Irena Sendler

Information about Irena Sendler.

Irena Sendler was born on 15 February 1910 to a catholic family in Warsaw.

When she was 17 years old in 1927, Sendler studied law and then Polish literature at the University of Warsaw. When World War II began Sendler joined the “Union of Polish Democratic Youth”. during the war she became a member of the “Polish Socialist Party”.

Sendler became associated with social and educational units of the “Free Polish University”, where she met and was influenced by activists from the illegal Communist Party of Poland. Sendler belonged to a group of social workers led by Professor Helena Radlińska. From her social work on-site interviews Sendler recalled many cases of extreme poverty that she encountered among the Jewish population of Warsaw.

Sendler married Mieczysław Sendler in 1931.  they divorced in 1947. She then married Stefan Zgrzembski, a Jewish friend and wartime companion, by whom she had three children In 1957 her husband left the family and Irena remarried her first husband, Mieczysław Sendler. But unfortunately ten years later they divorced again.

Irena died on 12 May 2008, aged 98, and she is buried in Warsaw’s “Powązki Cemetery”.

Irena Sendler as a Righteous Gentiles

At the beginning of World War II Sendler Helped jews that all of their property was taken by the Nazis by  giving them food, helping orphans and financially helping as much as she could.

As part of  her job as a supreme admin in the municipality of Warsaw, Sendler risked her own life rescuing jewish children by giving them fake documents that says the children are Christian children from the Aryan race.

She also entered the Warsaw ghetto and helped imprisoned children escape to nearby monasteries. Irena kept writing every child’s name. In total Irena helped over 2,500 jewish children escape the Nazi killing machine.

In 1965 Irena was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel and “Yad Vashem”. In 2009, After her death in 2008, a movie about her life was published by the name “The Brave Heart of Irena Sendler”. And On May of 2013 a road in Wasrsaw was named “Sendler Avenue” after her.