Thursday, April 2, 2009

Irena Sendler:Courage and Heart

I found this at the Rural Revolution site. Rural Revolution is the site of Patrice Lewis and is very well worth visiting!

Irena Sendler passed away last year and her story is one everyone should hear about:

During WWII, Irena got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive. She KNEW what the Nazis' plans were for the Jews (being German). Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack (for larger kids). She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kid/infant noises. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazis broke both her legs, arms, and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most of course had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected.

Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

The picture below is of Irena and some of her "children" from the war.

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