window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-GEQWY429QJ');

 

ENTITY reports on irena sendler quotes about womenSaving 2,500 Jewish children wasn’t the only time Irena Sendler risked her freedom for the oppressed. While Sendler was attending Warsaw University, she jeopardized her place in school to protest the oppression of Jewish students.

When Sendler’s father died from typhus after treating Jewish patients with the disease, Jewish community leaders helped pay for Sendler’s college education. But during her time at Warsaw University, she opposed the segregation of Jewish and Polish students in Poland universities by defacing her grade card.

Her school suspended her for three years due to her public protest.

When World War II broke out, Sendler only continued to help Jews. Sendler used her papers as a social worker to enter the Warsaw Ghetto. Sendler used ambulances, stretchers, underground sewers and old courthouses to smuggle children out of the ghetto.

She was also part of Zegota, a Polish underground group that assisted Jewish people. Nazis broke both her arms and legs and beat her severely when they captured her. They also forced her to give up the names and addresses of Zegota leaders. But, in true Sendler heroism, she still refused and fed them fake information.

The Germans sentenced her to execution, but, fortunately, Zegota leaders bribed a German executioner to secretly release her. She had to go into hiding until the war ended, but, again, she refused to give up on Jewish children. Sendler kept records of all the children in hiding in a glass bottle. After the war, she dug up the bottle and made sure every child was reunited with their relative, put into foster care or adopted.

Her efforts during World War II are compared to the heroism of Oskar Schindler who saved over a thousand Jewish refugees during the Holocaust but she’s rarely remembered and talked about as often as Schindler.

She also received the 2003 Jan Karski award for Valor and Courage.

So, to honor this amazing woman, we rounded up famous Irena Sendler quotes to show the power of sacrifice.

1 On strength

“Fear makes you weak; anger makes you strong.”

2 On saving others

ENTITY reports on irena sendler quotes about women

“You see a man drowning, you must try to save him even if you cannot swim.”

3 On discrimination

“People can be only divided into good or bad; their race, religion, nationality don’t matter.”

4 On being selfless

“Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory.”

5 On calling yourself a hero

“Heroes do extraordinary things. What I did was not an extraordinary thing. It was normal.”

6 On making the world a better place

“The world can be better if there’s love, tolerance and humility.”

7 On humility

“I was brought up to believe that a person must be rescued when drowning, regardless of religion and nationality. The term ‘hero’ irritates me greatly – the opposite is true – I continue to have pangs of conscience that I did so little.”

Sendler didn’t consider herself a hero because she cared more about actually helping others than receiving a title. She believed that taking advantage of any opportunity to save and help others is a normal occurrence and not something to be praised. Sendler’s noble act is a reminder that to create a better world, we must do good without the hopes of receiving a title and award.

RELATED POSTS:

Send this to a friend