Mom and I had a message from a pal and her pooch a while back; her uneasiness, forgotten heroines. It turns out to be the incredible story of Irena Sendler and her dog. When we read this story we strained to imagine how Irena’s work took place each day; electing to put her and her companion animal in danger to support her WHY in the world. “Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to Glory.” (Irena Sendler in her own words, photo to right is Irena in 2005)

Sendler was a Polish social worker who conceived extraordinary ways to sneak children out of the Warsaw Ghetto then guarded by Nazis. She protected them and moved them to safety. Irena and her network concealed these children in orphanages and convents.

 “Irena was the prime mover that saved 2,500 Jewish children,” reports Wiki, and credited with directly smuggling out hundreds of children herself. Sendler saved the names of the kids she smuggled out, hiding their names in glass jars and burying them under a tree in her backyard. Post-war she attempted to locate any parents that might have survived in an effort to reunite the families. Regrettably, most had been gassed. The kids she helped got placed into foster families or adopted.

Giles Milton an internationally best-selling author of popular history writes, “In 1943, Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo. They’d grown suspicious of her activities and realised she was working on behalf of Warsaw’s Jews. She was beaten, severely tortured by her guards and then sentenced to death for refusing to give them any information. News of her impending execution reached Żegota, the secret Council to Aid Jews, who managed to save her by bribing a German guard as she was led away to be killed. She was listed on the bulletin boards as among those who’d been executed, something that enabled her to live in hiding for the rest of the war.”

Sendler never won the Nobel Peace Prize despite being nominated for it in 2007. In our time there exists “Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project – and book by Jack Mayer all based on the True Story of the heroine and the Kansas Teens who “Rescued the Rescuer.” There is a play on her life presented around the United States, also a Hallmark movie, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler. The rescuer passed away in 2008 at 98 years old. Meet the personalities that have brought this story to life.

Tell us what you think! Will you share your WHY in today’s world?
Cedar@PetsGoneGreen.com