The word 'hero' is grossly misused today. Sports figures who score a thrilling
goal or touchdown; public figures who use their position in the spotlight to
advance a particular charity or cause; these and many others are called
'heroes'. They're not.
A real heroine has just left us. If you want to
know what true heroism is, take a few moments to think about her life.
Irena Sendler was a social
worker in Warsaw, Poland, when Germany occupied that nation in 1939. Almost
immediately the Jews of that city were confined in the infamous href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto">Warsaw Ghetto, which
existed from 1940-1943. Even before the ghetto was established, Sendler began
helping them.
As an employee of Warsaw's Social Welfare Department,
Sendler had a permit to enter the Ghetto to check for typhus and other
infectious diseases. She used that to smuggle Jewish children out, giving them
Catholic identities so that they could be raised in secret by sympathizers
outside the Ghetto. |
... is the fact that Al Gore won the Peace Price instead of Irena.
Posts
