IRENA SENDLER

A Righteous Gentile. Remember this woman is the subject of an email that has reached 40 million people worldwide. She died: May 12, 2008 at the age of 98. (98 as the age of death is one of the signs of a a Tzadeket.). She died in Warsaw Poland and please read the story below to know the kind of woman she is. May 12 2008 is the 3rd of Iyar.

Irena Sendler was a Polish, Catholic social worker. During WWII, she 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 Nazis 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.

One does not have to be Jewish to be Righteous.