Irena Sendler - a Person Who Saved Hundreds of Lifes During Holocaust

”Heroes do extraordinary things. What I did was not an extraordinary thing. It was normal”. - Irena Sendler. What?? I think she needs to go back and edit that! Man, she saved thousands of lives!! Life as a baby Irena was born on February 15, 1910, in Warsaw, Poland. Her family’s religion was Catholic. Her family moved to Otwock in Poland (a town about 15 miles southeast of Warsaw). Irena grew up in Otwock, Poland.

Life as a kid

Her father passed away from typhus (a disease), in 1917. His last words he said to seven-year-old Irena were”, If you see someone drowning you must try to rescue them, even you cannot swim”. Those words stayed throughout her life.

Family

Her parents taught her to love and respect people, also her parents were members of the Polish Socialist Party, and her father was a doctor. Her father was the only doctor in Otwock, Poland. Irena grew up in Otwock, Poland. Irena was lonely because she was an only child.

Her life mission

Next thing you know World War ll broke out in 1939 out Irena was 29-years-old and she was social worker, employed by the Welfare Department of the Warsaw municipality. Later during the war Irena thought that she needed to help out her people, the Jews. She would smuggle kids, she did this in many ways- using an ambulance, a child could be taken out hidden under the stretcher, escape through the courthouse. Take them in underground sewers, secret passages, and pipes if a child could pretend to be sick or was very ill, so it could be legally removed using the ambulance. Then, she would also write the child’s name, parents names, and address on a tissue paper. After that she would put the tissue paper in a jar. Once she had did all of that she would take the child to a woman who doesn’t have children, and they would care for the child. In 1943 she got caught and was arrested, she was sentenced to death and sent to the infamous Pawiak prison. She was almost got shot, but the underground activists managed to bribe officials to release her. She was released in February, 1944. She knew that the authorities were keeping an eye on her, but she continued her job in underground activities. The war ended in 1945. Irena would get her jar and take out about 2,500 pieces of tissue paper and read the address, next she would go to the house that was on the tissue paper. She would ask the women for the child, once she had the child she would try to give the children to their real parent. Sadly, most of the parents had passed away in war. So Irena would need to go return the child to the mother with no children or go to an orphan.

Marriage

Then, in 1947, she got married. Irena then got in divorce, a while later she remarried her first husband. They again got in divorce. She had three children, Janka, Adam, and Andrzej.

Death and Awards

Irena had won the Nobel Peace Prize. People present plays about Irena Sendler. Irena’s last breath was on May 12, in 2008, at age 98.