Irena Sendler: The Polish Heroine Who Risked Everything to Save 2,500 Jewish Children

In Elul 5702 (September 1942), Irena Sendler was dragged from the Nazi Gestapo’s dungeons in Warsaw into the courtyard behind the Gestapo building — the site of countless executions. She was lined up with 38 other prisoners, men and women alike, all sentenced to death by firing squad — a routine atrocity for the Nazi regime.

As the executioners took their positions several dozen meters away, one of the Nazi guards suddenly broke ranks. He seized Irena by the neck, dragged her screaming toward a corner of the yard, and — hidden from the others, opened a small side gate. In a moment of shocking mercy or moral rebellion, he pushed her through the gate and into the street. Irena bolted down an alley and disappeared.

The Woman Who Defied the Gestapo

Before the war, Irena Sendler was a social worker for the welfare department of Warsaw’s municipality. When the Nazis invaded Poland, she was thirty years old. Once the Germans forced the Jews into the Warsaw Ghetto, Irena demanded permission to enter “to prevent disease outbreaks.” Under that guise, she regularly brought medicine, food, clothing, and money to the starving, imprisoned Jews.

Soon she began smuggling out Jewish children — hidden under tram seats, inside toolboxes or coffins, and sometimes even beneath her own long overcoat. Over time, Irena and her underground network managed to save 2,500 Jewish children from certain death.

Knowing her life was constantly at risk, Irena meticulously recorded every child’s real name, parents’ names, and location where the child was placed — often with Christian families or convents. She hid these notes inside sealed glass jars, which she buried in her garden and reported to the Jewish underground for safekeeping.

Torture, Courage, and Rescue

In the late summer of 1942, the Gestapo grew suspicious of her activities. They arrested her, but could prove nothing. She was brutally tortured, her legs and feet broken, yet she refused to reveal a single name. Fearing she might still be a threat, the Nazis sentenced her to death.

At the very last moment, members of the Jewish underground bribed a German official, securing her release. That act of bravery saved her life.

Life After the War

After the war, Irena again faced persecution — this time from the communist regime, which suspected her of collaborating with the British authorities. Yet, by divine providence, she survived that ordeal as well.

In later years, Irena Sendler was honored worldwide for her extraordinary heroism. Streets and schools were named after her — including one in Ramat Gan, Israel.

On her 95th birthday, many of the children she had rescued — by then adults with families of their own, came to visit her and express their eternal gratitude.

Irena Sendler passed away in 2008 (5768), remembered as a righteous woman who risked everything to save others.