On February 15, 1910, Irena Sendler (nee Krzyzanowska) was born in Warsaw – a future employee of the Polish social protection service, public figure, Righteous Among the Nations.
When World War II began, 29-year-old Irena Sendler worked in the social services of the Warsaw Municipality's welfare department. After the Nazi occupation of Warsaw began, the department continued to care for the city's poor and destitute. Irena tried to help the Jews as best she could, but after the Warsaw ghetto was isolated in November 1940, this became almost impossible. Almost 400,000 people were confined to a small, isolated area, and their situation soon worsened. Unsanitary conditions, shortages of food and medicine, and lack of medical care led to epidemics and high mortality rates. Putting herself at risk, Irena Sendler tried to find various ways to penetrate the ghetto and help the Jews. She managed to obtain permission from the municipality to visit to inspect sanitary conditions. I. Sendler and her colleagues supplied the ghetto residents with medicine, clothing, and food. It was on her initiative that the rescue of children, including infants, was organized, first orphans, and later children from families. Later, I. Sendler placed the rescued in orphanages (as Polish orphans), in Polish families, and in Roman Catholic monasteries.
In the fall of 1942, after the deportation of 280,000 Jews to the Treblinka death camp, the Council for Aid to Jews – Żegota – was established. Irena Sendler became actively involved in its activities. It was there that Irena received the nickname “Sister Iolanta”. When Żegota began to function, by the end of 1942, most of Warsaw’s Jews had already been exterminated. But most of those who survived the mass deportations were saved precisely thanks to the actions of the Council’s activists.
She carefully recorded all the information about the children – their old Jewish and new Christian names, their parents’ names, their whereabouts – in a special file. Irena kept it in a jar that she buried in a friend’s garden, rightly believing that one day these papers might become the only source of information about their past for the rescued.
On October 20, 1943, Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Pawiak prison. Fortunately, “Żegota” managed to save her by bribing a German escort. Despite the danger, I. Sendler, under the name of Klara Dąbrówska, continued to help Jewish children.
In total, I. Sendler and her colleagues saved almost 2,500 children, including about 800 directly from the Warsaw ghetto.
After the war, Sendler worked as deputy head of the Department of Welfare and Health, opened orphanages and nursing homes, and trained social workers.
On October 19, 1965, Yad Vashem awarded Irena Sendler the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations. A tree planted in her honor is located at the very beginning of the Alley of the Righteous. During Sendler's lifetime, an award named after her “For the Improvement of the World” was established for teachers who teach and raise children in a spirit of tolerance.
In 2007, at the initiative of the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of Poland, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In the same year, she became the oldest laureate of the Order of the Smile, an international award given to famous people “who bring joy to children.” I. Sendler was awarded Poland’s highest decoration, the Order of the White Eagle (2003). Her image (as well as the profiles of the Righteous Among the Nations – Sophia Kossak and Matilda Getter) is engraved on a Polish silver coin. In 2009, the feature film “The Brave Heart of Irena Sendler” premiered.
Irena Sendler died on May 12, 2008, in Warsaw. She saved the lives of thousands of children and kept repeating that this was not enough.