow

Her willingness to sacrifice her life if needed to protect these children's identities is inspiring to say the least. Brings a tear to my eye.

[rasputin1952]

43. It is indeed incredble...

this was a woman who knew her mission in that portion of her life.

The courage, the dedication is incredibly inspiring...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. Tears streaming down here. I can't write anymore...too choked up.

[rasputin1952]

11. I know the feeling...

It took me a while to set it up. I was near blind from the misty eyes...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. 2 of my grandparents were born in Poland, and 1 of my grandmother's

parents are from Poland. They were all Jews from the Warsaw area. Luckily, so luckily, they were able to get out of Poland at around the turn of the 20th century. I have often wondered how many of my relatives died in the holocaust. I have no idea.

Irena appears to be a Boddhisattva. Someone who decided to be reborn in order to serve humanity. Just look at that beautiful face. Tears again here...damn.

[rasputin1952]

14. I'm glad they got out when they did...

we probably wouldn't have you otherwise...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. That is so sweet of you Rasputin.....thank you and

[Hissyspit]

28. The CBS movie about her life is not on DVD yet, but you can save it in your Netflix queue.

It was broadcast last year.

[Dappleganger]

13. Very humbling. nt

[justinaforjustice]

16. Please Send This Story to President Obama and A.G. Holder.

This is an especially inspiring story of great moral and physical courage in the face of fascist atrocities. It is particularly needed this week, when President Obama and Attorney General Holder have shown such abject cowardice in refusing to hold those two attorneys, Yoo and Bybee, who justified and facilitated torture, even mildly accountable by initiating a Bar Association complaint for their thoroughly unethical complicity in torture.

The Obama-Holder decision to ignore the war crimes committed by Yoo and Bybee, even for so minimal a "punishment" as possible loss of their law licenses, stands in stark contrast to those, such as Mrs. Sendler, whose actions, under threat of her own death and torture, worked to save thousands from certain death.

By refusing to investigate and prosecute the numerous war crimes committed by Bush, Cheney and the other members of their fascist cabal, such as Yoo and Bybee, Obama and Holder are giving new life to the defense of those many lowly Nazis, those who actually carried out the Warsaw ghetto massacre, torturing and murdering thousands there. How many more torturers and murderers can now sleep peacefully at night, knowing that their claim "I was only following orders" or "I only made a legal misjudgment" will spare them all punishment.

Obama and Holder have just dramatically over-turned the judgments at Nuremberg as well as the rule of law in the United States. The cowardly political expediency of our highest leaders makes me ashamed to be an American. May Obama and Holder read about the heroism of a humble social worker, and weep for their own lack of courage.

[rasputin1952]

44. I, for one, would have had them arrested immediately following

my inauguration. US Marshals would have frog marched them off the platform.

Alas...I was not sworn in that day...

[wellstone dem]

17. Wow, just

wow.

[LeftishBrit]

18. k& big R for a great heroine

[lefttruebrit]

24. What a wonderful story....Thanks so much for posting Rasputin as I had not heard of this lady before

This reminds me of Corrie ten Boom. I have her book and what she went through trying to rescue Jewish people during WW2.

Stories such as these should be kept alive. My other half's dad served in WW2 and he was Jewish and when captured by the German army in Africa threw, away his I.D. tags so he was just labeled as an American soldier at a POW camp in Germany.

As I am new here what is k&r?

[rasputin1952]

27. Welcome to DU! K&R is "Kick & Reccomend"...

You can Recommend threads just under the Opening Post. Each time someone posts to the thread, it gets kicked to the top of the Forum it is in.

[11 Bravo]

50. Welcome to DU. It's nice to have you here.

[jwirr]

19. May we all have her spirit when we are called to help others.

[rasputin1952]

38. ...

[BrklynLiberal]

20. Goosebumps. What a heroine...courage in the face of probable death.

[BrklynLiberal]

21. There were many who showed courge that I could not swear I would have had.

http://french-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/a_holoca...

A Holocaust Refuge in France
How A Protestant Village saved 5,000 Jews
While nearly six million Jews went to their deaths in the unprecedented horrors of the Holocaust, scattered remnants were saved by heroic and self-sacrificing Gentiles. One of the most moving stories comes from a small Protestant town in southeastern France.
The Holocaust Comes to France

At the outset of World War II, France had a population of approximately 350,000 Jews, mostly assimilated and some having already fled Germany after the rise of Hitler. The Nazi triumph over the French left the southern part of the country unoccupied for two years, and the Jews in that region were relatively undisturbed even after deportations and extermination began elsewhere. But in 1942, the German authorities ordered roundups of the Jews and received the cooperation of the puppet Vichy regime.

Hearing of the new murderous development, Pastor Andre Trocme of the mountain village of Le Chambon sur Lignon urged his congregation to shelter as many Jews as reached their area and to help them escape from the country when possible. The Pastor insisted that it was their Christian duty to save the lives of the people of the Old Testament. He was also probably influenced by the history of the Protestants, known as Huguenots in France, where they were a small minority and had been subjected to persecution and massacres going back to the 16th century. Trocme also obtained the assistance of a neighboring Catholic parish.

Word of the courageous stance of Le Chambon reached desperate Jews in other parts of France and many headed for the remote village. Pastor Trocme, his wife Magda, and several associates identified places of shelter, directed fleeing Jews to them, and organized clandestine journeys over the nearby mountains to neutral Switzerland, which was beyond German jurisdiction. Magda Trocme led several of the treks herself. The Trocmes and the villagers were confronted and threatened by Vichy and German representatives but, even after the imprisonment of Pastor Trocme and others, refused to give up their rescue mission. A nephew, Daniel Trocme, was caught with some Jewish children and was executed in a death camp gas chamber.

Read more at Suite101: A Holocaust Refuge in France: How A Protestant Village saved 5,000 Jews http://french-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/a_holoca...
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P1-79148373.html

French Villagers Save Jewish Kids During Holocaust: "The Children of Chabannes" is a life-affirming story.
French villagers save Jewish kids during Holocaust: "The Children of
Chabannes" is a life-affirming story.

From 1939 to 1943, the tiny farming village of Chabannes in unoccupied
central France saved 400 Jewish children, mostly German and Austrian
refugees, from the Nazi death camps.

Fifty years later, filmmaker Lisa Gossels returned to France with her
father and uncle, two of those children, to record the courage, kindness
and human decency of the citizens of Chabannes.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[rasputin1952]

32. Thank you...

The brave people who took a stand rarely get mention. Sure, those that saved hundreds or thousands are often known, but I had never heard of this woman. I had a very slight knowledge of Andre Trocme, and none of his wife. Fine and brave souls who rose up against the evil...letting their conscience be their guide...

[Fleshdancer]

22. it's rare for me to want to believe in the concept of heaven

Amazing story. Amazing woman.

[rasputin1952]

34. If there is a heaven...

she most certainly earned her way in...

[bertman]

23. Beautiful story. Thank you for posting it. She did all of that knowing the fate that awaited

her if she was caught. The Germans were not sentimental about Jewish babies. Her courage and compassion and the courage and compassion of those who helped her are truly inspirational.

Rec.

[rasputin1952]

30. I found it particularly powerful...

so much courage in one person...a testament to how people can rise above the evil...

[gleaner]

25. What an amazing woman!

Thank you for sharing her story and the links and once again reminding me of the power of one.

[Hissyspit]

26. "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler" was shown on CBS last year:

The same night as the Miss USA pageant flare-up between Perez Hilton and Miss California. I posted about both, but I watched "Irena Sendler."

http://login.vnuemedia.com/hr/tv-reviews/the-courageous...

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/dubo...

It is not available on Netflix yet, but you can save it in your queue.

[rasputin1952]

29. Thank you for the links...

until today, i had never heard of her...but that is how heroes live; they due their duty, then return to life...

I had only read of her this morning, then did a search. I picked up a book at the Library yesterday, and it has great stories in it, this was the fourth one, and I literally broke down when I read it.

The book: "Small Miracles of the Holocaust"; Yitta Halberstam & Judith Leventhal; The Lyons Press. ($19.95)

[puebloknot]

40. Thanks. I just posted that there should be a film made about her.

I'll look for the feature you mention here.

In these challenging times, it's so good to have an antidote to the gloom that often pervades our thinking. I always try to remember Anne Frank's assertion that in spite of everything, people are still basically good.

[rasputin1952]

42. I lean to agreement...

While there are maniacs that will always be around to prove me wrong...the vast majority of human beings are decent people trying to live a life a peace.

Sadly, the maniacs often come up from the bottom and wreak havoc upon humanity...

[Danger Mouse]

31. Proud to kick and recommend this.

[liberalhistorian]

36. I have always had a special interest in Holocaust

history and have always been particulary inspired by the history of the Warsaw Ghetto and its inhabitants, many of whom planned and carried out the uprising against what they had to have known were impossible odds but they did it anyway to show that they would resist and fight to the end and, therefore, as their leader Mordecai Aneliewitz said, "live and die with honor."

This woman and her comrades always bring tears to my eyes, the pure unselfishness, the unwavering courage and ability to do what was right and continue to do it no matter the cost, the simple fact that thousands of people and their descendants lived and are alive soley because of her. Corey Ten Boom and Wallenberg are other fine examples of the same. And, say what you want about the Pope at the time (and I have no doubt that, if he wasn't involved in some way, he at least looked the other way), but there were many convents and parishes that risked their own safety and sheltered and took in many thousands of Jews and other "undesirables" headed for sure destruction, including thousands of babies and children. And while there were many Christian churches that, if not actually complicit in or encouraging of the atrocity, were apathetic and chickenshit and way too accomodating, there were also many churches and many Christians who spent years risking their own lives every day to shelter and protect Jews, Gypsies and member of others of the numerous groups labeled as "undesirables." And many of them lost their lives in the camps or chose to go with the groups, often children, they'd taken charge of to the camps after discovery.

Many credited their strong faith and God-given courage for the ability to do what they never thought they'd have the courage to do. As a Christian myself, I understand what they're saying and would like to think that I would be able to do the same should it ever, God forbid, become necessary. That is certainly not to suggest, of course, that those who are not religious did not also do such things or are uncapable of it, not at all. There is something about such extreme crisis and danger situations, like Nazi or other brutal occupations and the like, that brings out both the worst AND the best in people, mostly ordinary people.

I'm certain there's a special spot in heaven for this woman and her comrades who did the same things.

[rasputin1952]

37. I like to think, that under the same circumstances, I would have

the courage this woman displayed. To be sure, I've done my share of standing up to and fighting tyrants...but this woman is so far ahead of what we consider "heroic". Not only did she do what she did, but then went into a life of virtual obscurity, never seeking out the limelight, never making a "deal" out of it. She is the epitome of selflessness; she is a hero in several ways...even to the point where she felt remorse for not going more.

I found the story so uplifting, so powerful...how many more like her were out there? How many were killed and we never heard of them?

This one little lady did so much...she earned her rest...if only all of us could just share a passion like that...this worlds would be so much better off...

[Joe Chi Minh]

60. Kind of hilarious to think that, if you didn't know her story, you might not give her

a second glance; which evidently would suit her fine. It seems such giants are no more 'visible' in normal circumstances than their antitypes, the psychopaths.

Funny to think that, until quite recently, women were characterized as 'the weaker sex'. 'Don't you worry your pretty little head', sort of thing. And that in the UK, up until, I think, the early fifties, banks wouldn't even allow women to have a personal account and cheque-book.

[rasputin1952]

61. Wonder if they'd try that w/the Queen...

I read somewhere, that QE was the only person who could walk into any shop, and purchase whatever she wanted on her status alone. No cash, no check, no credit card, no signature. Just walk in, get the item, and it would be billed to her account. I've wondered if she ever kept "mad money" of something. And what's with the handbag? Somewhere, I read something years ago that mentioned what she had in there, but I can't recall...

Irena was a giant as a human being. Few can compare to what she did...and all of them are heroes...

[Joe Chi Minh]

65. Well, women are crazy about their handbags. I've seen a clip of a woman

who had just been pulled out of a nearly swamped car in a deadly, raging torrent, trying to get back in the car to get her handbag. The rescue crew thought it inadvisable...

[puebloknot]

39. What an inspiring "Power of One" story. Thank you!

This should be a "Schindler's List" kind of film (called "Sendler's List"?). Hearing of the courage of people in that era is grist for the mill in our own day.

[rasputin1952]

45. The play goes around the country from time to time...

There is a schedule at this site:

http://www.irenasendler.org /

Closest one to me seems to be either KS/MO...but I intend to go to at least one of them.

I'll go, I'll tear up and I'll be refreshed, knowing that our fight is nothing like the fight she faced. I'll be embarrassed, because, like Irena, I "could have done more"...

[puebloknot]

55. Schindler's List ends with his saying "I could have done more."

He went through an epiphany of majestic proportions, if the film is to be believed. I think the enormity of trying to reach out and help becomes overwhelming because for every helpful thing done, a million more are waiting.

Thanks for this information. I'm not Jewish, but my father fought in WWII and helped liberate a small concentration camp in Czechslovakia. I never knew it until close to his death because "What did you do in the war, Daddy?" was met with a humorous description of how one day he stuck his head up out of a fox hole and his helmet fell down and skinned his nose. And that's why my father was so depressed all his life, and spent most of his time reading history, and especially the history of WWII.

There is no end to the sadness I feel about the Holocaust, no end to the incredibly moving stories that are still coming out.

A year ago, I read "The Lost" by Daniel Mendelsohn. It is a story for the ages.

[Political_Junkie]

46. Wow,

brought me to tears. Amazing woman.

[Pab Sungenis]

47. I had a right-winger E-Mail me what you posted above, but this was attached to the end:

"Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected.

Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

With Gore and Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prizes, the Prize now becomes meaningless."

Sad to see this legacy being trod upon by certain types.

[rasputin1952]

48. There will always be Morans out there...

I think the Nobel Peace Prize was demeaned when bush & Limbaugh were "nominated"...

Same people think Desmond Tutu is a fascist, or Mother Theresa was eating kittens in the basement...

[Berry Cool]

49. This woman was incredible to say the least.

We need all of these stories we can get.

[Enthusiast]

51. Amazing courage!

This is one of the great untold stories of WWII. Maybe someone could be persuaded to make a movie of this.

[proud patriot]

52. luv ya Ras

[gtar100]

53. K!

[flyarm]

54. I sit here and weep for this wonderful story of Irena Sendler ..what an incredible woman!

great story..thanks for posting this..

Those children were blessed and are blessed to have been saved by a woman who valued lives, and lived her values!

[rasputin1952]

62. It is hard to keep a dry eye when reading about her exploits...

[aikoaiko]

56. Such bravery and compassion is an example to all but of a few of us these days.

Thank you for sharing this person's life with us.

[rasputin1952]

63. I only wish I had heard of her years ago...

[Uncle Joe]

57. Kicked, but too late to recommend.

Thanks for the thread, rasputin.

[Scurrilous]

64. Kick

[Joe Chi Minh]

66. To introduce a sour note, I wonder what treatment she'd get from our

torturers today. Doesn't bear thinking about, if Abu Ghraib and the other facilities of its type are any guide. I'd always assumed you couldn't get lower than the Nazis.