LIAJ News of the Week 9/1/21

Between 1939 and 1942, Irena, along with friends and colleagues, made over 3,000 false documents to help hundreds of Jewish families escape the ghetto, saving many lives.

She then joined the underground Polish organization, Zegota, in December 1942 and ran its children’s division. Using her Social Welfare Department permit, Irena, disguised as a nurse, entered the Warsaw Ghetto under the guise of checking for signs of typhus, which the Nazis feared would spread beyond the ghetto walls. Wearing a Star of David to show her solidarity, Irena began talking Jewish parents into giving up their children, who faced near-sure fates of dying in the ghetto or death camps. The parents had a devastatingly heartbreaking choice to make, and Irena, risking her own life, could afford them no assurances—only a chance their children otherwise would not have. 

Norman Conard
Director
620.223.1312

Life in a Jar Foundation 
The Irena Sendler Project
1 South Main
Fort Scott, KS 66701
conardnorm@gmail.com

www.irenasendler.org
http://www.facebook.com/irenasendlerproject
https://www.facebook.com/irenasendlerbook