« Sweatin' away | Main | You won my vote! »
May 13, 2008
Amazing
I'm constantly amazed when I read about the death of a person who performed heroic deeds many years ago. Take, for instance, Irena Sendler, who died a couple days ago at the age of 98:
Irena Sendler, a Roman Catholic who created a network of rescuers in Poland who smuggled about 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto in World War II, some of them in coffins, died Monday in Warsaw. She was 98.
There were several ruses by which the children were saved. Mrs. Sendler was a social worker for the city, with a pass that allowed her to enter the ghetto. “The Jews were all disease carriers, as far as the Nazis were concerned,” Professor Dwork said. “They put up quarantine signs throughout the ghetto.” Forgeries of the government pass allowed other members of Zegota to enter the ghetto as well. They went in day after day to persuade Jewish parents to let them rescue children.
The most common escape route, Professor Dwork said, was through the Warsaw Municipal Law Courts, which abutted the ghetto.
“There were underground corridors that had entrances on the ghetto side,” she said. “The Polish police were bribed to allow the traffic. Parents were told to dress the children as well as possible, certainly without wearing a star.”
For a time, the ghetto’s boundaries extended to the Jewish cemetery. “Some children were placed in coffins, their mouths taped, or they were sedated so they wouldn’t cry,” said Ms. Stahl, of the Jewish foundation. “Other children were smuggled out in potato sacks.”
Sometimes an ambulance wagon, with a driver accompanied by a dog, took children through the gates. “Children were under the floorboard,” Ms. Stahl said. “The barking dog would drown out a child’s cries.”
Another story relates that the Gestapo captured her, and was only spared death when some colleagues bribed the officers. Nevertheless, they broke her arms and legs, then dumped her in the forest.
The strangest part is trying to reconcile the feeble person who exists 60 or 70 years after the fact with the young adult who risked his life doing extremely dangerous things many of us never have, and hopefully never will, have to do. They did it, though. So many senior citizens, who I think society sometimes treat as a nuisance, did incredible things: flew bombing runs over Germany, stormed beaches, killed others.
People like Irena Sendler are disappearing from this Earth, but we would be wise not to forget what they did.
entry no. 1148
Posted at May 13, 2008 11:30 AM
Comments
Old people are only a nuisance when they drive, or when they are at a restaurant, or when you are behind them in line and they don't know about credit cards and have to write out a check.
Posted by: G at May 15, 2008 04:39 PM