During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids.
Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.
During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 children.
Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazi's broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.
Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out, in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.
In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected, but was overshadowed by the winner, Al Gore, for his work on Global Warming. Later another politician, Barack Hussein Obama, won for his work as a community organizer for ACORN.
In MEMORIAM - 65 YEARS since the Second World War in Europe ended, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 2 million Poles, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated!
Protecting children then, may Irena’s example encourage more to be courageous now.
Thank you for this inspiring story. Very rarely do people think that their current actions could ever compare to heroic acts performed by others from the past, but stories like this show us that one person can make a huge difference in many lives.
ReplyDeleteAlthough many children today are not in the same circumstances as the children Irene saved, there are many children in the U.S. and around the world that are in desperate need of help ranging from babies that are endanger of being aborted to children in foster homes or others waiting to be adopted.
One step to help one person makes a big difference and this post just reminds me that I can still make a difference in children's lives today.
I agree with Margo this is a truly inspiring story! Irena was an extremely brave woman to face the Nazi's on a recurring basis while committing these acts. She is definitely a role model that I will now look up to. To have an opinion on something is one thing but to act on that opinion another.
ReplyDeleteIrena was also an intelligent woman to hide the tracks of the babies by the sound of a dog. It must have been terrifying to know that at any time she could get caught. And to perform such acts 2500 times shows her determination to right these children.
Not only did she stop there. She knew her work was not finished but that she must attempt reunite these children with their parents if possible. Although we no longer face this situation I do believe we need role models such as Irena to inspire us to ACT when we know something is not right! Irena definitely deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize.