Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98)
Warsaw, Poland
During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.
Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids.
Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.
The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.
During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.
Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazi’s broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.
Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out, In a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.
In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.
She was not selected.
Al Gore won for a slide show on Global Warming.
(What an amazing story that should be told and honored. I hope she is nominated again. She should have won, imho.
Write from the heart 
Why do people copy this note all the time without checking the historical sources? It’s so easy to get the true information nowadays. Irena was a social worker of the Polish municipal administration of Warsaw (not Plumbing/Sewer specialist), she did not have a dog and she did not have a car. The easest way to get the information is to seach the internet (serious pages), but there are also books about her published in Poland and in the US. Even the Wikipedia is more correct that this note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irena_Sendler
Regards, Ewa
Dear Ewa,
Thank you for pointing this out to me. It’s funny, I rarely go to Wikipedia because I’ve been told the source can’t be trusted since it can be edited by anyone. I try to check my sources and I thought this one was solid. You say it’s easy to get the true information nowadays–that’s true, but you have to know what’s true to find it. I thought I had found the true story.
Thanks for taking the time to point this out.
Blessings,
Debi
Dear Debi,
Thank you for your note. This post is spread all around and copied by many people.. it’s sad. There is a lot of serious pages to double-check the historical information. I mentioned the Wikipedia (which I do not trust usually) as an example only, saying “even the Wikipedia gives more correct information”. But you could reffer to authorized museums website such as Yad Vashem Museum in the first place – as she was given the title of the Righteous > http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/sendler.asp > one of the most reliable sorces.
Another one is Washington Holocaust Museum > http://www.ushmm.org/information/press/in-memoriam/irena-sendler-1910-2008
not to mention the Polish Museum of the History of Polish Jews website called “The Polish Righteous” > http://www.sprawiedliwi.org.pl/en/cms/irena-sendler/0,/
There are also reliable American pages, such as “Life in a Jar” > http://www.irenasendler.org/
or a website regarding the fim about Irena Sendler “In the name of their mothers”: http://www.pbs.org/programs/irena-sendler/
One has to be very careful to copy not reliable information.
Best regards,
Ewa
Ewa,
Very helpful. Thank you for your help!
Blessings,
Debi