On October 20, 1943, the Nazis arrested Irena Sendler and sent her to be interrogated and tortured at a holding cell. Then she was sent to Pawiak Prison. There they tortured her, trying to get her to reveal the names of her associates. She refused and was sentenced to death. However, the underground Zegota bribed a prison guard, and Sendler escaped in February 1944 before she was executed.
Irena remained in hiding for the rest of the war. When the Gestapo realized she had escaped, they made handbills for all of Warsaw but did not capture her.She continued to work in the rescue effort for the rest of the war. The Warsaw Ghetto was destroyed in 1943, but hundreds of children were hiding in the Warsaw area until 1945.**note: The Sendler network also rescued a number of adults from the Warsaw Ghetto.
Irena wrote down the names of her co-conspirators and gave the list to us. We have the list in the museum on a display, it is the only such list in existence.
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