Hi, in today’s blog we will talk about Irena Krzyzanowska which is sadly is no household name, but she should be.
She showed remarkable bravery and compassion during one of the worst times in the human history.
She was able to take a terrible situation and make it an opportunity to save the most innocent – i.e., Jewish children – as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
Irena was continually in harm’s way and acted out of her instincts as a social worker to help others.
Then as if this wasn’t enough, she made it her mission to rescue Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, often securely hiding them.
Irena’s story showcases heroism, highlighting defiance, moral certitude and humanity in an inhumane time.
Contents
- 1 Irena Krzyzanowska’s Early Life
- 2 The World She Lived In
- 3 Her Work as a Social Worker
- 4 Żegota: The Underground Resistance
- 5 How Irena Krzyzanowska Rescued Jewish Children from the Warsaw Ghetto
- 6 Irena Krzyzanowska’s Secret Records
- 7 Irena Krzyzanowska’s Arrest and Torture by the Gestapo
- 8 Irena Krzyzanowska’s Life After World War II
- 9 Recognition and Legacy
- 10 Why Irena Krzyzanowska’s Story Still Matters
Irena Krzyzanowska’s Early Life
Let’s start with when and where she was born?
Well, Irena Krzyzanowska was born in 1910 in Warsaw.
Her father was a physician and used to treated patients who were poor without any cost for free, no matter their identity.
It influenced her.
Around the age of ten, Irena saw other people’s suffering and what small things did for people.
From those experiences Irena developed a lifelong commitment to justice and equality for others.
When her father died when she was still a child, he lived on in surrounding values.
Those values would influence her “empathy and I guess a sense of duty to do what was right” (Krzyzanowska-Polonsky, 2005).
The World She Lived In
Poland Under Nazi Occupation
The invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939 led to brutal military occupation of the entire country.
Conditions for Polish people—as well as conditions for the Jewish population—deteriorated drastically.
The Nazis created ghettos, such as the enormous Warsaw Ghetto, to corral and impoverish Jewish communities.
While going to the ghetto to obtain food, one could see a tent city full of Jews, and you would be told the Jews had aligned themselves with the wrong people.
It was a frighteningly dehumanized version of life.
These ghettos became overcrowded, starving, disease-ridden places where people stored, while more specifically designed to be death camps.
The Nazis ruled with fear, oppression, and systematic murder.
And amidst all that fear, there was the knowledge that helping a Jew was punishable by death.
But for some, like Irena Krzyzanowska, silence was not an option.
Her Work as a Social Worker
When the occupation began, Irena Krzyzanowska was a social worker for the city council in Warsaw.
Her employment gave her access to the ghetto under the guise that she was making health and sanitation visits.
Now what she did is that she utilized this access to good use
- providing food
- medication
- and comfort—to the ghetto—and began to subtly organize the smuggling of Jewish children.
Some ignored it, others were afraid of what might happen to them, but Irena saw lives of innocence disappearing every day.
She realized she had the ability to do something, however small, about it.
Żegota: The Underground Resistance
Irena became a member of Żegota, a Council to Aid Jews, an underground network that existed all over occupied Poland.
She soon became director of the children’s office, planning missions to take young lives out of the ghetto.
This often relied on deception, timing, and risk.
The organization forged documents, arranged hiding places, and created secret communications.
During all of this, Żegota helped to smuggle thousands of children into orphanages, convents and into caring Polish families, under her direction.
Each child they were able to help brought about a personal success story, and Irena felt personally responsible for their well-being and safety, physically and emotionally.
How Irena Krzyzanowska Rescued Jewish Children from the Warsaw Ghetto
Irena Krzyzanowska created clever ways to get children out of the ghetto.
Some hid under stretchers in ambulances, claiming to be sick or injured.
Some were tranquilized and some were taken as a toolbox, sack or even in a coffin.
She even used underground tunnels, sewers, or secret doors in churches and courthouses.
The risks were very high.
If she were caught the child, the rescuer and the family sheltering them would all be executed.
But Irena made them work, and created an entire escape system in front of Nazi patrols.
Irena Krzyzanowska’s Secret Records
Irena renamed the rescued children, created Catholic identities for them, and placed them into Polish homes, but she never forgot who they were.
Irena wrote the children’s real names, along with their pseudonyms on strips of thin paper and encased them in jars storing them in her garden, private from discovery.
After the war, her intention was to reunite the children with their remaining family.
Some parents had been murdered in concentration camps but Irena’s preservation of the children’s identities represented her commitment to their future.
Irena Krzyzanowska’s Arrest and Torture by the Gestapo
She was betrayed and captured in 1943 by the Gestapo and was sent to Pawiak prison, infamous for its brutal conditions, and subjected to inhumane torture.
They broke her legs and feet, and during a second round of questioning she again refused to give names or locations.
By not divulging their plans she saved hundreds of people.
She was eventually liberated and even managed to go underground while the Nazis announced a public execution.
She made plans to continue her under-ground mission for the rest of the war.
Other individuals also showed resistance to the Nazis, like Josef Mencik – the Last Knight Who Faced the Nazis.
Irena Krzyzanowska’s Life After World War II
Life in Post-War Poland
In the post-war situation, Poland was under Soviet control, and the story of Irena Krzyzanowska was largely ignored.
The new communist government was not particularly interested in promoting resistance figures associated with movements that had western backing.
After the war she was back in her old life as a social worker and teacher, living very modestly and shunned from publicity.
Decades later she was rediscovered as some of the children she saved had grown up and were trying to find her.
Slowly, the story of what she did there began to circulate in Poland and throughout the world.
Recognition and Legacy
Over the years, Irena received a number of awards that she never wanted.
Yad Vashem recognized her as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1965 for all of the non-Jews who risked their lives saving Jews during the Holocaust.
She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.
Although she did not earn the Peace Prize, the nomination did get her story recognized worldwide; stories, plays, and documentaries were all created about her life, including the famous project Life in a Jar.
Why Irena Krzyzanowska’s Story Still Matters
There is an end to which we honor Irena not so much for having saved lives but more for what she represented: kindness, justice, and unshaken integrity.
Now Irena cannot just be named and tarnished; she and her spirit must be honored by protesting irrespective of any price.
Her name must be known.
It has to be remembered.
It has to be taught through generations.