Courage

In 1942, the Nazis herded hundreds of thousands of Jews into a 16-block area that became known as the Warsaw Ghetto. The Ghetto was sealed and the Jewish families imprisoned there awaited certain death. Diseases were spreading rapidly. Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker, was so appalled by the conditions that she joined Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, organized by the Polish underground resistance movement, as one of its first recruits and directed the efforts to rescue Jewish children.

Irena managed to be issued a pass from Warsaw’s Epidemic Control Department and she visited the Ghetto daily, bringing food, medicines and clothing. She began smuggling children out in an ambulance. Some were taken out in gunnysacks or body bags. Some were buried inside loads of goods. A mechanic took a baby out in his toolbox. Some kids were carried out in potato sacks, others were placed in coffins. With the help of many others, Irena Sendler successfully smuggled almost 2,500 Jewish children to safety and gave them temporary new identities.

But the Nazis became aware of Irena's activities, and on October 20, 1943 she was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo, who broke her feet and legs. She ended up in the Pawiak Prison, but no one could break her spirit. Though she was the only one who knew the names and addresses of the families sheltering the Jewish children, she withstood the torture that crippled her for life, refusing to betray either her associates or any of the Jewish children in hiding. Sentenced to death, Irena was saved at the last minute when Zegota members bribed one of the Gestapo agents to halt the execution. She escaped from prison but for the rest of the war she was pursued by the Nazis. Irene Sendler died on May 12, 2008 (http://www.auschwitz. dk/sendler.htm).

Stories like this help me to realize just how much I have yet to learn about true courage and service. What a bright light in the face of such great darkness!

God loves you!
Mike