Assisting us in coordinating these awards are four outstanding ladies who are Women of Courage in their own right.

Presenting:

Carla Cash
http://community.adlandpro.com/go/245569/default.aspx

Pauline Raina           http://community.adlandpro.com/go/301079/default.aspx

Geketa Holman        http://community.adlandpro.com/go/313726/default.aspx

Terry Gorley
http://community.adlandpro.com/go/169711/default.aspx

Branka Babic  http://community.adlandpro.com/go/EloElu/default.aspx

Our Sweethearts of Courage

Shirley Caron http://community.adlandpro.com/go/scaronpoet2005/default.aspx

Michael Caron        http://community.adlandpro.com/go/192260/default.aspx

Our very own John Elliott, aka Oaky Wood nominated this week's Woman of Courage.  If I do say so myself, this is an excellent choice. 

Thank you John!

WE PRESENT TO YOU OUR FORTIETH

WOMAN OF COURAGE 

Irena Sendler

Irena Sendler, a 97-year-old woman lives in a nursing home in Warsaw Poland.  To look at her, one would think she is just another lady who has led a regular life, as we all do.  In reality, this is farthest from the truth.  Irena Sendler is an Unsung Hero.  In fact, Irena Sendler doesn't even fit the title Woman of Courage.  Irena Sendler is a Woman of Honor.

On March 14, 2007, she was honored by parliament at a ceremony during which Poland’s president said she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.  Sadly, Irena was too frail to attend.

Irena Sendler was born Irena Sendelerowa on February 15, 1910 in Otwock, a town 15 miles southeast of Warsaw, Poland.   She was greatly influenced by her father who was one of the first Polish Socialists.  

Her story begins in World War II.   Irena was a Senior Administrator in the Warsaw Social Welfare Department, which operated the canteens in every district of the city. The canteens provided meals, financial aid, and other services for orphans, the elderly, the poor and the destitute. Irena added clothing and medicine to the canteen's services.

In 1942, the Nazis herded hundreds of thousands of Jews into a 16 block area that came to be known as the Warsaw Ghetto. The Ghetto was sealed and the Jewish families ended up behind its walls, only to await certain death.

Irena Sendler was so appalled by the conditions that she joined Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, organized by the Polish underground resistance movement.  She directed the organization's efforts primarily to rescue Jewish children.

Irena visited the ghetto daily and brought food, medicines and clothing. In spite of her efforts, 5,000 people a month were dying from starvation and disease.   This is when Irena focused her efforts on the Jewish children.  She knew that if they were to survive, they had to get out.

In the first place, persuading parents to part with their children was in itself a horrendous task. Her next impossible task was to find families willing to shelter the children, thereby willing to risk their very lives.

Irena Sendler began smuggling children out in an ambulance. She recruited at least one person from each of the ten centers of the Social Welfare Department.  This entailed issuing hundreds of false documents.  Irena was successful in smuggling approximately 2,500 Jewish children to new homes, giving them temporary new identities.

Children were smuggled out in all sorts of creative ways:  gunnysacks, body bags, potato sacks, babies were smuggled out in toolboxes.  They were even smuggled out in coffins.  At first they were smuggled into a church.  She knew the sisters would help her.  So, with their false identities, they entered the church as Jewish children and exited as christians.  They were then placed in homes, orphanages, and convents.

Irena had everything planned.  She carefully noted, in coded form, the children's original names next to their new identities.  She buried jars with the children's true identities in a neighbor's back yard beneath an apple tree.  When the war was over, she would dig up the jars and locate the real parents.

However, all did not go smoothly.  The Nazis became aware of Irena's activities, and on October 20, 1943 she was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo. They broke her feet and legs. They then sent her to Pawiak Prison.  She withstood every bit of torture and never gave up the names of any of the children. 
Sentenced to death, Irena was saved at the last minute when Zegota members bribed one of the Germans to halt the execution. She escaped from prison but for the rest of the war she was pursued by the Gestapo.

After the war she dug up the jars and used the notes to track down the 2,500 children she placed with adoptive families and to reunite them with relatives scattered across Europe. But most lost their families during the Holocaust in Nazi death camps.

Irena Sendler did not think of herself as a hero. She claimed no credit for her actions.

Thank you Irena for your courage and love.

By  Luella May