This is the story of Irena Sendler, the “helper” we’re often told to look for.
Sendler and her network of friends smuggled 2,500 children out of the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. She used an old milk jar to conceal the children’s real names and identities. Littman describes how Sendler used her job to weave in and out of the Warsaw ghetto with ease despite guards on patrol 24/7.
Document Based Questions: How did Irena’s job help her navigate the ghetto so easily? List some of the ways she concealed who and what she was carrying. How would you describe Irena to someone who doesn’t know her story?
Irena Sendler was a social worker in the Warsaw Ghetto.
We learn she is eventually arrested, imprisoned, and tortured; ultimately she refused to reveal the names of those who worked alongside her. Other members of her network saved her life, and afterwards she devoted herself to reuniting the children she rescued with their parents and families.
Document Based Questions: What was Irena’s mission after the war? How does Irena avoid her death sentence? Describe how Irena and her network feel as they sneak children and babies beyond Nazi checkpoints.
The “female Oskar Schindler” was not just brave, but creative.
Mazzeo and Farrell emphasize that Irena had a “backbone,” and this narrative describes how she used toolboxes, suitcases, large items of clothing, and sometimes even coffins to smuggle Jewish children out of the ghetto. Babies were given medicine to help them sleep so that they wouldn’t cry and be discovered. Sendler regularly relied on sewers, secret passageways, and dark tunnels to hide in along the path to safety.
Document Based Questions: What are Irena’s parents like and what do we learn about her family? How did Irena and her team impact the outcome of World War II? What was daily life like in the ghettos, and how were the people inside treated?
Irena was a master of disguise.
Greenspan tells us that Sendler often dressed as a poor, old woman in heavy clothing, or sometimes as a nurse. The Nazis were less likely to detain her that way; furthermore, she could use her clothes to hide food, money, and medicine. The Nazis were afraid of getting sick, so they often allowed medical personnel in and out of the ghetto to keep diseases from spreading to them.
Document Based Questions: What were the consequences for someone caught helping a Jewish person? How did Irena’s Catholicism help her help Jews? How did Irena keep track of everyone she rescued? Describe what happened to Irena when she was arrested.
