Irena S Children

For desperate families trapped inside the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 with small children, one name was whispered urgently. It was the name of a young social worker in her thirties with the courage to take staggering risks and to save over 2,000 of those children from death and deportation. Granted access to the ghetto as a public health specialist, Irena Sendler began by smuggling orphaned children out of the walled district and convincing her friends and neighbours to hide them. Soon, she began the perilous work of going from door to door and asking Jewish families to trust her with their young children. Driven to extreme measures and with the help of local Warsaw tradesman, Jewish residents, a network of mothers and her star-crossed lover in the Polish resistance, Irena Sendler ultimately smuggled thousands of children past the Nazis, making dangerous trips through city's sewers, hiding them in coffins and under overcoats at check points, and slipping through secret passages in abandoned buildings. At immense personal risk, Irena Sendler did something even more astonishing: she kept a secret list buried in a jar under an old apple tree in her garden. On it were the names and true identities of these Jewish children, recorded so that after the war their families could find them. Celebrated for her courage, Sendler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, the year before her death at the age of 98. The story of Irena Sendler - and of the children she saved - has until now never been told in a compelling narrative account.

Presents the story of a Holocaust rescuer to reveal the formidable risks she took to her own safety to save some 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.

Presents the story of a Holocaust rescuer to reveal the formidable risks she took to her own safety to save some 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow Clicquot comes an extraordinary and gripping account of Irena Sendler—the “female Oskar Schindler”—who took staggering risks to save 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. In 1942, one young social worker, Irena Sendler, was granted access to the Warsaw ghetto as a public health specialist. While she was there, she began to understand the fate that awaited the Jewish families who were unable to leave. Soon she reached out to the trapped families, going from door to door and asking them to trust her with their young children. Driven to extreme measures and with the help of a network of local tradesmen, ghetto residents, and her star-crossed lover in the Jewish resistance, Irena ultimately smuggled thousands of children past the Nazis. She made dangerous trips through the city’s sewers, hid children in coffins, snuck them under overcoats at checkpoints, and slipped them through secret passages in abandoned buildings. But Irena did something even more astonishing at immense personal risk: she kept a secret list buried in bottles under an old apple tree in a friend’s back garden. On it were the names and true identities of these Jewish children, recorded so their families could find them after the war. She could not know that more than ninety percent of their families would perish. Irena’s Children, “a fascinating narrative of…the extraordinary moral and physical courage of those who chose to fight inhumanity with compassion” (Chaya Deitsch author of Here and There: Leaving Hasidism, Keeping My Family), is a truly heroic tale of survival, resilience, and redemption.

Presents the story of a Holocaust rescuer to reveal the formidable risks she took to her own safety to save some 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.

Tells story of Irena Sendler who organized the rescue of 2,500 Jewish children during World War II, and the teenagers who started the investigation into Irena's heroism.

She risked her life while helping to spirit Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.

"The story of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker who helped rescue nearly 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. Includes afterword, author's note, sources, and glossary"--Provided by publisher.