Irena Sendler Hero

In 1933, the unimaginable happened. In 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected the leader of Germany. Adolf Hitler started going after certain groups of people. He started with the Jews. 12 million people died, 6 million of them were Jewish. However, there was some people that stood up to the Jews, those people are heroes. One of those heroes was Irena Sendler.

Irena Sendler was a polish girl born in 1910(3). She grew up in in Otwock, Poland, which was fifteen miles southeast of Warsaw(1). Her dad was a doctor, but one day he was treating a patient with typhus, a contagious disease, and he got infected himself (1). Irena's dad died when she was only seven, soon after he was infected with typhus (1).

There is little information about after her
dad died, but we do know that Irena received a college education (1). Irena went to Warsaw University to study Polish Literature (1).

Irena grew up with no religion (1), so she just never had a religion. Therefore, she was never a direct target to the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. However, Irena liked to help people, so she became a doctor and a social worker (1).

Irena had two husbands throughout her life and a daughter and another child that was born premature (1).

Irena still lived in Otwock during the Holocaust(1). Since she wasn’t a direct target during the Holocaust, Irena went into the Holocaust because she wanted to help children who were (2). Irena helped the kids at the Warsaw Ghetto concentration camp (2). Irena would go into the concentration camp and would doctor the children. She mainly treated kids with typhus and tuberculosis (1).

Irena joined a group called Zegota, which was a Council to aid Jews (1). She then started to wear an armband with a star on it as a symbol of her abutment toward the Jews (1).

Irena would go into the Warsaw Ghetto camp as a doctor to help children, but then decided to do more. She started smuggling kids out with her in things like ambulances, gunny sacks, some were even buried under or inside food in trucks or bags, coffins, and a couple of times a mechanic took a baby out in his tool box (2). Other times Irena would bribe the guards and they would throw the children over the fences. Where they then would be taken to the church until Irena could find a Non- Jewish family to adopt them until the Holocaust was over (1). Following this, Irena would then give each child a new identity, but kept a record of their old identities and characteristics about them in a jar (1). Irena even had a codename, to the children she was known as Jolanta (3). After Irena had every child's name in a jar, she buried them in a backyard (2).

However, Irena was arrested October 20, 1943 for helping the Jews, and was tortured by the Gestapo.
The Gestapo broke her feet and legs, but even under torture she gave up nothing. Irena was sentenced to death, but fortunately but a member of Zegota bribed one of the Germans to stop it (1).

As soon as the Holocaust was over, Irena dug up the jars and helped the 2,500 children she saved find their families again. Unfortunately, most of the children's family died in the Holocaust (2).

Irena played an important role in the Holocaust. And because of her bravery during the Holocaust, Irena had a play written about her called, "Life in a Jar" (2). Irena was also awarded the White Eagle in Warsaw, Poland, on Monday, November 10, 2003 (1). Even after Irena won that award and had "Life in a Jar" written about her she said, "I could have done more," she said. "This regret will follow me to my death." (1). Irena died May 12, 2008 (2).

In conclusion, Irena Sendler was a hero of the Holocaust, because she gave all the children in the Warsaw Ghetto concentration camp, hope. She did something that many people today wouldn’t even think about. Irena risked her life, to save another, even when she knew that this could result in
death.