March is National Social Work Month

She smuggled out the children in suitcases, ambulances, coffins, sewer pipes, rucksacks and, on one occasion, even a toolbox.  Those old enough to ask knew their savior only by her codename "Jolanta." But, she kept hidden a meticulous record of all their real names and new identities - created to protect the Jewish youngsters from the pursuing Nazis - so they might later be reunited with their families.  By any measure, Irena Sendler was one of the most remarkable and noble figures to have emerged from the horrors of World War II.  But, until recently, her extraordinary compassion and heroism went largely unrecorded.  When the Germans finally caught her, the Roman Catholic had managed to save 2,500 Jewish babies and toddlers from deportation to the concentration camps. She had spirited them out of the heavily guarded Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, and hidden their identities in two glass jars buried under an apple tree in her neighbor's garden.  She was beaten, tortured and sentenced to death by the Gestapo - who even announced her execution. But Irena survived, her spirit unbroken, her secrets untold. She died in May 2008, in her modest Warsaw apartment, aged 98.  What a woman she was.  For once, the term 'heroine' is no exaggeration, though such plaudits did not sit easily with her.  She said: "I was brought up to believe that a person must be rescued when drowning, regardless of religion and nationality...the term 'heroine' irritates me greatly.  The opposite is true.  I continue to have pangs of conscience that I did so little." Irena Sendler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 and lost to Al Gore and his movie about a slide show.

References: Glenn Beck’s, Irena Sendler vs. Al Gore , www.youtube.com;  www.naswdc.org

By the way, Irena Sendler was a Social Worker. d