Heroic Catholic Woman Dies in Polandby Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer

(May 14, 2008) An heroic Polish woman and devout Roman Catholic responsible for saving the lives of more than 2,500 Jewish children during World War II died May 12 at a Catholic Convent in Warsaw at the age of 98.

Irena Sendlerowa once told a social worker she couldn’t understand why everyone, including Pope John Paul II, was making “so much fuss” about her heroism.

The incredible story of this brave woman is barely known except by those people whose lives she touched during some of the darkest moments in the history of humanity.

Born in 1910 in Otwock, Poland, Irena Sendlerowa was the only child of a doctor who died of typhus which he contracted while caring for poor Jewish people in their town. It was a lesson in selflessness that did not go unnoticed by Irena, who found herself in the same position years later when her Jewish neighbors needed help during World War II.

Irena’s work began when she and a small group of helpers began persuading Jewish parents  destined for death camps to let them smuggle their children past Nazi guards and either put them into adoptive homes or hide them in orphanages and convents. She made lists of the children’s real names and put the lists in jars which she buried in the garden for safe keeping. It was her intention to dig up the jars after the war ended and tell the children their real identity.

When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, Irena and her helpers began offering food and shelter to the Jews but this had to stop when the Warsaw Ghetto was erected in 1940. The Ghetto enclosed 16 square blocks of the city and 450,000 Jewish people were forced to live there. Using her social worker papers, they were able to enter the Warsaw Ghetto and continue to save as many Jewish children as possible.

Sometimes they smuggled the children through sewer pipes and secret underground passages, or hid them in sacks or suitcases and smuggled them out on the trolley. They would even hide the hide the children underneath stretchers and smuggle them out in ambulances.

On October 20, 1943, Irena was arrested and placed in the notorious Pawiak prison where she was constantly questioned and tortured. Both of her legs and feet were broken. She was sentenced to death by firing squad, but her helpers managed to bribe the German executioner who helped her escape.

She remained in hiding for the rest of the war. When it finally ended, she dug up the bottles and began the arduous task of locating the 2,500 children to and trying to find a living parent. Unfortunately, almost all of the parents of the children she saved perished in the Treblinka death camp.

Her troubles were not yet over, however. After the war, when the communist regime took over, she was once again persecuted for having cooperated with the Polish underground and was again sentenced to death. A Jewish woman intervened to save her but from then on, Irena’s courageous deeds had to be kept hidden for fear of repercussions.

Many years later, the International Federation of Social Workers wanted to honor Irena with a special award for her heroism and sent a representative to visit her in the Catholic nursing home where she lived in the last years of her life.

The first thing Irena told the representative was that she was not alone in her heroic work. “I am the only person still alive of that rescuing group but I want everyone to know that, while I was coordinating our efforts, we were about twenty to twenty five people. I did not do it alone.”

Irena was surprised that anyone wanted to honor her with an award. She told the representative that she “sometimes wondered why there is so much fuss about ‘heroic acts.’ It is something that came rather naturally as a result of my early upbringing and education. When you know that something is basically at stake, like real life, you do everything to save it. You don’t talk about it and discuss it. You do it.”

She did agree to receive the award, which was one of many given to the humble Pole, a list that includes a nomination for the Nobel Peace Price. Pope

John Paul II wrote her a letter in 2003 commending her for her bravery.

“ . . . Please accept my hearty congratulations and respect for your extraordinarily brave activities in the years of occupation, when – disregarding your own security – you were saving many children from extermination, and rendering humanitarian assistance to human beings who needed spiritual and material aid,” he wrote. “Having been yourself afflicted with physical tortures and spiritual sufferings you did not break down, but still unsparingly served others, co-creating homes for children and adults. For those deeds of goodness for others, let the Lord God in his goodness reward you with special graces and blessing.”

The website dedicated to her story marked her passage by saying that her life was “one of great testimony, one of courage and love, one of respect for all people, regardless of race, religion and creed. She passed away peacefully, knowing that her message goes on.”

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