Irena Sendler: The Woman Who Saved the Children

When I began this celebration of women at the beginning of the month I didn’t realize how pressing some of their stories would be for the times we find ourselves living in today. Especially in the United States. But a woman who displays the courage to help 2,500 children targeted by their government seems pretty, well, prescient and inspiring. We could all be a lot more like Irena.

There’s a story that feels like a light in the darkness, one of a woman who looked at the horrors of the world and said, “I will not stand by.” Her name was Irena Sendler, and she wasn’t just a hero. She was a beacon of hope.

Irena was born in 1910 in Warsaw, Poland. Her father, a doctor, taught her from a young age to stand up for those who couldn’t stand up for themselves. “If you see someone drowning,” he told her, “you must jump in and save them, whether you can swim or not.” Those words would shape her life.

When World War II broke out and the Nazis occupied Poland, Irena joined the Polish Underground R…