Irena Sendlerowa

Polish social worker who smuggled 2,500 Jewish children from Warsaw Ghetto during Holocaust

Irena Sendlerowa (1910-2008), codename 'Jolanta', orchestrated Żegota's children's division - the WWII resistance cell saving Jews. As a Warsaw health worker, she legally entered the ghetto to 'inspect for typhus,' secretly transporting infants in toolboxes, coffins, and ambulances.

Her team created 3,000+ fake documents and hid children with convents/orphanages. Sendler buried lists of real identities in jars - hoping to reunite families post-war. Captured and tortured by Gestapo in 1943 (legs/feet fractured), she refused to betray networks. Żegota bribed guards to fake her execution.

Post-war communist Poland erased her story until 1999, when Kansas students resurrected her legacy through National History Day project. Of 2,500 saved, most lost families in camps. She received 2007 Nobel Peace Prize nomination but stated: 'Every child saved is my justification'.

Her covert adoption system pioneered modern child trafficking prevention tactics. The POLIN Museum preserves her 'Life in a Jar' archives, proving individual courage can outshine institutionalized evil.