Vignettes from the WWII, Holocaust, and Post-War Era

The Soviets viewed Irena as subversive in 1945, so she never told her story. In 1999, U. S. News and World Report did an article on The Other Schindlers and their efforts to rescue Jews from the Nazis during World War II. In early 2000, high school students from Kansas won a state history competition and created a play (10 minutes) about Irena Sendler called Life In A Jar. Irene hid lists of children in a jar and buried it in her friend’s back yard under an apple tree. In 2001, these students from Kansas visited Irena in Poland which drew national and international media coverage. They performed the play, returned over several years to spread the word, and to meet with Irena. Since the story unfolded, Irena won the Order of White Eagle from Poland. In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2009, she was given the Humanitarian Award from the Audrey Hepburn Foundation. The heroism of her workers and the Polish Resistance came to light through Irena Sendler’s story....

  Irena Sendler’s 2,500 Babies ( Irena’s Children. (2016). Tilar Mazzeo). Rescued from the Warsaw Ghetto).   Part One : Irena was a Catholic social worker in Poland and began making forged IDs for her Jewish friends. In 1940, 500,000 Jews were moved into the Warsaw Ghetto in a space the size of Central Park in NYC. She and her friends saved over 3,000 Jews in hiding by forging documents. Posing as a nurse, she told the Nazis she was stopping diseases from spreading outside the ghetto. She smuggled children and orphans from the ghetto through an old courthouse and a Catholic Church. The children would emerge as Polish Catholic children with forged IDs. She kept meticulous records to be able to unify the children with their parents after the war. Most parents did not survive. Zegota was part of the Polish underground: Council of Aid to Jews in occupied Poland. With other social workers joining her, they sometimes rescued 25 children at a time. Families, convents, and orphana...

  Beer Hall Coup, Munich, 1923: Germany was in an economic crisis and weakened by WWI. Hitler blamed international Jewry for Germany’s defeat in WWI in an outrageous “stab in the back” theory of internal sabotage. Jewish soldiers died in WWI. He rallied disgruntled veterans to his side; and stated in many speeches he was called to “restore Germany to power.” By 1921, Hitler took over the Nazi Party. He staged his coup in a beer hall. Hitler was jailed for high treason for trying to overthrow the Weimar government by violence. The plan was to seize power in Bavaria, then march on Berlin to defeat the Jewish conspiracy. He recruited 2,000 Brown Shirts and thought he was supported by Bavarian politicians and military. He was not. The ministers and military reneged. Armed police arrived and both police and Nazis died in the conflict. He was sentenced to five years but only served nine months. At the trial and sentencing, Hitler was allowed to make two three-hour speeches which incited...