Woman who saved kids from Holocaust dies (Irena Sendler)

msnbc ^ | 5/12/2008 | Associated Press

[dfwgator]

WARSAW, Poland - Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who helped save some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto and giving them false identities, has died. She was 98.

[dfwgator]

RIP to a true hero.

[dfwgator]

ping

[ishabibble]

Irena was a true hero. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but they gave it to Al Gore. I hope she didn’t know about it.

[scooter2]

May God accept her with open arms.

[agere_contra]

After they gave it to Arafat she may have guessed she was never going to be in the running.

[tet68]

Real heros just do it.
Rest in Peace, brave lady.

[Madame Dufarge]

Such a sweet face, the goodness shines through.

Is any further proof needed of the worthlessness of the Nobel Peace Prize when Al Gore and Arafat are honored and she isn't?

[lizol]

Irena Sendler

[Truth is a Weapon]

There are lots of heroes in this story. How many hundreds of families took these children in as their own? Think of the risk and sacrifice they made for children that were not their own. God bless, those families, too.

That does not detract from the heroics of Irena. God bless her.

[muggs]

thanks for posting this. I would have never known of this true hero if you had not posted.

[Dustbunny]

She is wrapped in God’s arms being welcomed home, his good and faithful servant.

[4integrity]

‘Such a sweet face, the goodness shines through.
Is any further proof needed of the worthlessness of the Nobel Peace Prize when Al Gore and Arafat are honored and she isn’t?’

Amen to both of your statements. Thank you for posting this picture of this brave lady. The recognition she deserves will be given where it most counts....by God in heaven.

[lilycicero]

Amazing ping.

[Alouette]

FReepMail to be added or removed from this pro-Israel/Judaic/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

[netmilsmom]

Ping for your list.

Another evil Catholic bites the dust./s/

Lord Love this lady and all the work she did. She was blessed with many children, not of her blood. Many lives were owed to her!

[cubreporter]

Amen. God rest her soul and damn the Nazis.

[Zionist Conspirator]

May her soul be bound in the bonds of eternity!

[Puppage]

She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but they gave it to Al Gore.

Is that right? What a disgrace.

[Bigg Red]

This wonderful lady rests in the Lord this day.

[2banana]

My definition of a hero (coming from a former veteran SF officer):

Someone who puts their life in danger to save someone else - when they could have easily done nothing and remained safe.

This woman put herself and entire family in danger (the Nazis had the death penalty for anyone helping the Jews) to save people she never knew.

How many people do you know today who would do such a thing?

PS. And I am not a hero and no where near her league. I was hardly in danger with 11 other SF team members armed to the teeth and the entire US airforce at my call. Plus I had alot of fun.

[Corin Stormhands]

bookmark

[Redleg Duke]

"Another evil Catholic bites the dust./s/"

More than a Catholic, she was a true Christian!

[Logic n' Reason]

Someone who puts their life in danger to save someone else - when they could have easily done nothing and remained safe.

I am not being critical here..but I would change your definition just the slightest bit....I would add that it is someone who performs this kind of act repeatedly all the while knowing exactly what the risks are, but going ahead anyway.

The "mm" pay far too much heed to those who, in a time of incredible stress and danger, perform a selfless act of bravery when they had the option not to. I take nothing from them at all! But the use of the word "hero" really needs to be honored and reserved for those like the lady cited above.

IMO, it is the repetitive nature of the act; not the act itself.

And this lady...at least by my definition...is one hell of a HERO.

[Psycho_Bunny]

" Irena was arrested on October 20, 1943. When arrested she felt almost liberated. She was placed in the notorious Piawiak prison, where she was constantly questioned and tortured. During the questioning she had her legs and feet fractured.

The German who interrogated her was young, very stylish and spoke perfect Polish. He wanted the names of the Zegota leaders, their addresses and the names of others involved. Irena fed him the version that she and her collaborators had prepared in the event they were captured. The German held up a folder with information of places, times and persons who had informed on her. She received a death sentence. She was to be shot. Unbeknown to her, Zegota had bribed the German executioner who helped her escape. On the following day the Germans loudly proclaimed her execution. Posters were put up all over the city with the news that she was shot. Irena read the posters herself."

I've never heard of her before. I seriously doubt I could ever be half the Hero she was.

For all the horror of WWII, will we never know all of the astonishing greatness that happened during it.

[ishabibble]

Here’s the thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1910471/posts

[vetvetdoug]

What a brave woman! I wonder what the children she saved think of Obama? I am willing most of them are in Israel and are appalled that their brethren in the US that are supporting him.

[netmilsmom]

Amen!

[goodnesswins]

God knows who the heroes are....

[Loud Mime]

All Heaven will welcome this hero of life.

[Loud Mime]

Remember, she helped Jews and Arafat won the Nobel. Go figure.

[dfwgator]

Another Polish hero, Witold Pilecki

Sadly, he was not able to live many years after the end of the war, because of the other evil that invaded Poland, the Communists.

[beaversmom]

Thanks for posting. I don’t believe I’ve read about this before. Is that true, she was in the running for the NPP and they gave it to Al Gore instead? Considering all the crappy and worthless people that have received that prize, it would have probably been a dishonor had she received it.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

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[353FMG]

“She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but they gave it to Al Gore. I hope she didn’t know about it.”

She didn’t need a Nobel prize to prove her worth to this world, but Algore does.

[Recovering_Democrat]

R.I.P., and God bless this woman.

[TDA2]

Knowing that maybe she would just as soon not have won it. Pretty sorry group lately has been recognized for this “honor”. You know what they say about being “known by the company you keep”.

[lizol]

And here you have another story, this time a very sad one.

Ulm - Polish family, the Righteous Among the Nations

Markowa - big villaege near Lancut, presently southern Poland. Befere the Second World War happy and loving Ulm familiy lives in this picteresque place, almost paradise - hilly landscape, idyllic countryside.

Jozef was born in 1900, his beautiful wife - Wiktoria - in 1912, they have six children. Jozef is passionate about photography, gardening, breeding bees; he is also catholic social activist, obatins many rewards for his inventions in the field of agriculture.

In 1931 Markowa has 4.442 inhabitants, among them 120 Jews.

The Second World War begins. Paradise and idyll are gone. German occupational government starts “Endlossung” (”Final Solution”), in other words - the extermination of Jews. Jozef and Wiktoria Ulm give shelter to two Jewish families. Shall family from Lancut, 5 men who manged to escape from their native town and reach Ulm’s house in Markowa. And Ulm’s neighbours - Golda and Layka Goldman with her little daughter.

21th March 1944, war is coming to the end; quiet day, evening, four carts with officials of German Gandarmerie approach the Ulm’s house. They burst into it, in the attic the kill the three Jews, the Ulm family and other Jews take outside. First they shoot two Jewish sisters and daughter one of them, after a while kill Jozef and Wiktoria, their children start crying and screaming, the policemen think what to do with small children. The German officer - Eilert Dieken - resolves to shoot them too. Stasia, Basia, Wladziu, Franus, Antos, Marysia share their parents’ fate. Later on it turns out that Wiktoria Ulm was pregnant, unborn child was also killed together with her.

Beyond a reasonable doubt someone must have denounced them to German Gandarmerie.

During one eveining and night German policemen killed 17 persons.

Poland was the only country in Europe during the Second World War where giving the shelter or any help to Jews was punished wiht death penalty. In spite of such severe punishment many Poles dared to help Jews who were sentenced to death by the German Nazis. The medals the Righteous Among the Nations awarded by Yad Vashem obtained 19 706 persons, among them 5 733 were Poles.
http://wenhrin.livejournal.com/2537.html

Pictures of the Ulma family


Jozef and Viktoria


Viktoria with a kid

[Borges]

Sendler’s List?

[The Woim]

A real hero dies unrewarded by the Nobel Prize while a proven huckster basks in glory...

Yours Truly,
The Woim

[Tabi Katz]

Irena was a true hero. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but they gave it to Al Gore. I hope she didn’t know about it.

Amen to that! Not to mention the countless people she saved, along with their progeny.

[Ann Archy]

WOW!!! She had a DIRECT ticket to HEAVEN!! God Bless her!!

[uglybiker]

I have the feeling she didn't care.

True heros don't do it for the accolades.

[TAdams8591]

Prayers for the soul of Irena Sendler, a larger than life hero, who most assuredly received a hero's welcome in heaven.

[Ladysmith]

From Wikipedia: In 1965, she was recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations, which was confirmed in 1983 by the Israeli Supreme Court.

Far worthier recognition than what the Nobel Peace Prize has become.

Needless to say, the best recognition with be from Our Lord Himself.

[TAdams8591]

A tearfully sad story for the Ulma family, no doubt.

Their self-sacrificing effort was so contrary to the modern day notion of enabling evil to feed one's family.

Thank you for the story and the pictures.

[1rudeboy]

"The term 'hero' irritates me greatly. The opposite is true. I continue to have pangs of conscience that I did so little," Sendler said in one of her last interviews.
Reuters.

[Night Hides Not]

True heros don't do it for the accolades.

Spot on.

[Wilhelm Tell]

It makes one wonder how many decent, brave people were killed and no one survived to remember their names. But God knows their names and has given them something better than the Nobel Prize.

[Girlene]

That is Amazing Grace. May her family be comforted in knowing the generations of hope she saved for this world. What is the Jewish saying? "Save one life, save the world".

More from this article, Irena Sendler

...."In hopes of one day uniting the children with their families - most of whom perished in the Nazis' death camps - Sendler wrote the children's real names on slips of paper that she kept at home.

When German police came to arrest her in 1943, an assistant managed to hide the slips, which Sendler later buried in a jar under an apple tree in an associate's yard. Some 2,500 names were recorded."....

...."Despite the Yad Vashem honor, Sendler was largely forgotten in her homeland. Only in her final years, confined to a nursing home, did she finally become one of Poland's most respected figures, with President Lech Kaczynski and other politicians backing a campaign that put her name forward for the Nobel Peace Prize.

That effort came after her name was brought to the world's attention in 2000 by a group of U.S. schoolgirls from Uniontown, Kan., who wrote a short play about her bravery based on historic records called "Life in a Jar."

It went on to garner international attention, and has been performed more than 200 times in the United States, Canada and Poland.".....

[Girlene]

Miracle Ping. More from this article, Irena Sendler

......"Under the pretext of inspecting the ghetto's sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak, Sendler and her assistants went inside in search of children who could be smuggled out and given a chance of survival by living as Catholics.

Babies and small children were smuggled out in ambulances and in trams, sometimes wrapped up as packages. Teenagers escaped by joining teams of workers forced to labor outside the ghetto. They were placed in families, orphanages, hospitals or convents."........