Monday, May 12, 2008

Irena Sendler, Nobel Peace Prize Candidate, Has Died



Irena Sendler
Photo from findingDulcinea

Some of the headlines.

From the Telegraph:
Irena Sendler
Social worker who saved 2,500 Jewish children in Warsaw and was tortured by the Gestapo

...The Nazis took Irena Sendler to the Pawiak prison, where she was tortured; although her legs and feet were broken, and her body left permanently scarred, she refused to betray her network of helpers or the children whom she had saved. Finally, she was sentenced to death....

From The Hindu:
Saviour of 2,500 children

From the Kansas City Star:
Polish woman championed by Kansas students dies


From the Associated Press:
Polish Holocaust hero dies at age 98


From The Independent:
Pole who saved 2,500 children from the Nazis dies


From EuroNews:
Polish Holocaust heroine dies at 98

From News.AU:
Saviour of 2500 Jewish children dies


From Agence France-Presse:
Polish woman who saved 2,500 Jewish children dies

From The Herald (U.K.):
Saviour of thousands of children from Warsaw Ghetto dies at 98

From Reuters:
...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 organisation 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....

We had three posts on Irena. The first "Al Gore and the Nobel Peace Prize" had the betting odds on the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize:

From BETUS
Who will win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize?

Irena Sendler
+450
Martti Ahtisaari
+500
Al Gore
+250...

Post number two talked about Irena and the kids in Kansas:

A wonderful story from the Kansas City Star:

Eight years ago, in a tiny southeast Kansas town, four girls had a goal: Tell the story of a woman who saved 2,500 children during the Holocaust.

Our third post:


Life in a Jar congratulates the recipients (Al Gore and the United Nations Council on Climate Change)...

...of the Nobel Peace Prize and salute Irena Sendler for her continued impact on the world.

Classy.

From the IrenaSendler.org Website:


Protestant kids from rural Kansas, discover a Polish Catholic woman, who saved Jewish children. Irena Sendler and students from Uniontown, Kansas, they both have chosen to repair the world (Tikkun Olam)....