Video

Video by Staff Sgt. Raul Pacheco

Days of Remembrance- The Irena Sendler's Story

Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute

April 4, 2023 | 2:54

During the holocaust, an unsung hero defied the Nazi regime, and helped rescue, 2500 Jewish children, from the Warsaw Ghetto.
Irena Sendler, the 29-year-old Polish Catholic social worker, was employed by the Warsaw Welfare Department during the Nazi invasion in 1939.
Soon after in 1940, the Nazis isolated an area within the city limits, with tall walls and barb wire, where they forced in more than 400,000, Jewish residents, to an area termed the Warsaw Ghetto.
During that time, Sendler, took advantage of her position, and accessed the ghetto, knocking on doors, and asking parents to give up their children, to smuggle them to safety.
Although, she couldn’t guarantee the children’s survival, she could tell parents, that their children would at least have a chance.
Each child, was given a new Polish name, and forged identity documents, to then be placed at non-Jewish orphanages, and private homes.
Irena, made lists of the children’s real names, and hid them in jars, which she then, buried under an apple tree, across the street from the German barracks.
Her plan, was to reunite the children and parents, after the war.
When the war was finally over, she dug up the jars, and began the difficult job of finding the children, and locating their families. Sadly, almost all the parents, died at the Treblinka concentration camp.
Irena lived out the next 50 years in anonymity, until 1999, when Irena was 89 years old, her story was brought up to light, giving her the recognition, she so rightly deserved.
In 2007, Irena was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, before passing away in 2008 at the age of 98.
Sendler’s story, is just one among many other courageous women, who risked their personal safety, and acted independently, to rescue, and save others.