Irena Sendler (1910-2008)

Lately I haven’t been regularly checking my RSS feeds so it wasn’t until a second ago that I noticed that Irena Sendler passed away yesterday morning.

The title Righteous among the Nations was bestowed upon her in 1983. She saved the lives of about 2500 Jewish children during World War II. Among those children was my closest superior at the Institute where I work, today one of the most renowned Polish scholars in the field of literary theory.

You can read about Irena Sendler (in English) in two PAP items informing about her death: Irena Sendler, wartime Jew saver, dies and Irena Sendler’s death. There’s also a Wikipedia article about her.

Both the photos come from Wikimedia Commons. The one above was taken in 2005. The one below is of Irena Sendler’s tree in Yad Vashem (taken last year).

May she rest in peace.