New York City, N.Y., Apr 18, 2009 / 12:58 pm (CNA).- On Sunday evening CBS will broadcast a movie about the heroic efforts and courageous heart of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker who created and led an underground group that rescued Jewish children from Nazi persecution. Sendler created and led a conspiracy of women who moved in and out of Warsaws Jewish Ghetto disguised as nurses. While saying that they were simply to prevent and contain the spread of Typhus and Spotted Fever, Sendler and her companions helped the children of consenting Jewish parents escape imminent deportation to death camps, CBS’ website says.
The children were sometimes sedated and hidden inside boxes, suitcases and coffins to escape the ghetto. They were given new identities and placed with Polish families and in convents.
Sendler kept a hidden record of the childrens birth names and locations in hopes that they could be reunited with their families. About 2,500 children were smuggled to safety, with none being discovered by the Nazis.
After the Nazis discovered her operation in 1943, Sendler was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, who broke her feet. On the day of her execution, she was rescued by the underground network Zegota, with which she had worked to save Jewish children.
She kept a Divine Mercy holy card from her prison cell until 1979, when she gave the card to Pope John Paul II as a gift.
CBS will broadcast The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, on Sunday, April 19 at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. It will star Anna Paquin as Irena while her mother will be played by Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden.
Nathaniel Parker will play the role of Dr. Majkowski, the head of Warsaws Department of Health who helped Sendlers operation. Goran Visnjic will play Stefan, a Jewish university friend of Sendler with whom she fell in love when she began her underground operation.
The movie is based on Sendlers authorized biography, Anna Mieszkowskas 2005 book Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Irena Sendler Story.
Sendler was granted the title Righteous among the Nations by the organization Yad Vashem of Jerusalem in 1965 and was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. She died on May 12, 2008 at the age of 98.
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March 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 am
Polish citizens …
Polish citizens have the highest count of Righteous among the Nations in the world, at 6,066, despite the fact that in German-occupied Poland all household members were punished by death if a Jew were found concealed in their home or on their property. Over 700 Polish Righteous among the Nations were murdered by the Germans for aiding or sheltering their Jewish neighbors.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 am
I cannot believe …
I cannot believe that you are saying there was no such thing as the Holocaust!! You are the ignorant one! How do you deny such a thing, there is evidence! That is so ignorant and terrible of you to deny that, these people were put through because of ridiculous reasons!! It is completely nonsense of you to say that it is a big story, and that it is a profitable industry. And it probably is profitable, people care about these things you fool.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 am
If you really liked …
If you really liked this video, and the story of Irena Sendler, you have to see this tribute video to her, it is absolutely beautiful. The name of it is
“Irena Sendler-
Sleeping With The Angels”
watch?v=_WG6sUM-AW0
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 am
Was he there during …
Was he there during the war? And why do you believe him, and not the eye-witnesses who managed to survive?
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 am
Have you been there …
Have you been there? Has David Cole been there? What makes you think that he knows better than the eye-witnesses what happened in the Nazi German death/concentration camps or in the Jewish ghettos?
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 am
Yes, and instead of …
Yes, and instead of war there was a huge party. Your education is a hoax.