Have you read about this amazing woman who deserves to be honored? She has been called a female Oskar Schindler, but she saved twice as many people from the Nazi’s.
Irena Sendler died last May at the age of 98. In 1942 she joined the Polish underground and began rescuing Jewish children. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids / infants. It is believed that she may be responsible for saving 500 adults previous to joining the underground. Once she was caught, and the Nazi’s beat her severely breaking her legs and feet.
Irena kept a record of the true identities of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in a friends garden. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and reunite the families. For the vast majority there was no family left.
Her response to those who sought to honor her was, “Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this earth and not a title to glory.”
In 2007 Irena Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but was beat out by Al Gore for his work on the global warming documentary Inconvenient Truth.
What does it say about a culture when it glorifies to the point of idolatry a girl who is cute and can sing or act and neglects to honor someone who is truly courageous and self sacrificing like Irena Sendler?
You may be interested in reading Irena’s Children (A True Story)
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Yes, indeed, I find this fascinating. Thank you for posting. She was an amazing woman. It is always a blessing teaching our children about such heroic figures.
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Thank you for this post. I am in the process of planning for next school year in which we will cover the 20th Century. My boys will be 9 and 10 when we cover WWII. Is the book you recommended okay for that age group to read?
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Oh, disregard my question. I followed the link and saw it was a web page you recommended. I have put it in my favs for next year. Thanks!
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I have not heard of this woman but I will definitely read this story! I love reading things like this! Yes, I would say that we have our priorities a little out of whack in this country!
Sorry for the chocolate tease! :0)
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I made the mistake of watching the Hallmark Hall-of-Fame movie about her a few weeks ago on TV. While it told the story well, it GRAPHICALLY portrays the scenes where she is tortured (more than one scene, and it shows the results of the torture). In my opinion, they could have accurately told the story without repeatedly showing this. Had it been a theater-film and rated R, I would have expected it, but not a TV movie (particularly since there was NO warning from CBS or Hallmark).
Aside from those scenes, I found the story to be amazing. And it made me stop and think “what more could I be doing for those who are hurting and don’t have a voice?” After the movie, they even have a short interview with her, which was great! Unfortunately, those are not the first things to comes to mind when I think of the movie weeks later.
I assume you are studying her with your children, so I’m sharing this in case you had heard of the movie and were considering showing it to them (particularly since Hallmark movies are typically “safe” for the whole family). I hate to give the movie a bad review publicly, but I figured you’d want to know. (and if you didn’t want to know, I’m really sorry for sharing the details here… please feel free to delete my comment).
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Wow— I cannot believe Gore beat THAT! Of course she is right, though, because she wasn’t doing it for glory. All those babies and children she helped save is absolutely amazing! I have read of the horrors the Nazis did to babies and children.
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