About
Date of Birth: 15/02/1910
Date of Death: 12/05/2008
Nationality: Polish
Religion: Roman Catholic
Date of Death: 12/05/2008
Nationality: Polish
Religion: Roman Catholic
Before
Irena was the only child of Dr. Stanislaw Krzyżanowski and his wife. Her father died when she was 7 after contracting tyhus from treating the patients his colleagues refused to treat out of fear for their own health. Many of these patients were Jews and as such, the Jewish community leaders offered to pay for Irena's education following his death. She studied literature at Warsaw University and joined the socialist party, following in her father's footsteps. Due to her opposition to the ghetto-bench system (antisemitic segregation in the seating of students) Irena was suspended for 3 years. She married Mieczyslaw Sendler before the war began. and they lived in Otwock, Poland where she worked for urban Social Welfare departments.
During WW2
Now living in Warsaw, Irena began helping Jews as early as September 1939, following the Nazi invasion of Poland. They provided clothes, food and financial aid for Jewish families as well as registering them under false Christian names and avoided inspection by reporting them as having highly infectious diseases. Following the forcing of the Jews into the Warsaw Ghetto, she was one of Zegota's (the Council for Aid to Jews) first recruits and worked with a team of between 20 and 25 people rescuing Jewish people, mainly children, from the Ghetto. In order to enter the Ghetto legally, Irena managed to get herself issued a pass from Warsaw's Epidemic Control Unit under the pretext of conducting sanitary inspections. She visited the Ghetto daily, bringing clothes and medicine to the inhabitants but realised this was not enough so began to organise the rescue Jewish children.
After persuading parents that their children would be better off outside of the Ghetto even though this meant separation, she created new identities for the children and placed them with Polish families, in orphanages or in convents. When liquidation of the Ghetto began in 1942, Irena and her helpers accelerated their work, bringing the estimated number of children rescued to 2,500.
On 20th October 1943, Irena was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Nazis. She refused to give the names and locations of the children she rescued and so was sentenced to death. Thankfully, a Zegota member bribed one of the Gestapo agent and she was rescued; spirit unbroken but crippled for life. She lived in hiding for the duration of the war but still continued her work.
After the war ended she tracked down the children she had saved and attempted to reunite them with any surviving members of their families.
After persuading parents that their children would be better off outside of the Ghetto even though this meant separation, she created new identities for the children and placed them with Polish families, in orphanages or in convents. When liquidation of the Ghetto began in 1942, Irena and her helpers accelerated their work, bringing the estimated number of children rescued to 2,500.
On 20th October 1943, Irena was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Nazis. She refused to give the names and locations of the children she rescued and so was sentenced to death. Thankfully, a Zegota member bribed one of the Gestapo agent and she was rescued; spirit unbroken but crippled for life. She lived in hiding for the duration of the war but still continued her work.
After the war ended she tracked down the children she had saved and attempted to reunite them with any surviving members of their families.
Legacy
Irena had remarried and had two children. Her daughter, Janina Zgrzembska, is still living. It is rumoured that she was a nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 but did not receive the honour.In 1965, she was recognised by Yad Vashem as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations and was later commemorated on a special coin with two others, created in 2009. (Irena depicted at bottom left)
Sendler died of pneumonia in 2008 at the age of 98, leaving behind her legacy in mutliple ways including the Life In a Jar project which remember her through a play as well as a book ("Life In a Jar") and also through a TV film released in 2009 named The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler directed by John Kent Harrison.
Sendler died of pneumonia in 2008 at the age of 98, leaving behind her legacy in mutliple ways including the Life In a Jar project which remember her through a play as well as a book ("Life In a Jar") and also through a TV film released in 2009 named The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler directed by John Kent Harrison.