Irena Sendler: 1910-2008
Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory.
Until today, I’d never heard of Irena Sendler. As the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto began to be transported to Treblinka, Irena risked her life to smuggle out children using any means possible. One baby was smuggled out in a mechanic’s toolbox.
Irena wrote down the names of all the children she had helped to escape, placed them in jam jars and buried them in a friend’s garden. She was caught, tortured and beaten by the Gestapo; but she never gave away a single name, or the identities of her underground colleagues. Her courage reminds me of Maximilian Kolbe.
You can read more about Irena’s life here and here. I’ll leave her with the last word:
I was taught that if you see a person drowning, you must jump into the water to save them, whether you can swim or not.
Published on 13th May, 2008
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