Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Monday, February 15, 2010

Sto lat! Happy Birthday, Irena Sendler!

Were she alive today, Irena Sendler would be drawing a deep breath to blow out 100 candles on her birthday cake in front of a large and adoring audience at the Kamienica Theatre on al. Solidarnosci in Warsaw. Unfortunately, Irena Sendler is no longer among the living (she died two years ago at age 98), but her life and legacy continue to grow.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, under the auspices of its “Polish Righteous – Recalling Forgotten History” program, organized an event to celebrate Irena Sendler’s birthday with the Polish premiere of the new documentary film, “In the Name of Their Mothers.” American filmmaker Mary Skinner, who lives in California, will be on hand to speak.

Ewa Wierzynska, deputy museum director, has done a masterful job organizing a big birthday celebration in record speed. Already the house is filled and in attendance will be numerous dignitaries including Poland’s Secretary of State Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, 11 ambassadors, including the newly appointed American Ambassador, Lee Feinstein. A gifted and visionary woman with a flair for the creative, Ewa Wierzynska came up with the inspired idea of offering a dual-language program, with me serving as American emcee and she serving as Polish emcee. We’re not duplicating each other, but co-hosting, making complementary comments. Headsets will be offered with simultaneous translation from Polish to English and English to Polish for audience members who do not understand both languages.

For those who don’t know about Irena Sendler (or who missed last year’s Hallmark Hall of Fame bio-pic about her), you need to know. Irena Sendler has ascended into the pantheon of Polish heroes from that dark period of Nazi occupation in World War II and deservedly so.

From 1939 to 1942, Sendler worked in the Social Welfare Department of the City of Warsaw and together with an organized network of 20 others managed to first help and later smuggle an estimated 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto. They placed these children into families, orphanages and monasteries, preserving their identities on scraps of paper for future identification. Full recognition of Mrs. Sendler’s heroism came late in life for her — though luckily it did come before she left this earth. She became the object of great attention, adoration and was even nominated by the President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, for a Nobel Peace Prize.

I can hardly wait to see the film, to meet those saved by Ms. Sendler, and to raise my toast to Irena Sendler — this remarkable Citizen of Warsaw — Hero of the World. Sto lat, pani Irena!