Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska) was a Polish nurse/social worker who served in the Polish Underground during World War II, and as head of children’s section of Żegota, an underground resistance organization in German-occupied Warsaw. Assisted by some two dozen other Żegota members, Sendler smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and provided them with false identity documents and housing outside the Ghetto, saving those children during the Holocaust. The Nazis eventually discovered her activities and tortured her, but she managed to evade execution and survive the war. Known as “the female Oskar Schindler,” late in life she was awarded Poland’s highest honor for her wartime humanitarian efforts. Sendler was born on February 15, 1910 and died on May 12, 2008 at the age of 98.
Note: Sendler was reportedly a candidate to receive the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, but that honor was awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) instead.
