Holocaust Through the Arts presents ‘The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler’

On April 4 and 5, the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center’s Holocaust Through the Arts Program will present the 2009 movie “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler” to some 2,500 students from public, private and religious schools.

Irena Sendler was a Catholic social worker from Poland, employed by the Welfare Department of Warsaw, who smuggled nearly 2,500 children to safety during World War II. At great personal risk, she devised means to get into the ghetto and help the dying Jews.

Using forged identification papers, Sendler presented herself as a nurse and managed to obtain a permit to enter the ghetto to inspect the sanitary conditions. Once inside, she established contact with activists from the Jewish welfare organization and began to help them.

Sendler was appointed director of Zegota’s (the underground organization) Department for the Care of Jewish Children and used her contacts with orphanages and institutions for abandoned children to send Jewish children to safety.

Working with Zegota, she devised routes to smuggle the children out, some in boxes hidden under bricks on wheelbarrows, others through the sewer system, and still others brazenly escorted through the front door of the city hall hand in hand with their saviors.

Many of the children were sent to the Rodzina Marii (Family of Mary) Orphanage in Warsaw and religious institutions operated by nuns in nearby towns.

On Oct. 20, 1943, Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo. She managed to hide incriminating evidence, such as the coded addresses of children in the care of Zegota and large sums of money to pay those who helped Jews. She was sentenced to death and sent to the infamous Pawiak prison, but underground activists managed to bribe officials to release her.

Sendler was not deterred by her close encounter with death. After her release in February 1944, she continued her underground activities even though she knew that the authorities were keeping an eye on her. Eventually, she had to go into hiding.

On Oct. 19, 1965, Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, recognized Irena Sendler as Righteous Among the Nations. The tree planted in her honor stands at the entrance to the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations.

The Hallmark movie stars Anna Paquin as Irena Sendler.

May-Ronny Zeidman, executive director of the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, says  Holocaust Through the Arts “engages middle and high school students from all around Rhode Island in learning about the Holocaust by using a different vehicle, like a play, or a movie, or music. We have found that it is a painless way to engage, connect with, and teach students.”

Zeidman adds, “We only show films that are truthful and do not portray the Holocaust in any kind of a fantasy way.”

The program is free and open to the public, reservations are required. The film will be screened at the Showcase Cinema in Warwick at 10 a.m. Stipends may be available for bus rentals.

To make reservations for your class or yourself, or to apply for a bus stipend, call 401-453-7860 or email May@BornsteinHolocaustCenter.org.

LEV POPLOW is a communications and development consultant who is writing on behalf of the Bornstein Holocaust Education Center. He can be reached at levpoplow@gmail.com.v