Irena Sendler (Kshizhanovskaya): biography. Heroes of anti-fascist resistance in Poland

In the fall of 2008, the film "The Brave Heart of Irena Sendler" was shown in the USA. He talked about a woman who quietly died in May of the same year in Warsaw in the 99th year of her life. Most of the viewers could not hold back their tears while watching the picture, the story of Irena Sendler was so touching and tragic.

Childhood

Irena Kshizhanovskaya was born into a family of a doctor who was in the PPS, who was in charge of the hospital and often provided medical assistance to poor Jews who did not have the opportunity to pay for treatment. Even before the birth of his daughter, he was an active participant in anti-government actions. When Irene was 7 years old, his father died of typhus, getting infected from the patients. The Jewish community, who highly valued Dr. Krzyzanowski's services, decided to help his family by offering to pay for the training of Irene before her majority - 18 years of age. The girl's mother refused, because she knew how hard it was for many of her former husband's former patients, but she told her about it. So, in the heart of Irene, gratitude and love have forever settled, which later gave life to thousands of children.

At the university, the girl joined the Polish Socialist Party, because she wanted to continue her father's business.

In 1932, Irena married Mechislav Sendler, but the marriage did not last long, although they did not formalize the divorce.

Feat

When the Holocaust began in Poland, Irena Sendler was a member of the Warsaw Public Health Administration. Along with this, she was a member of the Polish underground organization "Zhegot", engaged in helping Jews.

Due to her professional activities, the young woman regularly visited the Warsaw ghetto and helped sick children. Using this cover, Irena Sendler and other members of Zhegotia saved 2500 Jewish children, who were then transferred to monasteries, private families and shelters.

According to the memoirs of the participants of those events, the babies were placed in boxes with holes, previously watered with sleeping pills, and then taken away from the territory of the ghetto in cars on which disinfectants were delivered. As for older children, they were taken out in sacks and baskets, taken out through sewer hatches, cellars of houses and buildings adjacent to the area reserved for Jews.

Arrest

Irena Sendler also took care of the fact that after the war the rescued children could find their parents. She wrote down their names on pieces of paper and stacked them in a glass jar, which she buried in a friend's garden.

In 1943, Irene Sendler was arrested, and the reason for this was an anonymous denunciation. The young woman was tortured, trying to find out who among her entourage headed the Resistance movement or just went into his underground organization. At the same time, Irene was shown a thick folder with denunciations and reports about her activities, signed by people familiar to her. The goal of the Nazis was to find out the names of other participants in the rescue operations and the places where the children were hiding. Despite the beatings, the fragile Irene did not give out her companions and told the Gestapo where the lists with the names of the small Jews are located, since in this case they would be expected to be sent to the Treblinka concentration camp and death.

"Execution" and escape

Not having achieved the result, the Nazis sentenced Irene to be shot. Fortunately, Sendler remained alive - participants in the anti-fascist resistance in Poland saved her by bribing the guards. Those, in turn, reported to the command that the execution took place, so Irene was not searched.

According to the woman's recollections, before the execution she was summoned for the last interrogation. Accompanying her soldiers did not bring Irene to the Gestapo building, but pushed him into the alley and ordered him to flee. There were Polish underground workers who took her to a safe place. "To commemorate" the stay in the Nazi dungeons, Irene was undermined health, and she spent her life in a wheelchair.

Mission completion

Irene Sendler had to hide until the very end of the war. After the liberation of Poland, she was able to transmit data on the rescued children to Adolf Berman, who from 1947 to 1949 was chairman of the Central Committee of the Jews of Poland. Thanks to long-term searches, it was possible to reunite families that became victims of the Holocaust. As for the orphaned children, they were eventually sent to Israel after long troubles.

Life in the post-war years

It would seem that with the onset of peace in Europe, the brave heart of Irena Sendler can calm down, and she will finally heal a calm family life. However, fate decided to inflict another blow to it: the state security organs of the NDP learned about its links with the Krai Army and began its persecution. In 1949, during a hard questioning, the pregnant Irena before the time gave birth to a child who died a few days later.

Late recognition

Although with time Irena Sendler left the Polish authorities alone, she felt the hostile attitude of the authorities towards her person until the fall of the communist regime. So, when in 1965 the Museum of the Holocaust of Israel "Yad Vashem" decided to award Irena Sendler the honorary title of the Righteous Among the Nations, she was not allowed to visit the country where she once saved boys and girls who had already grown up and considered her His second mother.

Only in 1983, the Polish authorities lifted the ban on her travel abroad, and Irena Sendler was able to visit Israel, where she planted her tree on the memory alley.

And even after that, few people in the world knew that an old woman lived in a modest apartment in Warsaw, who accomplished a feat deserving all the highest honors and honors. However, fate would have it if Irena Sendler lived to see the day when her stories were discovered in different parts of the world.

And all happened by pure chance in 1999, and the initiators were again children - four schoolgirls from the American town of Uniontown. They prepared a report for the "Day of History" project, and the teacher showed them a newspaper note five years ago under the heading "Another Schindler." Interested girls began to look for information about Irene Sendler and found that she was alive. With the help of relatives and teachers, they wrote a play called "Life in the Bank," which was staged in various theaters in the US, Canada, and later in Poland. The girls even came to Warsaw, where they saw their idol. Their friendship with Irena Sendler lasted for several years, during which they repeatedly visited the Mother of the Children of the Holocaust.

Awards

The merits of Irene Sendler were appreciated with great delay by the Polish government, which in 2003 awarded the Order of the White Eagle to it. Knights of this highest award before Sendler became European monarchs, including Peter the Great, famous military leaders and the Pope. The Order of the White Eagle was restored in Poland only in 1992, and among those awarded during the past 24 years, hardly anyone was as worthy as Pani Sendler.

In addition, a year before the death of Irene, the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of Poland offered the Nobel Committee to award her the Peace Prize. The award of Sendler did not take place, because the committee at that time did not change the rules prescribing to award a reward for the actions that were committed during the last two years.

As one Polish journalist wrote, "the prize was disgraced." Those who gave it, bypassed a man worthy of it like no one else to reward Al Gore, who presented a presentation on the problems of global warming.

And in 2007, Mrs. Irene was awarded the Medal of the Smile Award. As always in the life of Irene, the children intervened: she was presented as a pretender to receive the award by the boy Shimon Pluzennik from Green Gura. "The Order of a Smile" was established in Poland in 1968, and it is handed to people who give children joy. In 1979, the award was given the status of an international one, and since then applicants for its receipt are selected by a commission consisting of representatives of 24 countries.

The film "The Brave Heart of Irena Sendler"

The film, which was already mentioned, was filmed in Latvia. When American journalists told Irene that they were going to make a film about her life during the war, she said that she agreed. At the same time, the woman asked the picture to be true and showed the Americans what the war really was, what the Warsaw ghetto looked like and what was happening there. The role of Irena Sendler in the film was played by the New Zealand actress Anna Packin, who in 1994 was awarded the Oscar for the best supporting role. According to the viewers, the film turned out to be very piercing and truthful. I also liked the daughter of Irena Sendler-Yanina, who was initially against the idea of creating a cinematic version of her mother's biography.

Movement of resistance in Poland

Talking about the exploit of Sendler, it should be understood that a courageous woman could not act alone. According to the memoirs of the most Irene herself, she needed help from at least 12 people to save one child: drivers, medical workers, security guards, shelter workers, officials issuing forged documents, etc. The role of Polish nuns was absolutely special. It is known that 500 children, rescued by Irena Sendler, were able to survive only because of their help. At the same time, many sisters paid for their Christian humanism, manifested in relation to the children of another religion, their lives and even became martyrs. So, in 1944, at the Warsaw cemetery, the fascists doused with gasoline and burned a group of nuns alive who helped the Jews.

No less touching is the story of how Wojciech Zhukavsky and Alexander Zelverovich hid 40 children from the ghetto in the zoo, where they had to hide among animal enclosures.

Now you know who Irena Sendler was, the film about which is worth a look, especially as it is available in Russian translation.