Irena Sendler is a Catholic woman that saved 2,500 Jewish children during the Holocaust. She smuggled them from Warsaw’s ghetto; a ghetto is the poorest part of a city where the residents are lacking basic needs like food and health care. Every time she took one child she escaped death, because to help a Jew meant the person was risking summary execution (put to death). She helped create an underground network that ferried children in coffins, tool boxes, and under coats to non-Jewish families.

Irena Sendlerowa at the Social Security Office in Warsaw (circa 1949) Photo: ZGRZEMBSKA JANINA ARCHIWUM/EAST NEWS New York Post

When a Christian child died in an orphanage, Irena would give his or her name to a Jewish child. The key part was to never report the death. She would give the name and registry number so the child would be safe with a new identity. Irena then would write the original name down and bury it under an apple tree, so when the war was over the children could get their names back.

During the Holocaust the ghetto was surrounded by barbed wire and brick walls. Six to seven people lived in every room . Irena was working at the Citizens’ Social Aid Committee so with her job she was able to get in to the ghetto. Along with helping children get out, she created fake welfare accounts for Jewish families, because theirs were frozen. To make sure that the Germans didn’t go and visit the families, Irena added that they had contagious diseases.

After it was over Irena tried to find the buried names, but no luck. The city was so destroyed that you couldn’t even find your own backyard. Instead, Irena had to remember the children’s names so she can give them to the families abroad.

Overall Irena Sendler didn’t just save the 2,500 children, she saved so many more, future generations to come.