UNSUNG HEROINE As a young girl, Irena was taught always to help people, no matter the risk to her own life – it was a lesson that drove her to stand up against the Nazis
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During the darkest days of World War II, the Nazis were intensifying their ‘Final Solution’, systematically transporting and murdering Poland’s Jews at a rate of thousands per day. In the midst of the Warsaw Ghetto, one Catholic social worker risked her life by orchestrating an underground operation to save some of the most vulnerable.
Irena Sendler smuggled babies, toddlers and young children out of the ghetto, where the Jewish population was confined. She may have had a small frame and gentle smile, but they belied nerves of steel and a burning resistance to the abhorrent situation she saw unfolding in her country.