Recently, I came across a story about a young, courageous Polish woman named Irena Sendler, who saved 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto in WWII. She did that heroic act by using safe houses, farms, and convents and by recruiting friends and co-workers. Irena was nominated in 2007 for the Nobel Peace Prize for her courageous stand against the corruption, murder, and evil of the German Nazi regime.
Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It is one thing to speak out against evil things; it is quite another to make a strong commitment to do things that could possibly mean torture and death for yourself and your family. Irena agreed to take one child out of the ghetto to her own home, but she realized one child was not enough as more parents asked her to help save their children. Her mother asked her, “Why are you doing this?” Irena replied, “I am my poppa’s daughter. He would have rescued the smallest turtle trying to cross a busy road. I must save as many children as I can. And like poppa, if I see a man drowning, I must try to save him, even if he can’t swim.”
Irena died in 2008 at the age of 98 years old; until her last day, she lived with dignity, acknowledging that the only way to be free is to stand up against hatred, bigotry, racism, violence, lies, corruption, and propaganda that seeks to destroy the human soul. Irena’s saving grace for herself was to take a moment to breathe in the fresh air and to see herself as a child of God, capable of doing wonderful things.
As a social worker in the Warsaw Social Services Department, Irena used her occupation as a cover to take more children out of the ghetto with each passing day and night. One day, a four year old child looked into her eyes and said, “Are you my mommy?” In that moment, Irena realized that she would do whatever it took, including working with the resistance, to get as many children out to safety as she could. Another crying child said, “Why does everyone hate the Jews?” Taking the child into her arms and realizing that he would probably not understand, Irena said, “Many people have never learned how to love others, particularly those who are different.” In her heart, Irena understood how far the Germans had fallen into hell because they were now killing not just adults, but defenseless children.
How much courage and love does it take for a parent, mother or father, to give their child to someone they don’t really know so that the child could survive the horrible life in a concentration camp? Irena spoke to the Jewish Elders in the ghetto about how their children could survive the war; they would have to shed their Jewish language and religious traditions. They would have to learn the Polish language and sing and pray Christian hymns and prayers. They would be hidden from the Nazis in Christian homes, farms, and convents. That was the only way the Jewish nation could survive, and the children could re-build their family traditions.
As the Jewish orphanage and the whole Warsaw ghetto was cleared out of its entire population, more parents began pleading with Irena to take their children to safety in Christian settings. During one of these meetings, a ten year old girl said to her mother, “No one can promise me anything any more. I won’t leave you, Momma.” The mother placed her hand over her daughter’s heart and replied, “I will always be right here.” Irena took the little girl’s hand and led her out the door as tears ran down the screaming child’s face and her out-stretched arms seemed to be saying, “Please don’t let me go!”
Irena was captured by the Gestapo in 1944 and brutally tortured by them. The night before she was captured, she gave the jars containing the names and placements of every child to the leader of the resistance. Her last request was that the children be cared for until the end of the war and that they be re-united with their families. In respect and praise of Irena, most of those children survived; sadly, their families did not.
Irena survived the war and married her childhood friend, Stefan in 1947. Throughout the remaining years of her life, she carried memories of the children she saved and the mothers and fathers whose loving courage gave their children a chance for life. In today’s tumultuous times, when you seem troubled by your children or can’t stand another hour in the house with them, remember the Jewish parents and their Christian counterparts whose compassionate love saved an entire generation. Remember the love and tears in their eyes as they said good-bye to God’s most precious gift, their children. In our own country where extremists tried to overthrow our government at the suggestion of a man wanting to be god, remember what Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” And when you look into your children’s eyes and they say, “What are you willing to do so that I can survive?” What will be your answer?
Anna Hartt
