Irena's Children

August 15, 2016
Mazzeo (The Hotel on Place Vendome), associate professor of English at Colby College, profiles the little-known Irena Sendler, a young Polish social worker dubbed “the female Schindler” for her work smuggling Jewish children out of Warsaw during WWII. Sendler headed a network, and later an organization (Z˙egota), that found more than 2,000 children places of refuge among families and in convents, saving them from deportation and death. Mazzeo shows the variety of strategies and ruses Sendler and her allies used to snatch Jewish children to safety, including setting up a medical station at the collection center for deportation; the intense debates over whether convents sheltering Jewish children had the right to baptize them; and how Sendler survived arrest, torture, and near execution. Sendler’s personal life also receives attention, including her affair with Adam Cenikier, a Jewish social revolutionary and fellow resistance fighter. Mazzeo’s writing is largely clear, though she is occasionally sketchy with details, as when noting without elaborating that American Jews helped fund Z˙egota. While this is not the first biography of Sendler, its succinctness and overall readability will introduce many readers to a truly brave and otherwise remarkable woman who initiated and spearheaded “a vast collective effort of decency.”

July 1, 2016
The remarkable history of the "female Schindler."The story of Irena Sendler (1910-2008), who saved more than 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis, was buried for decades by the communist administration of Poland. It finally came to light in the 1990s, and Mazzeo (The Hotel on Place Vendome: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris, 2014, etc.) has combed archives and interviewed the few survivors to tell the tale. Like so many who tried to save Jews from the Nazis, Irena would only say she could have done more. When she was 7, her father, a doctor, died working in the typhoid epidemic of 1916-1917, and her mother struggled to educate her. At the University of Warsaw, she rekindled her friendship with Adam Celnikier. He was a radical Jewish lawyer and the love of her life even though both were married. She supported and protected him in hiding throughout the war. In the community internship program at the Polish Free University, Irena met Dr. Helena Radlinska, the driving force behind the resistance of Warsaw. When the Nazis invaded in 1939, resistance quickly built up, led by older men, the Jewish community, and women. That resistance is a large part of the reason Poland was subject to such brutal repression. As a social worker, Irena and her colleagues were able to manipulate paperwork to create new identities. They were also granted passes to enter and leave the Warsaw ghetto, allowing them to smuggle in medicine and false papers and eventually help set up their network to free the children. Sometimes on their own or led by local teens, the children escaped through the filth of the sewers. Irena and her small band found safe houses and orphanages where the children could ride out the war. Her careful records were written on cigarette papers so children could be reunited with surviving family after the war. Mazzeo chronicles a ray of hope in desperate times in this compelling biography of a brave woman who refused to give up.

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Starred review from August 1, 2016

Irena Sendler (1910-2008), a Polish student and social worker, with courage and the collaboration of other brave individuals, saved thousands of Jewish children during World War II. Beginning with small acts of resistance, Sendler eventually was smuggling babies and young children out of the Warsaw ghetto in coffins, toolboxes, and bags left on train cars. Led by Sendler and others in her network, the children were housed in safe places where their identities were changed. Mazzeo (English, Colby Coll.; The Widow Clicquot) explains how Sendler documented the children's new names on scraps of paper with the hope that these lists would someday reunite them with their families. Sadly, few parents survived the war. The actions of Sendler and other Polish residents who bravely protected Jewish children were often overlooked. It wasn't until the 1990s that these acts of courage began to receive their due. VERDICT Sendler risked her life and the lives of her coworkers, friends, and family to help others. This account of tremendous bravery is recommended for teens and adults who are drawn to inspirational stories. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]--Beth Dalton, Littleton, CO

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