Posted on 05/12/2008 2:09:22 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WARSAW (Reuters) - Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who saved thousands of Jewish children during World War Two by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, died in the Polish capital on Monday after a long illness, local media said.
Israel's Holocaust remembrance authority, Yad Vashem, said in a statement that it mourned her death.
The web portal of Poland's leading daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, said Sendler, 98, died in Plocka Street hospital early on Monday. The hospital declined to comment on the report.
Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev said: "Irena Sendler's courageous activities rescuing Jews during the Holocaust serve as a beacon of light to the world, inspiring hope and restoring faith in the innate goodness of mankind."
Using her position as a social worker, Sendler regularly entered the ghetto, smuggling around 2,500 children out in boxes, suitcases or hidden in trolleys.
The children were then placed with Polish families outside the ghetto, created by Nazi Germany in 1940 for the city's half a million strong Jewish population, and given new identities.
But in 1943 Sendler, who led the children' section of the Zegota organization which helped Jews during the war, was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo.
She only escaped execution when Zegota managed to bribe some Nazi officials, who left her unconscious but alive with broken legs and arms in the woods.
"People who stand up for others, for the weak, are very rare. The world would have been a better place if there were more of them," Marek Edelman, the last surviving commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, said on national television.
His sentiments were echoed by former Polish President Lech Walesa as well as religious leaders.
Sendler was honored with Israeli Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations medal in 1965 for her actions, and later made an honorary Israeli citizen.
She was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year but, despite her bravery, she denied she was a hero.
"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.
Nobel Peace Prize nominee Irena Sendler poses at her home in central Warsaw, March 14, 2007. Sendler, a Polish woman who saved thousands of Jewish children during World War Two by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, died in the Polish capital on Monday after a long illness, local media said. (Katarina Stoltz/Reuters)
God bless and keep her.
This saintly woman is nominated and Al Gore wins? A travesty.
But God has prepared a better reward for her. It would have just been nice to see her get it in this life!
Heroine, then.
Don't blame her for not wanting a Nobel. You have to be a socialist to get one, anyway.
“The term ‘hero’ irritates me greatly. The opposite is true. I continue to have pangs of conscience that I did so little,”
An honest to God heroine. What a wonderful woman. Rest in peace. Now there was a truly great woman. Cute, too.
No doubt about that. What a true saint and a wonderful example.
She is right - there were lots of Polish Heros that gave the ultimate price fighting Nazis AND Coummunists - nearly 10 million were killed - a higher percent than any other country.
http://www.infoukes.com/history/ww2/page-29.html
What a beautiful, kind face. She reminds me so much of my grannie, also Eastern European :)
What a beautiful woman. A great loss to mankind.
A beautiful person; God rest her soul.
What a beautiful lady. I firmly believe God has a special place in His heart for this brave woman.
Honestly, considering the low class of scum that the Nobel Peace Prize fascists have been honoring in recent decades, it's to her greater credit that she did not receive the award. Hell, they even gave an award to an avowed Hitler groupie in Arafat. It's pretty obvious that they have a problem with Jews or anyone who would help save Jewish babies.
Don't confuse the Norwegian fascist idiots who award the 'peace' prize with the Swedish committee who award the prizes for sciences or the arts. They are two different entities.
The slime ball Norwegian politicians still have a thing going for their Nazi master from 6 decades ago. I guess we could call it Oslo Syndrome.
"For whatever ye have done to these little ones, ye have likewise done unto me."
No doubt in my mind that she has heard a "Well done, my good and faithful servant," from the only "Boss" who really matters...
the infowarrior
This was a saint, a heroic woman. God rest her throughout eternity.
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