In the fall of 2008, the film “Braveheart of Irena Sendler” was shown in the USA. He spoke of a woman who died quietly in May of that year in Warsaw at the 99th year of her life. Most viewers could not hold back their tears while watching the picture, the story of Irena Sendler was so touching and tragic.
Childhood
Irena Kshizhanovskaya was born in the family of a doctor who was in the teaching staff, who was in charge of the hospital and often provided medical care to poor Jews who were not able to pay for treatment. Even before the birth of his daughter, he was an active participant in anti-government actions. When Irena was 7 years old, her father died of typhoid, having become infected by patients. The Jewish community, highly appreciating the merits of Dr. Kshizhanovsky, decided to help his family by offering to pay for Irena's education until she comes of age, reaching the age of 18. The girl’s mother refused, because she knew how hard many of her husband’s former patients live, but told her daughter about it. So, in the heart of Irena forever settled gratitude and love, which subsequently gave life to thousands of children.
At university, the girl joined the Polish Socialist Party, as she wanted to continue her father's work.
In 1932, Irena married Mechislav Sendler, but the marriage did not last long, although they did not formalize a divorce.
Feat
When the Holocaust began in Poland, Irena Sendler was an employee of the Warsaw Health Authority. Along with this, she was a member of the Polish underground organization Zhegota, which was helping Jews.
Due to her professional activities, the young woman regularly visited the Warsaw ghetto and provided assistance to sick children. Using this cover, Irena Sendler and other members of the Zhegota rescued 2,500 Jewish babies, who were then transferred to monasteries, private families and shelters.
According to the recollections of the participants in those events, infants were placed in boxes with holes, first drunk with sleeping pills, and then taken away from the ghetto in cars that delivered disinfectants. As for the older children, they were carried out in bags and baskets, taken out through sewer hatches, basements of houses and buildings adjacent to the area designated for Jews.
Arrest
Irena Sendler made sure that after the war, rescued children could find their parents. She wrote down their names on pieces of paper and put them in a glass jar, which she buried in the garden of her friend.
In 1943, Irena Sendler was arrested, the reason was an anonymous denunciation. The young woman was tortured, trying to find out which of her entourage led the Resistance movement or simply belonged to his underground organization. At the same time, Irena was shown a thick folder with denunciations and messages about her activities, signed by people she knew well. The purpose of the Nazis was to find out the names of other participants in the operations to save children and the place where the children were hidden. Despite the beatings, the fragile Irena did not betray her comrades-in-arms and did not tell the Gestapo where the lists with the names of little Jews are located, since in this case they would have been sent to Treblinka concentration camp and died.
Execution and Escape
Not having achieved the result, the Nazis sentenced Irene to be shot. Fortunately, Sendler remained alive - the participants in anti-fascist resistance in Poland saved her by bribing the escorts. Those, in turn, reported to the command that the execution had taken place, so they did not search for Irene.
According to the recollections of the woman, she was summoned to the last interrogation before being shot. The soldier accompanying her did not bring Iren to the Gestapo building, but pushed him into the alley and ordered him to run away. There were Polish underground members who took her to a safe place. “As a keepsake” about Iren’s stay in Nazi dungeons, Irena remained in poor health, and she spent the end of her life in a wheelchair.
Mission completion
Irene Sendler had to hide until the very end of the war. After the liberation of Poland, she was able to pass on the data about the saved children to Adolf Berman, who from 1947 to 1949 was chairman of the Central Committee of the Jews of Poland. Thanks to a long search, it was possible to reunite the victims of the Holocaust. As for the orphaned children, after a long ordeal, they were eventually transported to Israel.
Life after the war
It would seem that with the advent of peace in Europe, the brave heart of Irena Sendler can calm down, and she finally heals a calm family life. However, fate decided to inflict another blow to her: the state security organs of the NDP learned about her ties with the Army of the Kraeva and began to pursue her. In 1949, during a tough interrogation, the pregnant Irena gave birth ahead of time to a baby who died a few days later.
Belated recognition
Although the Polish authorities left Irene Sendler alone over time, she felt hostile hostility towards her person until the fall of the communist regime. So, when, in 1965, the Yad Vashem Museum of the Holocaust of Israel decided to award Irena Sendler the honorary title of the Righteous Among the Nations of the World, she was not allowed to visit the country in which the once saved boys and girls who had already become adults and considered her his second mother.
Only in 1983, the Polish authorities lifted the ban on her traveling abroad, and Irena Sendler was able to visit Israel, where she planted her tree in the memory alley.
And even after that, few people in the world knew that an old woman lives in a modest apartment in Warsaw, having accomplished a feat that deserves all the highest awards and honors. However, fate wished that Irena Sendler lived to see the day when her story would be known in different parts of the world.
Moreover, everything happened by chance in 1999, and the initiator was again the children - four schoolgirls from the American town of Uniontown. They were preparing a report for the History Day project, and the teacher showed them a newspaper note five years ago under the heading “Another Schindler.” Interested girls began to look for information about Irena Sendler and found that she was alive. With the help of relatives and teachers, they wrote the play Life in the Bank, which was staged in various theaters in the USA, Canada, and later in Poland. The girls even came to Warsaw, where they saw their idol. Their friendship with Irena Sendler lasted several years, during which they repeatedly visited the Mother of the Children of the Holocaust.
Awards
The merits of Irena Sendler were very late appreciated by the Polish government, which in 2003 awarded her the Order of the White Eagle. Before the Sendler, the European monarchs, including Peter the Great, the famous military leaders and the Pope, became the holders of this highest award. The Order of the White Eagle was restored in Poland only in 1992, and among those awarded over the past 24 years, hardly anyone was as worthy of it as Mrs. Sendler.
In addition, a year before the death of Irena, the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of Poland proposed the Nobel Committee to award her the Peace Prize. Sendler’s rewarding did not take place, since the committee at that time did not begin to change the rules prescribing to award a reward for actions that have been committed over the past two years.
As one Polish journalist wrote, “the prize is dishonored.” Those who handed it overtook a man worthy of her like no other to reward Al Gore, who presented a presentation on global warming.
And in 2007, Mrs. Irena was awarded the Order of the Smile medal. As always in the life of Irena, children intervened in the matter: she was presented as a pretender to receive the award by the boy Shimon Plotsennik from Zelenaya Gora. The "Order of the Smile" was established in Poland in 1968, and is awarded to people who give children joy. In 1979, the award was given international status, and since then, applicants for its selection have been selected by a commission consisting of representatives of 24 countries.
The film "Braveheart of Irena Sendler"
The motion picture, which has already been mentioned, was shot in Latvia. When American journalists told Irena that they were going to make a film about her life during the war, she said she agreed. At the same time, the woman asked that the picture be true and show the Americans what the war really was, what the Warsaw ghetto looked like and what was happening there. The role of Irena Sendler in the film was played by New Zealand actress Anna Paquin, who in 1994 was awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. According to viewers, the film turned out to be very piercing and truthful. The picture also pleased the daughter of Irena Sendler - Ioannina, who was initially against the idea of ​​creating a cinematic version of her mother’s biography.
Resistance movement in Poland
Talking about the feat of Sendler, it should be understood that a courageous woman could not act alone. According to the memoirs of Mrs. Irena herself, in order to save one child, she needed the help of at least 12 people: drivers, medical workers, security guards, shelter workers, officials writing fake documents, etc. The role of Polish nuns was very special. It is known that 500 children rescued by Irena Sendler could survive only thanks to their help. At the same time, many sisters paid for their Christian humanism, manifested in relation to children of a different faith, their life, and even became martyrs. So, in 1944, at the cemetery of Warsaw, the Nazis doused with gasoline and burned a group of nuns who helped Jews alive.
No less touching is the story of how Wojciech Zhukavsky and Alexander Zelverovich hid 40 children from the ghetto in a zoo, where they had to hide among the enclosures with animals.
Now you know who Irena Sendler was, a film about which is definitely worth a look, especially since it is available in Russian translation.