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LIFE IN A JAR - THE IRENA
SENDLER STORY
See www.mff.org
The story about Irena Sendler,
who saved over two thousand Jewish children smuggling
them from the ghetto in 1942-1944 during the German
occupation of Poland, has recently become well known
owing to four high school students from Uniontown, Kansas.
Four of Milken Educator Norm
Conard's (KS '92) students discovered an unsung
heroine of the Holocaust and spread her story around
the world.
The four girls from Kansas
who discovered Irena's story
(Photo by Karen Conard)
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In 1942, as Jews throughout Europe
were being rounded up and transported en masse to Nazi
concentration camps to face an unthinkable fate, one
woman took courageous action and risked her own life
to save thousands of others.
Her name was Irena Sendler. Though she herself was not
Jewish, she feared for the lives of Jews around her,
particularly the children. As head of the children's
section in the Polish underground movement known as
Zegota, she was unable to sit by and not do anything.
So she went into the Warsaw Ghetto and persuaded Jewish
parents and grandparents to place their children in
her care, saying that they were certain to die in the
Ghetto or in the Nazi death camps unless they could
be spirited away to safety.
Smuggling the children past Nazi guards through a variety
of means - hiding them in body bags or under loads of
goods - Ms. Sendler took them into the homes of Polish
families, where they were adopted and raised with false
identities. Ms. Sendler made lists of these children
and placed the lists in a jar that she buried in a garden,
hoping she could someday dig up the jar, locate the
children and inform them of their past.
From 1942 to 1943, Ms. Sendler
managed to smuggle 400 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto
before she was captured by the Nazis and severely punished
for her actions. Even under extreme torture, she refused
to reveal where the lists of the smuggled Jewish children
were hidden. Eventually, a member of the Polish underground
bribed a guard to release her, and she entered into
hiding. Even then, she continued to work with Zegota
to rescue another 2,100 children.
Irena Sendler as a young
woman (Photo courtesy of the Jewish Foundation
for the Righteous)
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It's a remarkable story, and considering all the remarkable
stories from the Holocaust that have surfaced over the
past several years, it's hard to believe that this one
went largely unnoticed. And it might have stayed that
way, were it not for four high school students from
Uniontown, Kansas.
Changing the World
It began as a class assignment from their teacher,
Milken Educator Norm
Conard (KS '92): create a year-long project for
the National History Day Competition that would, among
other things, extend the boundaries of the classroom
to families in the community, contribute to the learning
of history, and meet the classroom motto, "He who
changes one person, changes the entire world."
A guide takes the four girls
from Kansas on a tour of a Jewish cemetery in
Warsaw
(Photo by Karen Conard)
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As the four girls - Elizabeth
Cambers, Megan Stewart, Sabrina Coons and Janice Underwood
- began doing their research, they discovered an article
in U.S. News and World Report about Ms. Sendler, and
were surprised by the number of children she had saved.
"I thought it might have
been a typographical error," said Mr. Conard, "since
I had not heard of this woman nor her story."
The girls wrote a play based on
her life called "Life in a Jar," which they
entered into the National History Day Competition and
began performing in front of numerous community organizations.
What happened next is a story in itself.
The play was extremely well-received
every time it was performed. Though Uniontown is a small
community with little ethnic diversity and no Jewish
residents, the response to the play was so extraordinary
that the town designated an "Irena Sendler Day."
91 year-old Irena Sendler
in her Warsaw apartment
(Photo by Karen Conard)
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Assuming that Ms. Sendler was
no longer living, the four students began a search for
her final resting place. They were surprised to learn
that she was still alive, living in poverty in Warsaw,
Poland. They contacted Ms. Sendler, telling her of their
project and the response it was getting. She wrote back
letters written in Polish, which were translated with
the help of a Polish student at a local Kansas college.
"Your performance and work
is continuing the effort I started over fifty years
ago," wrote Ms. Sendler. "You are my dearly
beloved girls."
The girls decided to raise money
on behalf of Ms. Sendler and other rescuers. They began
taking a jar to each performance to collect donations.
They contacted an organization in New York City called
the Jewish
Foundation for the Righteous, which helped the girls
send the money they had raised to a Polish bank in Warsaw.
The girls from Kansas speak
to the Polish media (Photo by Karen Conard)
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At the same time, they began receiving
national attention for the story they had "rediscovered,"
appearing on C-SPAN, National Public Radio, CBS, and
numerous newspaper articles. They were invited to perform
their play in Washington, D.C. and before the Jewish
Foundation for the Righteous in New York City. Mr. Conard
was contacted for the book and film rights to his students'
story.
A True Heroine
One day in January 2001, the girls
performed their play before a large school district
in Kansas City, about 100 miles from Uniontown. In the
audience was John Shuchart, a Jewish educator and businessman
who was so moved by the performance that he asked to
have lunch with Mr. Conard and his students that day.
Hearing that Ms. Sendler was still alive, Mr. Shuchart
told the girls he would raise the money to send them
to Warsaw to meet her in person and bring back her story.
Because she is 91 and in poor health, he urged the girls
to travel as soon as possible.
Mr. Shuchart raised the money
in 24 hours, and on May 22, 2001, Mr. Conard, his wife,
the four students and several of their parents traveled
to Warsaw, Poland, where they met Ms. Sendler in person.
It was an emotional moment. When
the 91 year-old woman pushed her walker across her apartment
to greet them, what the four young girls saw was a heroine
of immense stature. But with the modesty one often finds
in truly heroic people, Ms. Sendler characterized herself
and her life as merely ordinary.
Elizabeth Cambers (left)
and Janice Underwood (right), holding hands with
Irena Sendler in the heroine's Warsaw apartment
(Photo by Karen Conard)
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The girls still perform their
play in front of local churches, civic groups and clubs,
with performances booked until the summer of 2002. They
continue to conduct research on Ms. Sendler's story
and correspond regularly with Ms. Sendler and the people
she rescued. They have established an e-mail address
- isendler@hotmail.com
- which receives daily messages from across the nation.
Three more students have joined the group to help with
all the email and research. They have donated their
correspondence with Ms. Sendler to various universities,
historical societies, and to the Jewish Foundation for
the Righteous in Chicago and New York City. A local
college professor has been using their letters from
Ms. Sendler in his World History class.
The story of Irena Sendler has
had a profound effect not only on those who have heard
the story, but on the storytellers as well. The girls
regularly write on their homework papers notes such
as, "I'm changing the world" and "Irena's
story must be told."
"I've traveled with the
girls to numerous performances and watched the great
emotion that pours out of the audience during their
presentation," said Mr. Conard. "They have
literally taken our class motto - 'He who changes one
person, changes the entire world.' - and brought it
to life."
From the Editors
Right below you will find :
- Irena Sendler's letter (translated into English),
which she sent to Kansas City to be delivered by Ania
Teodorowicz during the award ceremony on 10 March
2002
- An address by Bieta Ficowska - a Holocaust survivor
saved by Sendler - that was delivered by Bieta's daughter,
Ania Teodorowicz, in Kansas City on 10 March 2002.
IRENA SENDLER'S LETTER
Hello and greetings from very
far away but from the bottom of my heart to all of you
gathered in Kansas City. I regret that my age and condition
do not allow me to attend this meeting. I know that
despite the distance we are close to each other, as
friends to think and feel in similar ways. I know there
are many of us and that, thanks to teachers like Norman
Conard and my "quartet", there will be more
and more.
I now think about the people with
whom I worked with during the war, those who paid with
their lives for saving others and those who helped people
whose life was in danger, because they considered it
their duty. Let us make today's celebration a multiple
one through the symbolic participation of those who
should be here with us rejoicing every life that has
been saved.
"Whosoever preserves one life - it is as though
he has preserved the entire world", is the motto
inscribed on the medal for the Righteous Among the Nations.
This is a very beautiful and true sentence. I believe
that, thanks to you and other your people like you,
can the world and humanity be saved.
In a technocratic world, preoccupied with material
well-being, there is less and less space for compassion,
friendliness and selflessness. In a world of religious
and ethnic strife, we need the example of Elizabeth,
Megan, Sabrina and Janice, who speak of love and tolerance,
and judge people by whether they are good or bad, and
not anything else.
I offer thanks to God for letting me live into the
21 century and meet these girls and their teachers.
What I believed in and did all my life as a pedagogue,
has come back to me as the good brought from the other
hemisphere by these four American girls. By visiting
me in my home in Warsaw, you gave me the most wonderful
present, one I did not even dream of.
Today's celebration, at which I am present with my
heart and thoughts, would not be possible without the
involvement of the B'nai Jehudah Synagogue. Thank you,
friends. Let us pray together to God for peace in the
world and for human compassion, which will not let people
stay indifferent children's suffering. Present here
with you today are: Renata and Elżbieta with her daughter
Ania. My rescued children include the children, grandchildren
and further generations of those saved. I do care for
their future and my wish is that their lives are full
of joy, fortune and happiness. My spirit is with you,
and I think that I have been given a long life to give
testimony to the belief that the world is neither good
nor evil. It is up to us what it is like and how we
leave it for future generations. It is up to our hearts
and memories, which ought to prompt us which way to
go. I wish such friendly prompts to all of you and to
myself.
Yours, Irena
BIETA FICOWSKA'S ADDRESS
My name is Elżbieta Ficowska and I have come from Poland
with my daughter Ania. We are very grateful to you all
for inviting us here to celebrate a triumph of good
over evil. The true symbol and hero of this triumph
is Irena Sendler, who has stayed in Warsaw but whose
heart is here with us today.
The four American girls: Elizabeth Cambers, Sabrina
Coons, Megan Stewart and Janice Underwood have taken
on her ideals and spread them around the world. You
are great! Let me express my admiration and gratitude
also to your parents and teachers. May there be more
people like you in the world!
There is something unique about four Uniontown teenagers
meeting the 92-year-old Irena Sendler from Warsaw. Despite
the distance in time and space, their meeting has grown
into a beautiful friendship, which has inspired a play
written and performed by the four girls, telling a story
of the atrocities of war, of misery and heroism, and
finally - of love and hope.
I have brought here with me my personal symbol of love
and hope. It is a silver spoon which has my name and
birth date engraved on it. This is the way my parents
ensured that I have proof of identity. The wanted me
to know when I was born, that I did have parents, and
they endowed me with a NAME. Irene has told me about
heroic Jewish mothers, who decided to suffer being parted
from their children, out of love for them. They lived
with hope, although they could never be certain that
their children would survive the war. I have never seen
my natural mother. I have tried to imagine her. I have
written to various newspapers throughout the world,
hoping that someone has photos of my parents and can
tell me something about them. I received a few letters
but, unfortunately, no photographs. There were letters
from two ex school colleagues of my mother's and I could
"see" my mother in those letters: tall, green-eyed,
with light-chestnut hair. Maybe my daughter looks like
her?
Then, at school, her name was Hania Rochman. She died
very young, having parted with her five-month-old only
child. My father, Josef Koper vel Kopel, was a big man
with dark eyes and black hair. Someone said they saw
him near a train which he refused to board, saying that
he had left a little girl behind him. Then a German
soldier shot him.
My Polish mother took over the love of my Jewish mother
and my silver spoon. To her I owe my happy and secure
childhood. A tree with the plaque bearing the name Stanisława
Bussold has already grown tall in Yad Vashem. I am proud
of my Polish mother. She helped Irena to save children.
She was a midwife and assisted Jewish women with their
deliveries. Her Warsaw apartment was used as a hiding
place for Jewish children, who were then smuggled to
safer places. There was also my nanny Janina Peciak,
who looked after me, while my Polish mother was out
saving others. The nanny stayed with us ever since.
When I think of my happy life, my dear and loving husband,
my beloved daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, I
know that I owe the gift of love to my mothers. I try
to be faithful to their memory while I cherish their
gift, see it in full blossom and share it with others.
I would like to than my young friends for their play,
which reminds people that evil is born out of hate and
that there is no treasure greater than love.
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