Irena Sendler
Nurse, Award Winner
1910 – 2008
Who was Irena Sendler?
Irena Sendler was a Polish Roman Catholic 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 then provided them with false identity documents and with housing outside the Ghetto, saving those children during the Holocaust.
The Nazis eventually discovered her activities, tortured her, and sentenced her to death, but she managed to evade execution and survive the war. In 1965, Sendler was recognized by the State of Israel as a Righteous among the Nations. Late in life she was awarded Poland's highest honor for her wartime humanitarian efforts. She appears on a silver 2009 Polish commemorative coin honoring some of the Polish Righteous among the Nations.
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- Born
- Feb 15, 1910
Warsaw - Also known as
- Irena Sendlerowa
- Irena Stanisława Krzyżanowska
- Irena Krzyżanowska
- Jolanta
- Parents
- Spouses
- Stefan Zgrzembski
(1947 - 1959) - Mieczysław Sendler
(1931 - 1947) - Mieczysław Sendler
(1959 - )
- Stefan Zgrzembski
- Children
- Religion
- Catholicism
- Nationality
- Poland
- Russian Empire
- Profession
- Education
- University of Warsaw
Polish literature
- University of Warsaw
- Died
- May 12, 2008
Warsaw
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
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"Irena Sendler." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/irena_sendler>.
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