Irena Sendler: A Forgotten Hero

On February 15, 1910, over a hundred years ago, a remarkable human was born. It was someone who would go on to save thousands of lives. She was someone who would help those who no one else would. Someone by the name of Irena Sendler.

As high school students, when we hear the word “hero,” the people that come to mind are fireman, police officers, military personnel, fictional super-humans, athletes, and maybe even relatives. However, not many high school students could tell you anything about Irena Sendler, a hero whose efforts aren’t very recognized by our generation. So who is this heroic Irena Sendler? She was a Polish woman who saved over 2,500 lives during the Holocaust.

You may be thinking, the 2,500 lives saved out of the 11,000,000 people killed in the holocaust didn’t make such a difference. Think about this, if every one of those people she saved has one child, she would have saved (by the domino effect) a total of 5,000 lives. If those 2,500 new kids all had one child, then she has now saved 7,500 lives. Irena’s efforts have gone on, and are the reason that some children are alive today.

Irena Sendler was a polish citizen under Nazi control. She lived her life in fear, not knowing if the foreign soldiers were going to kill her. After a while, Irena grew to live with her life being dictated by the intruders, and could walk around with less fear. She came across something horrible one day; a concentration camp not to far from her home. She watched as many innocent men, women, and children were tortured in many different ways. Irena knew something had to be done, and so she sprung into action.

Over the course of World War II, Irena would secretly take children from their mothers and smuggle them back to her house. She could only take children and babies because they could fit through the fence and were easy to hide/transport without getting caught. Irena would write down all their information so that when the child was old enough, and the war was over, they could have their identity and information about their family. Some mother would ask Irena, “How do I know I can trust you? How do we know you’re not a Nazi?” Irena’s answer was brutally honest, “You have no way of knowing or trusting me,” she would start, “but if your child stays with you, their death is certain.” Many mothers refused to trust her, but others knew it was the only hope for their children.
So how did Irena not get caught? She did. Irena was caught many times and was severely, and maliciously beaten each time. Thankfully, they were never able to catch on that Irena had continuously been saving the children. To avoid suspicion, Irena had to find foster homes for the children, sometimes even asking strangers. This was very dangerous because if she had asked the wrong person, she could get turned in and end up behind the fence herself.
Irena kept track of all the children, and organized all their information which she kept in jars that were buried near an apple tree close to her home. The children were able to dig up their life that was kept in their jar. Irena didn’t consider herself a hero. Irena once said, “If you see someone drowning, you must try and save them. Even if you do not know how to swim.”