Irena Sendlerowa
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Irena Sendlerowa (Irena Sendler) Born in 1910 to a Polish family living in the Warsaw's suburbs. Her father was a physician whose main clients were poor Jews. During the World War II German occupation of Poland, she lived in Warsaw while working for the city's Social Welfare Department. She started helping Jews from the time Warsaw Ghetto was established. In the December of 1942, the newly created Zegota, a Council to Aid Jews, nominated her to head its children's department. As an employee of the Social Welfare Department, she had a special permit to enter the Warsaw Ghetto, where she wore a Star of David. She cooperated with the Children's Section of the Municipal Administration, linked with the RGO (Central Welfare Council), a Polish Relief Organization remaining under German supervision. She organized smuggling of the Jewish children from the Ghetto and placing them with the substitute Polish families, Warsaw orphanage of the Sisters of the Family of Mary, or Catholic convents of the Sisters Little Servants of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mary at Turkowice and Chotomowo. Arrested in 1943 by the Gestapo, she was severely tortured and sentenced to death. Zegota saved her by bribing the German guards on the way to her execution place. In hiding, she continued her work for the Jewish children. In 1983 recognized by the Israeli Supreme Court as Righteous Among the Nations. On October 10, 2003 Irena received the Order of the White Eagle, highest Polish civil decoration.
External links
- Zegota: Council to Aid Jews (http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/zegota.htm)
- Irena Sendler Project (http://www.irenasendler.org/)
Bibliography
- "Zegota: The Council to Aid Jews in Occupied Poland 1942-1945", Tomaszewski, Irene & Werblowski, Tecia, ISBN 1896881157, Price-Pattersonde:Irena Sendler