Real Heroine for our kids not a sports figure

Irena Sendler, a gentile social worker in Warsaw, Poland, saved thousands of children in WWII. She was a Polish Catholic social worker who helped lead a smuggling operation that rescued thousands of children from Warsaw’s Jewish ghetto. She was part of the clandestine group Zegota whose members faced execution if caught. She helped spirit children out of the ghetto in ambulances by hiding them under blankets, in burlap sacks and toolboxes and sometimes in coffins. To distract German guards, she kept a barking dog on the front seat of her ambulance to drown out the cries of young children who feared separation from their parents. Mrs. Sendler used her contacts at orphanages and convents to keep Jewish children safe until the war’s end, often under Christianized names. To alert nuns to a new group of children ready for pick up, she would write, “I have clothing for the convent.” Her intention was to return all the children to their parents, although the death rate of the adult population made the task largely impossible. But for years, she guarded the real names of the children and their parents, writing them on tissue paper and burying the lists in jars under an apple tree at an associate’s home. As more children were saved the bottles were dug up and new names were added to the list. The Gestapo arrested her and took her to prison where subversives were tortured and killed. Over three months, her detainers used clubs and other devices to fracture her legs and feet. She did not inform on Zegota leaders and was sentenced to death by firing squad but a bribed guard helped her escape and marked her as having been executed. She remained incognito for the rest of the war- she could not even risk attending her own mother’s funeral- and she continued to help Zegota. The number of children saved by Mrs. Sendler and her group is more than 2,500. Mrs. Sendler said, “Every Jewish child who survived due to my efforts has justified my existence on this Earth but is no cause for praise. We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes. That term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true. I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little. I could have done more. This regret will follow me to my death.” Mrs. Sendler was recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations,” the designation for gentiles who aided Jews during the war.

A DILEMA: WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
Irina Sendler stated, “We witnessed terrible scenes. Father agreed but mother didn’t. Grandmother cuddled the child tenderly and , weeping bitterly, said, “I won’t give away my grandchild at any price.’ We sometimes had to leave those unfortunate families without taking their children from them. I’d go back there the next day and often found that everyone had been taken to the Umschlagplatz railway siding for transport to the death camps.”

DARFUR: TODAY Choose to be like Irina Sendler and get involved
A woman hanged herself from a tree with her shawl because she could not feed her children. Their tiny corpses were found around her. A militiaman lowered his bayonet into the belly of a 4-year-old girl as she ran toward him, impaling her. The gunman pranced around as her blood drained down upon him. The girl’s father sobbing in horror and in shock said, “What was he? A man? A devil? He was painted red with my little girl’s blood and he was dancing. What was he?”