Irena Sendler

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Irena Sendler (Warsaw 2005)

Irena Stanisława Sendler (in Poland Irena Sendlerowa ), b. Krzyżanowska (born February 15, 1910 in Warsaw ; † May 12, 2008 there ), was a Polish social worker and nurse. During the Second World War, from October 1943, she headed the children's department of Żegota , the council for the support of Jews in German-occupied Warsaw , which had set itself the task of saving Jews from the German occupiers.

Life

Before World War II

Stanisław Krzyżanowski and his wife Janina, parents of Irena Sendler

Irena Sendler was born on February 15, 1910 in Warsaw as the daughter of doctor Stanisław Krzyżanowski (1874–1917) and his wife Janina. She grew up in Otwock , where she was baptized on February 2, 1917. Her father died that same month of typhus , which he contracted from his patients. After his death, the Otwock Jewish community, whose members Krzyżanowski had treated free of charge, offered the widow and her daughter financial help, which was refused by Ms. Krzyżanowska.

In 1927 Irena began studying at the University of Warsaw . She first studied law for two years and then Polish literature and continued her studies with interruptions until 1937. During this time she opposed the system of " ghetto banks " (Polish: Ghetto ławkowe ), with which from 1935 Jewish students at Polish universities were forced, under threat of de- registration , to listen to lectures in an area reserved for them on the left side of the auditorium . She frequented the private Polish Free University and was influenced by activists from the then illegal Communist Party .

Even before the war , Sendler worked in various departments of the Warsaw Social Welfare Office. In 1931 she married Mieczysław Sendler.

In World War II

Irena Sendler on Christmas Eve 1944

After the occupation of Warsaw in September 1939, she continued her work and used it to help Jews. Together with her colleagues from the social welfare office, she forged hundreds of documents by entering Polish names instead of the names of Jews receiving social assistance.

When the Warsaw Ghetto on 16 November 1940 prohibited area concerned Sendler was declared, for themselves and their assistants service cards sanitary column, whose tasks include the fight against infectious diseases, mainly typhus belonged. Together with helpers, this made it possible for her to smuggle around 2500 Jewish children out of the ghetto in order to place them in Polish families, monasteries and orphanages . The children received false papers through contacts within the Ministry of Welfare. Catholic parishes also helped: They obtained false birth certificates . In the summer of 1942, during the "Great Action" as part of Aktion Reinhardt , Sendler tried desperately several times to save ghetto inmates from deportation to the extermination camps. While she was in the ghetto, she wore a yellow star as a sign of her solidarity. From October 1942, the Germans tightened their controls so that further help through the social welfare office was impossible. From December 1942 Sendler worked with Żegota , an organization of the Polish underground state , and headed the children's department there from October 1943. So she was able to continue to support her protégés financially.

On October 20, 1943, Irena Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo and sentenced to death. Under torture she was supposed to reveal the names and hiding places of the rescued children, but according to Anna Mieszkowska she did not reveal anything. The Żegota could Irena Sendler by paying bribes after 3 months ransom. An SS man knocked her down on the way to her execution and left her on the side of the road. She read about her officially executed execution in the announcements of the occupiers. Irena Sendler then changed her identity and lived under a false name in the underground until the end of the war.

To enable the children to reunite with their parents later, Irena Sendler kept lists of names with their encrypted addresses and hidden them in jars under an apple tree in a garden.

During the Warsaw Uprising , Sendler worked as a nurse in a field hospital and continued to do this until the Germans withdrew from Warsaw when they withdrew from the approaching Soviet troops .

After the Second World War

Sendler with some people she had saved as children. Warsaw, 2005

In January 1947 Sendler joined the Communist Workers' Party and was also a member of the successor party PZPR , until its dissolution in 1990. In the People's Republic of Poland , she received several awards, including the Gold Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland and the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland .

In 1947 Mieczyslaw and Irena Sendler divorced. In the same year she married Stefan Zgrzembski (originally Adam Celnikier), a Jewish friend with whom she had three children and from whom she separated in 1957. After his death in 1961, she remarried to Mieczyslaw Sendler and divorced him again in 1971.

In 1965 Irena Sendler was honored by Yad Vashem with the title Righteous Among the Nations . In September 1997 Irena Sendler was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland and on November 11, 2001 "in recognition of the merits in helping the needy" with the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland. On November 10, 2003, she received the White Eagle for bravery and great courage, the highest award in Poland . In 2007 she received the international award " Cavalier of the Order of Smiles ".

In 1980 Sendler joined the Solidarność movement. She spent the rest of her life in Warsaw. She died there on May 12, 2008 and was buried in the Powązki cemetery .

In 2009, the American television film The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler was made , in which the actress Anna Paquin took the title role. In May 2013, Irena-Sendler-Allee was inaugurated on the site of the former Warsaw ghetto .

Quote

"Every child rescued with my help is a justification for my existence on this earth, and not a title of fame."

- Irena Sendler

Sculptures

Irena Sendler sculpture in the Irena Sendler School, Hamburg

Claudia Guderian made two bronze sculptures by Irena Sendler; one larger than life and one nine inches high. They are exhibited in the Irena Sendler School in Hamburg .

media

Movies

literature

Scientific representations:

Fictional:

Internet

  • In 2020, on her 110th birthday, Irena Sendler was honored by the search engine Google with a doodle and an Arts & Culture exhibition.

Web links

Commons : Irena Sendler  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Irena Sendler, “Righteous Among the Nations”, died at the age of 98  - news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Polscy sprawliedliwi (Polish)
  2. ^ Andrzej Krasnowolski: "Żegota" - konspiracyjna Rada Pomocy Żydom w okupowanej Polsce 1942–1945. ( Memento of June 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) p. 5
  3. ^ Jewish Virtual Library: Irena Sendler
  4. ↑ a b c Anna Mieszkowska: The mother of the Holocaust children.
  5. ^ Andrzej Krasnowolski: "Żegota" - konspiracyjna Rada Pomocy Żydom w okupowanej Polsce 1942–1945. ( Memento of June 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) p. 4
  6. ↑ Barbara Hans, DER SPIEGEL: Honor at the age of 97: Schindler's unknown sister - DER SPIEGEL - Panorama. Retrieved May 8, 2020 .
  7. ^ Anna Mieszkowska: The mother of the Holocaust children. P. 309.
  8. ^ Andrzej Krasnowolski: "Żegota" - konspiracyjna Rada Pomocy Żydom w okupowanej Polsce 1942–1945. ( Memento of June 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) p. 6
  9. ^ Irena-Sendler-Allee in Warsaw. Retrieved May 8, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Irena Selndler School sets a monument to the namesake. In: Hamburger Abendblatt. February 15, 2012, accessed on May 8, 2020 (with costs).
  11. ↑ Irena Sendler: A very nice Google doodle for the 110th birthday of the Polish social worker & Jewish rescuer - GWB. In: GoogleWatchBlog. February 14, 2020, accessed on February 15, 2020 (German).
personal data
SURNAME Sendler, Irena
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sendlerowa, Irena; Krzyżanowska, Irena (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish nurse who organized the children's section of the Council for the Assistance of the Jews (Żegota)
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 2008
Place of death Warsaw