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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=477439" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Ode To Irena Sendler</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Her photo stares at me dreamy and melancholic<br>Like golden October leaves against a cloudy sky.<br>She bends gently her oval head towards her right shoulder<br>That carries the anguished burden of the world.<br>The parted dark hair in the center is combed back<br>Into a bun adorning a charming face. <br>And she looks with tender caring eyes, <br>A countenance more enigmatic than of the Mona Lisa.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Irena Sendler, née Krzyzanowska, <br>Polish Catholic social worker with a loving heart, <br>A gracious woman of valor and compassion<br>A brave humanitarian and Righteous of the Nations, <br>The rescuer of children from the Warsaw Ghetto<br>I bow my head and salute you.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">What was the source of your towering magnanimity? <br>Where did you find the moral strength for what you did? </div><div style="margin:10px 0">She was born in 1910 in Otwock,25 km southeast<br>Of Warsaw. Her father was a physician with Socialist<br>Leanings. In the 1930s she was a student at the University <br>Of Warsaw and was expelled for three years because<br>She protested that Jewish students had to sit<br>On segregated benches in the lecture halls.<br>In 1939 the Nazis occupied Poland and Irena served<br>In the Armia Krajowa, the Polish Home Army<br>Under the cover name Jolanta. She also joined <br>the Zegota resistance organization that aided the Jews.<br>Her role included producing false documents that helped<br>Thousands of Jewish families to flee from the Nazis.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">As an employee of the Social Welfare Department<br>Irena could enter the Warsaw Ghetto to check for signs <br>Of typhus. Inside the ghetto she wore the yellow Star <br>Of David for solidarity with the Jews. And when she<br>Returned to the Aryan side of the city she smuggled out <br>Babies and toddlers in ambulances and trams or through<br>The sewers. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">One baby was taken out in a mechanic's tool box.<br>In the ambulance next to the driver<br>A specially trained dog would bark to veil <br>Any cries of the infants hidden beneath the stretchers.<br>The rescued children then had been handed to the care<br>Of priests and nuns who would help to find shelters<br>In convents, or in the homes of friendly families.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">During the war Irena saved the lives <br>Of 2,500 Jewish children. <br>It was a dangerous mission<br>And she risked torture and death. One day<br>In late October of 1943 the Gestapo arrested Irena. <br>They brutally tortured her and broke her legs and feet.<br>But she refused to betray her network of helpers.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the Nazis sentenced her to death. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Eventually, on the way to the execution site<br>Zegota saved Irena by bribing a German guard<br>Who let her go. Her name was placed on the list <br>Of the executed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Irena went into hiding. And when she recovered<br>From her injuries she continued the rescuing missions.<br>She registered the name and personal information<br>Of every child that she saved. She placed their real<br>Identity records in jars, which she buried <br>Under an apple tree in a neighbor's backyard.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When the war was over Irena unearthed the jars.<br>Soon the arduous search to find the parents began.<br>However, only a few of the children whom she rescued<br>From the monstrous jaws of the Nazis could be reunited<br>With their families because almost all the Jews of Poland, <br>Three million of them, perished in the Holocaust.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Irena Krzyzanowska Sendler received many honors<br>for her humanitarian efforts and heroic rescue operations.<br>Yad Vashem in Israel conferred on her the title<br>Righteous among the Nations. Pope John Paul II<br>Wrote her a personal letter thanking her for what she did.<br>Poland decorated her with the Order of the White Eagle<br>And the Jan Karski organization awarded her <br>With the medal of Courage and Heart.<br>She died in 2008, aged 98.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A noble woman with a lofty soul, <br>Irena did not help people for material gains, for gold<br>Or diamonds. Nor did she risk her life for fame. </div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>She rescued children from the ghetto<br>Because of her love of humanity<br>And because of her belief in the sacredness of life. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">She did not see herself as a hero.<br>The term actually irritated her. <br>She tormented herself and had qualms<br>Of conscience that she did not do enough; <br>That she could have done more. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was a regret that would follow her to her death.<br>In a letter addressed to the Polish Parliament she wrote: <br>Every child saved with my help is the justification<br>Of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Paul+Hartal">Paul Hartal</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=477439" data-title="Ode To Irena Sendler de Paul Hartal" data-description="Her photo stares at me dreamy and melancholic
Like golden October leaves against a cloudy sky.
She bends gently her oval head towards her right shoulder
That carries the anguished burden of the world.
The parted dark hair in the center is combed b..."></div>
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