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Top 10 Outstanding Facts about Irena Sendler

Irena Stanisława Sendler, also referred to as Irena Sendlerowa in Poland was born on 15 February 1910. Irena Passed on on 12 May 2008. She was was a Polish humanitarian, social worker, and nurse.

Irena served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw. From October 1943 she was head of the children’s section of Å»egota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews. In the article are the top ten outstanding facts about Irena Sendler.

1. She engaged in conspirational activities during World War II

During the war, Irena pursued conspiratorial activities, such as rescuing Jews, primarily as part of the network of workers and volunteers from that department, mostly women.

Sendler participated, with dozens of others, in smuggling Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then providing them with false identity documents and shelter with willing Polish families or in orphanages and other care facilities, including Catholic nun convents, saving those children from the Holocaust.

2. Bribery bought back her life after she was sentenced to death

Irena Sendler photo by an Unknown Photographer –

TOP TEN FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

The German occupiers suspected Sendler’s involvement in the Polish Underground and in October 1943 she was arrested by the Gestapo. However, she managed to hide the list of the names and locations of the rescued Jewish children.

She prevented this information from falling into the hands of the Gestapo. Withstanding torture and imprisonment, Sendler never revealed anything about her work or the location of the saved children.

She was sentenced to death but narrowly escaped on the day of her scheduled execution, after Żegota bribed German officials to obtain her release. Żegota was the successor institution to the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews and was established specifically to save Jews.

Poland was the only country in German-occupied Europe where such a government-established and -supported underground organization existed. So it’s to Zegota that Sendler was saved from the Gestapo.

3. Sendler was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations

Righteous Among the Nations is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis for altruistic reasons.

The term originates with the concept of “righteous gentiles”, a term used in rabbinic Judaism to refer to non-Jews, called ger toshav, who abide by the Seven Laws of Noah. Why was Sendler recognized as Righteous Among Nations by Israel?

Initially in the 1930s, Sendler conducted her social work as one of the activists connected to the Free Polish University. Also, in post-war communist Poland, Sendler continued her social activism but also pursued a government career. This is the main reason why she was recognized as Righteous Among Nations.

4. Sendler received many decorations throughout her life

Irena Sendler image by Mariusz Kubik –

Among the many decorations, Sendler received was the Gold Cross of Merit granted her in 1946 for the saving of Jews. The Cross of Merit is a Polish civil state decoration established on 23 June 1923, to recognize services to the state.

At the time of its establishment in 1923, the Cross of Merit was the highest civilian award in Poland. It was awarded to citizens who went beyond the call of duty in their work for the country and society as a whole. May be awarded twice in each grade to the same person.

The other decoration she received was the Order of the White Eagle. The Order of the White Eagle is Poland’s highest order awarded to both civilians and the military for their merits. It was officially instituted on 1 November 1705 by king Augustus II the Strong of Poland and the elector of Saxony.

It was bestowed on eight of his closest diplomatic and political supporters. It is one of the oldest distinctions in the world still in use. The decoration was awarded late in Sendler’s life for her wartime humanitarian efforts.

5. She grew up in a Jewish community

Sendler was born in Warsaw, to Stanisław Henryk Krzyżanowski, a physician, and his wife, Janina Karolina. She was baptized Irena Stanisława on 2 February 1917 in Otwock. She initially grew up in Otwock, a town about 15 miles southeast of Warsaw, where there was a Jewish community.

6. Why was Sendler devoted to helping the Jews soo much?

Irena Sendler photo by Mariusz Kubik –

Her father, Stanisław Henryk Krzyżanowski, was a humanitarian who treated the very poor, including Jews, free of charge. Unfortunately, Stanislaw died in February 1917 from typhus contracted by his patients.

After his death, the Jewish community offered financial help for the widow and her daughter, though Janina Krzyżanowska declined their assistance. This is the main reason why she wanted to pay back for the kindness the Jews gave their helpless single-parent family when the father died.

7. Sendler started her activism while at the University

From 1927, Sendler studied law for two years and then Polish literature at the University of Warsaw, interrupting her studies for several years from 1932 to 1937. She opposed the ghetto benches system practiced in the 1930s at many Polish institutions of higher learning.

Due to her opposition to ghetto benches, she defaced the “non-Jewish” identification on her grade card. She reported having suffered from academic disciplinary measures because of her activities and reputation as a communist and Philo-Semite.

8. Sendler once worked in a legal counseling and social help clinic

In the legal counseling and social help clinic, the Section for Mother and Child Assistance at the Citizen Committee Sendle helped the Unemployed. She published two pieces in 1934, both concerned with the situation of children born out of wedlock and their mothers.

She worked mostly in the field, crisscrossing Warsaw’s impoverished neighborhoods, and her clients were helpless, socially disadvantaged women. In 1935, the government abolished the section. Many of its members became employees of the City of Warsaw, including Sendler in the Department of Social Welfare and Public Health.

9. Sendler divorced Mieczysław Sendler twice

Colour enhanced photo of Irena Sendle by an Unknown editor –

In 1931 Sendler married Mieczysław Sendler. He was mobilized for war, captured as a soldier in September 1939, and remained in a German prisoner of war camp until 1945. They divorced in 1947.

Irena then married Stefan Zgrzembski, a Jewish friend and wartime companion. They were blessed with three children, Janina, Andrzej (who died in infancy), and Adam (who died of heart failure in 1999).

In 1957 Zgrzembski left the family; he died in 1961 and Irena remarried her first husband, Mieczysław Sendler. Ten years later they divorced again.

10. American filmmaker Mary Skinner filmed a documentary about Irena Sendler

The film documentary is called Irena Sendler. The documentary was filmed In the Name of Their Mothers. It features the last interviews Sendler gave before her death.

The film made its national U.S. broadcast premiere through KQED Presents on PBS in May 2011 in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day and went on to receive several awards, including the 2012 Gracie Award for outstanding public television documentaries.