Footnote: The National Premier of a new film entitled In the Name of Their Mothers is scheduled for Sunday, 22 November 2009. It is due to be first shown at the Copernicus Foundation in Chicago, Illinois, and details the risks taken by Irena and her colleagues. How does the church view Israel? Christians encourage Israeli Ambassador A Christian Holocaust in our time - is it possible? It's 1930s Germany all over again The Israel Periphery How a Man of Prayer was used by God The Geopolitics of Israel: Biblical and Modern The Middle East: histories in a nutshell Hamas leaves Israel no choice British Army Officer is right on target Egypt, Syria, Israel, the church and the world Christian Palestinianism; a response Israel, the Jews and Evangelicals God hears even when the mikes are off. Do Not Lift That Stone (23)/09/11 - A day that will change the world? Mike Moore of CWI writes to David Cameron Israel: Understanding the Times Israel: what you are not (generally) being told David Hathaway preaches Yeshua in Israel Institutionalised anti-Semitism in the church A Call to Repentance: a new DVD resource God's purposes in Israel? Welsh fellowship evicted from village hall The enemy is within the church Trip to the Holy Land 2010/2011 The 'Flotilla' video some people don't want you to see Chuck Cohen: why do the nations rage? Israel; at the centre of God's purposes! Prime Minister apologises to Israel The Goldstone Report: believe it if you like CMJ Mini Conference No longer night... A Jew defending Christians in the UK DO BELIEVE some of what you DON'T READ in the papers Lies, d..n lies and media headlines Arab World Facing Collapse Muslim leaders denounce anti-semitism Presentation on Israel trip Galya Greig: an interview Elspeth Masson - Christian Friends of Israel Why no peace in Israel? A dangerous ignorance An update report from Galya-Jane - Autumn 2008 Jerusalem's city walls Anglican faithful, Arab and Jewish believers Israel's rebirth in May 1948 Israel's 60th birthday Israel, the world and the church The Anti-Semitic disease Jerusalem, the Jews and their destiny A letter to the Church of Scotland The Destiny of Britain Orthodox Jew dreams about the Messiah
Irena Sendler with some of the children she saved: Warsaw 2005
IRENA SENDLER, a Polish Roman Catholic, died last year at the age of 98. Through her efforts and courage in war-time Poland, thousands of Jewish children were rescued from the Warsaw Ghetto, and from the clutches of the Nazis and their infamous extermination camps.
Irena’s father died when she was 7 years old. He had been a doctor and contracted typhus whilst treating Jewish patients. His daughter opposed the anti-Semitic ghetto-bench system that existed in some pre-war Polish universities, and as a result Irena was suspended from Warsaw University for three years.
During the German occupation of Poland, Sendler lived in Warsaw and as early as 1939 she began aiding Jews. She and her helpers created over 3,000 false documents to help Jewish families. This was a very dangerous activity as all household members risked death if anyone was found to be hiding Jews.
In December 1942 the newly-created Zegota (the Council for aid to Jews) nominated her (by her cover name Jolanta) to head its children’s section. As an employee of the Social Welfare Department she had a special permit to enter the Warsaw Ghetto to check for signs of typhus – something the Nazis feared would spread beyond the Ghetto. During this work she wore a Star to David as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish people.
Under the pretext of conducting inspections of sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak Irena smuggled out babies and small children, sometimes hiding them in a double-bottomed toolbox. She used large bags to hide older children.
Trained her dog to bark.....
Sendler kept a dog at the back of her truck which she trained to bark each time she passed through the Ghetto gates. This had the double effect of keeping the guards at a distance and also covering up any crying or other noises that the children might make.
She was caught in 1943 but by then 2,500 infants and children had been saved. The Nazis broke her arms and legs, and tortured and interrogated her for the names of the children she had smuggled out. She didn’t break and was sentenced to death along with 39 other women prisoners. She was rescued by a guard who had been bribed by her friends, and spent the rest of the war with the Home army – the Polish underground resistance movement.Irena Sendler kept all the records of the children she rescued hidden in a jarburied in her back yard. After the war she attempted to locate the parents of the children she had rescued. However most of them had been gassed along with 900,000 others in the death chambers of Treblinka extermination camp.
Imprisoned by her own people
Following the post-war Soviet takeover of Poland, she was at first persecuted and imprisoned by the communist Polish state authorities for her relations with the Polish government-in-exile, and with the Home Army. While in prison she miscarried her second child and her other children were later denied the right to study at communist-controlled Polish universities.
In 2007 considerable publicity accompanied Irena Sendler’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. However the award was made that year to former US Vice-President Al Gore for his work on (so-called) climate change.
Previously, in 2003, the kudos and the award went to Yassir Arafat, the father of international terrorism. When he died a year later he was listed as one of the richest men in the world, whilst the people whom he claimed to fight for continued to live in situations of deprivation.
Meanwhile in 2009 the prize was awarded to US President Barak Obama after just 11 months in office for ‘his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples’.
In 2003 Pope John Paul II sent Sendler a personal letter praising her wartime efforts. On 14 March 2007 she was honoured by Poland's Senate and in May 2009, Irena Sendler was posthumously granted the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award.
The Irena Sendler Project has created a teacher's award in the United States and Poland for the Outstanding Teacher in Holocaust Education. Project members are now working with the Children of the Holocaust Organization in Warsaw to erect a statue in her honour, to be completed in 2010 on the centenary of her birth.
The documentary includes interviews with Irena, and some of the organisers and participants who aided in the dangerous undertaking of rescuing Jewish children in wartime Poland from the Warsaw Ghetto.
See also the website The Irena Sendler Project
(Author: Christians Together)Articles in this group
International speaker Dr. Paul Wilkinson is currently doing a tour of Scotland speaking on the place of Israel and the Jewish people in the eyes and plans of God; and sharing some concerns on how the church is being influenced away from them. (Author: Christians Together)
Following an antagonistic reception at an English university, Israel's Deputy Ambassador to the UK received a huge encouragement from British Christians at Purim. (Author: Stephen Jaffe)
Howard Stern, a Christian involved in Middle East affairs looks at the situation in the region and asks why the West is funding regimes which are persecuting Christians. (Author: Howard Stern)
What we are witnessing in our present day is a repeat of the events in which led up to Kristallnacht and the Holocaust. (Author: Point of no return blog)
Israel needs heavyweight friends if it is to maintain its security. These friends must have sufficient common ground with Israel for them to have simiilar foreign policies towards the Arab world.
(Author: Stratfor)
In this 70th anniversary year of the battle of El Alamein a gathering in the House of Lords heard about the prayer that went before and into the victory. (Author: Christians Together)
The nation of Israel has existed in roughly the same place in three different forms: twice in ancient times and once in modernity. The geographical area is what God calls 'My Land'. (Author: Stratfor)
A series of short videos which give a rapid but comprehensive overview of the history of the Middle East from biblical times right through to the present day. (Author: Christians Together)
Danny Ayalon is Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister. He formerly served as Israeli Ambassador to the United States. (Author: Danny Ayalon)
As part of a conference speech, a former high-ranking British Army officer spoke of the institutionalised anti-Israelism found in the United Nations and the mass media as supporting the Arab view that Israel should not have the right to exist. (Author: Christians Together)
Just prior to the 2012 Egyptian elections, Christians Together caught up with Chuck Cohen of Intercessors for Israel to discuss the Middle East, the church and the nations. (Author: Christians Together)
Many heavyweight evangelical leaders are being drawn into an age-old heresy which has its roots in the time of the apostle Paul, and which is erupting in our age. (Author: Christians Together)
The rise of Islam and anti-semitic attitudes in Europe and around the world will surely oblige Bible-believing Christians to come to a view on God's present and future purposes for the Jewis people and the nation of Israel. (Author: Christians Together)
There is a tendency - even in Christian circles - to think that we can do and say things behind God's back. However the whole world now knows what the French and American Presidents think of Israel's Prime Minister: God heard too. (Author: Watchman)
Jacob Prasch looks at events around the world and analyses these in the context of God's declared purposes for our world. (Author: Jacob Prasch)
This week could see a change in the history of the world. All eyes will be on the Middle East as the UN considers Palestinian statehood. (Author: Christians Together)
Mike Moore of Christian Witness to Israel has written to David Cameron about the "unreasonable pressure" the Prime Minster is placing on Israel. (Author: Mike Moore CWI / Christians Together)
A 'Issachar Challenge' day conference designed to help Christian believers discern the nature of the times in which we live in the context of God's word; and how to respond in the light of Scripture. (Author: Christians Together)
A set of short videos offering a time-efficient way of getting to grips with what does not appear in the mainstream media regarding Israel. (Author: Christians Together)
The Welsh evangelist David Hathaway who has an international ministry in Eastern Europe and beyond preached to capacity crowds in Israel and shared Christ with holocaust survivors. (Author: David Hathaway)
The apostle Paul was obliged to tackle Gentile elitism head on. Were he with us on earth today he would probably find the same need to do so within the Christian church. (Author: Norman Skinner)
A free 5-part film and printed resource is now available which captures Britain' need to repent over its actions in Israel and towards the Jews. (Author: Christians Together)
What is God's purposes for Israel and the Jewish people. The first public showing of Dundee meetings which viewed and discussed the newly-released film With God on Our Side. (Author: Thistle Channel TV)
A small fellowship which met in a village hall in North Wales claims to have been pushed out because of its support for the Jewish people and the establishment of Israel in the land. (Author: Christians Together)
A messianic jewish leader has called for urgent prayer for his country in the face of international hostility and major enemies within the Christian camp. (Author: Christians Together)
Leo Rose gives an update on the plans to travel to Israel in January 2011 for a tour of the Holy Land with two pricing options. (Author: Leo Rose)
Attempts to 'bury' a spoof video exposing the lie behind the motives and actions of the 'peace activists' aboard the 'mercy' ship bound for Gaza have backfired. (Author: Christians Together)
A DVD is now available of Chuck Cohen speaking to a meeting in Inverness and giving a personal interview on the place of Israel in God's purposes (Author: Christians Together / Thistle Channel TV)
As the day of Christ's return draws ever-nearer, there will be a demonically-inspired reaction which will centre around Israel and the Holy City which bears God's name. (Author: Christians Together)
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has had to apologise to Israel concerning an arrest warrant issued by a British court against former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. (Author: Christians Together)
The recently-published Goldstone report investigated Israel's actions against Hamas in Gaza: guess who are the bad guys? But when one man spoke, the room fell silent. (Author: Christians Together)
International researcher, author and speaker Kelvin Crombie is due to speak at a CMJ Mini Conference in Scotland about the Gentile church and the Jewish people. (Author: Christians Together)
I came to realise that the roots of our faith are Hebraic and not Greek: 'built on the foundations of the apostles and the prophets. (Author: Sword Magazine)
With the church's track record of anti-semitism through the centuries, it is not altogether usual for a Jew to write so consistently and earnestly in support of Christians. (Author: Christians Together)
Whilst vicious enemies continue to call for Israel's annihilation, Jewish doctors treat and save Palestinian children. But our media don't carry these stories. (Author: Haifa Diarist)
In a society which is driven by news headlines, we are being fed a diet of media distortion which is taking us back into the Germany of the 1930s. (Author: Watchman)
The current conflict in Gaza is prompting senior politicians in the region to warn that "the Arab world is close to collapse." (Author: Christians Together / Arutz Sheva)
Twenty-two prominent British Muslims have signed an open letter to mosques, media outlets and blogs denouncing anti-semitic attacks. (Author: Christians Together)
Whilst on a recent (Dec 2008) trip to Israel, Tommie Mackay took this picture over Jerusalem. He has entitled it The Asension; it could equally be entitled The Return. (Author: Leo Rose/Tommie Mackay)
Galya Greig has just returned to Inverness following a four-year ministry period in Jerusalem working with CFI. She is en route to America to take up a new work there with WorldWatch Daily (Author: Christians Together)
Elspeth Masson represents the work of Christian Friends of Israel in the Highlands and beyond, believing that God has made an unconditional covenant with the Jewish people. (Author: CFI/CT)
The current and ongoing situation in the Middle East is in much need of prayer; but prayer which is informed by the clear will of God and His prophetic purposes. (Author: Christians Together)
Praying for the peace of Jerusalem is just fine. But a recent World Council of Churches initiative could have disasterous consequences. (Author: Watchman)
The Lord is moving me on from my work in Israel over the past 4 years to join with the ministry of Bill Koenig in Washington DC. (Author: Galya-Jane Greig)
Recent archeological discoveries in Israel confirm Jerusalem as the site of ancient Jewish temples and serve as an antidote to revisionist denials of Jewish heritage in the land. (Author: Christians Together)
Anglican faithful gathered with both Arab and Jewish believers at the recent Global Anglican Futures Conference in Jerusalem. An event of no small significance. (Author: Christians Together)
Two prophecies from the Bible concerning the re-birth of the nation of Israel on 14 May, 1948. (Author: Watchman)
60 years ago, in May 1948, the modern state of Israel was born. There has been trouble ever since. Christians who believe their Bibles need to discern what is going on. (Author: Christians Together)
On Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January 2008) it is worth recalling some of what God has said about Israel and the Jewish people. (Author: Christians Together)
Paul Johnson writes: "What strikes the historian surveying anti-Semitism worldwide over more than two millennia is its fundamental irrationality." (Author: Paul Johnson)
An evocative collection of photographs by Steve Taylor - produced after his recent visit to Israel (Author: Steve Taylor)
A letter written to the Church of Scotland by one of its senior ministers in response to a report to the C of S General Assembly of May 2007 (Author: David Torrance)
Premier of a new film covering Britain's part in the events which created the modern state of Israel - a vision, supported by great Christian revivalists and Bible teachers such as the C H Spurgeon, Robert Murray McCheyne and J C Ryle (Author: Christians Together)
A report about an orthodox Jew who has had recurring dreams about the Messiah. (Author: Matt Schwartz)