Irene Sendler’s father passed away from typhus when she was just seven years old, but during the little period she was raised by him, he shaped her and forced her to pursue his career.

After her father went into medicine, Irena trained as a nurse and helped feed and clothe impoverished families. Despite the intense anti-Semitism that pervaded Europe at the time, Irena, a devout Catholic, assisted everyone equally.

The Nazis sentenced her to death because of this, but destiny had other ideas for her. She made it out with the aid of a bribe from a soldier. She will continue to aid people in need even though she will live for years under a false name after that.

Her name will go on in history as the one who helped 2,500 Jewish children escape and survive the Holocaust by providing them new names and rescuing them from the Warsaw ghetto. She is the one who saved the most Jews throughout the Holocaust, with the exception of a few diplomats.

After the war, Irena retrieved the records of every child and person she had rescued, sealed them in earthen jars, and gave them to the Committee of Surviving Jews.

She acknowledges the following: “My upbringing and my home are the source of the motivation for my decision to save these kids. I was raised with the conviction that a defenseless person deserves our undivided support, regardless of their ethnicity or religion.