Irena Sendler - who recently died at 98 years of age, was a 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee During WWII, Irena was given permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a plumbing/sewer specialist, but she had an ulterior motive. Being German, Irena knew what the Nazi plan was for Jews. Irena smuggled out infants in the bottom of a tool box she carried in the back of her truck. She used a burlap sack for bigger children. She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers wanted nothing to do with her dog. The barking covered noises of the infants and children.
Irena managed to smuggle out and save 2500 infants and children, before she was caught! The Nazi's broke both her legs and arms, and beat her severely. Irena kept a record in a jar buried under a tree in her back yard of all the children she smuggled out. After the war, she tried to locate all parents that may have survived to reunite families, but most had been gassed. The children she could not reunite were placed with foster families or adopted.
Irena was nominated for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won for a slide show on Global Warming.
Thank you to Delores for sharing this. After yesterday's outing in which we were subjected to extreme rudeness, learning about Irena gives me a renewed hope in humankind.
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4 comments:
Hallmark just recently aired a very lovely telling of Irena's heroic efforts on to save jewish children during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. I was new to her story too. What an incredible woman.
What a wonderful woman! I guess bravely risking her life to save children from the Nazis is not as politically correct as battling Global Warming. What a shame that, "Do as I say, not as I do," private jet setter, Al Gore was selected over such a noble woman like Irena.
CBS had a movie about Irena just a few weeks ago, it was made by Hallmark. You might be able to find it at your library, on the Hallmark Channel, or your local video store.
It was a great movie, all my kiddos loved it (11,13,16).
Serioulsy?! Seriously??!! Al Gore has done nothing for our country let along the world or manking? I will NOT get on my soapbox!
Thanks for sharing this story, what an amazing woman! Her reward is in Heaven!
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