RIP Sweet Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who saved thousands of Jewish children during World War Two by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, died in the Polish capital on Monday after a long illness, local media said.
Israel’s Holocaust remembrance authority, Yad Vashem, said in a statement that it mourned her death.
The web portal of Poland’s leading daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, said Sendler, 98, died in Plocka Street hospital early on Monday. The hospital declined to comment on the report.
Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev said: “Irena Sendler’s courageous activities rescuing Jews during the Holocaust serve as a beacon of light to the world, inspiring hope and restoring faith in the innate goodness of mankind.”
Using her position as a social worker, Sendler regularly entered the ghetto, smuggling around 2,500 children out in boxes, suitcases or hidden in trolleys.
The children were then placed with Polish families outside the ghetto, created by Nazi Germany in 1940 for the city’s half a million strong Jewish population, and given new identities.
But in 1943 Sendler, who led the children’ section of the Zegota organization which helped Jews during the war, was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo.
She only escaped execution when Zegota managed to bribe some Nazi officials, who left her unconscious but alive with broken legs and arms in the woods.
“People who stand up for others, for the weak, are very rare. The world would have been a better place if there were more of them,” Marek Edelman, the last surviving commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, said on national television.
His sentiments were echoed by former Polish President Lech Walesa as well as religious leaders.
Sendler was honored with Israeli Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations medal in 1965 for her actions, and later made an honorary Israeli citizen.
She was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year but, despite her bravery, she denied she was a hero.
“The term ‘hero’ irritates me greatly. The opposite is true. I continue to have pangs of conscience that I did so little,” Sendler said in one of her last interviews.
(REUTERS)
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Well i dont think we should have any doubts in our minds where that beautiful human being ended up. she was called home and is now in a better place
May 12th, 2008 at 8:22 amThank you Irena Sendler for God’s work that you performed here on Earth.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:43 amMay the Lord always keep you close and bless your soul.
“I will bless those that bless you and curse those who curse you” So said the Lord Of hosts to the nations that opposed Israel.
To be declared a “righteous person” by Israel is an honor reserved for a very few. Its like getting the MOF and the MOH all at the same time.
She’s a hero and a Polish patriot.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:58 amRescued Jews from Slave Labor camps!
May 12th, 2008 at 9:24 amAmongst those born into the “greatest generation”, this woman was certainly no exception. Her dedication, bravery and also humility serves as an inspiration to us all.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:53 amSee, the good do live to be old.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:06 amYou know, it’s not any high-ranking dignitary or celebrity I ever want to meet; it’s people like Irena Sendler.
Well done, good and faithful servant. Go and share in the Master’s joy.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:37 amWhy did she NOT get the peace prize? She deserved more than gore did
May 12th, 2008 at 12:20 pmAnother gut-wrencher Drill. I linked to it a TMQ2.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:32 pmShe should have gotten the Peace Prize. What she did was amazing. Rest in peace, Angel of the Ghetto.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:56 pm