Born: 15 February 1910, Poland
Died: 12 May 2008
Country most active: Poland
Also known as: Irena Krzyżanowska, Irena Sendlerowa, Jolanta
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Irena Sendler (or Sendlerowa in Poland, February 15, 1910 – May 12, 2008) was vital to the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw, heading the children’s section of Żegota from October 1943.
In the 1930s, she was involved in social work with the Free Polish University as part of the socialist and communist movements. Sendler held firm antifascist views and protested the anti-Jewish rules in universities.
From 1935 to October 1943, she worked for the Department of Social Welfare and Public Health in Warsaw. During the war, she was part of a group that secretly rescued Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, providing them with new identities and shelter in Polish homes, orphanages, and Catholic convents.
Her actions raised suspicion among the German occupiers, and on this day in 1943, she was arrested by the Gestapo. She never revealed information about her work or the rescued children despite torture and imprisonment. She was sentenced to death but managed to escape on the day of her execution, thanks to Żegota’s efforts.
Thanks to her efforts, about 2500 Jewish children were saved.
In post-war communist Poland, Sendler continued her social work and government career. She was recognized by Israel as “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1965 and received various awards, including the Gold Cross of Merit in 1946 for saving Jews and Poland’s highest honor, the Order of the White Eagle, later in her life for her wartime humanitarian efforts.