This article appeared in the Oct. 30,
2003 Jewish Advocate.
Newton woman reflects on her past as rescuer
Irena Sendler receives Jan Karski Award
By Susie Davidson
Advocate Correspondent
At 93, Irena Sendler cannot travel far from her Warsaw nursing
home. But on Oct. 23 at Georgetown University, one of the children she saved in
World War II accepted her 2003 Jan Karski Award for Valor and Compassion from
the American Center of Polish Culture. Sendler was nominated by Stefanie
Seltzer, President of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the
Holocaust, who is also on the Claims Conference Board. The First Lady of
Poland, Jolanta Kwasniewska, was the guest of honor.
Sendler, a Polish social worker, visited
the Warsaw ghetto daily, pretending to work for the Epidemic Control
Department, persuading parents to painfully part with their children. With the
rescue organization Zegota, she helped to smuggle 2500 children to the Aryan
side of the ghetto, in potato sacks or, as supposed typhoid victims, in
coffins. The children were placed with Polish families or in convents,
orphanages, or educational institutions. Sendler was arrested, imprisoned and
tortured in 1943 and eventually sentenced to death, but was saved at the last
moment by a Zegota bribe. Listed as executed, she continued to clandestinely
save Jewish children.
Although honored by Yad Vashem in 1965, SendlerÕs story
was not brought to light until 1999, when three Kansas high school studentsÕ
read about her in an old magazine. They eventually met Sendler in Poland, and
produced a skit of her story, ÒLife in a Jar,Ó which is currently performed
internationally by a cast of 17. Their teacher, Norm Conard, aided Seltzer in
the Karski nominating decision.
ÒI was taught by my father that when
someone is drowning, you don't ask if they can swim, you just jump in and
help,Ó Sendler later told Seltzer. ÒDuring the war, everyone was drowning, but
mostly the Jewish children,Ó she said.
The Karski Award honors the memory of
Warsaw Ghetto Allied eyewitness Dr. Jan Karski, an observant Polish Catholic
who in his commiseration, and regret over failing to convince Roosevelt to act
sooner, came to call himself a Jew. ÒThe Karski Award carries a message of
moral courage in the face of indifference and danger,Ó said World Federation
Advisory and Governing Board member Rosian Zerner of Newtonville.
Zerner, who did not attend the event due to
a Nov. 1 trip to Washington for a Tribute to Survivors ceremony, is a former
Executive Board member and Secretary of the World Federation of Jewish Child
Survivors of the Holocaust. She presently serves on its Advisory and Governing
Boards, and represents its Greater Boston Child Survivor branch, one of 50
worldwide WFJCSH member groups. She is also on the local Board of ARMDI,
American Red Mogen Dovid Adom.
Born into an affluent Lithuanian family,
Zerner soon experienced great social disparities. ÒMy father had a 1935 Ford
and chauffeur and we had servants,Ó she recalled. ÒThen we had nothing.Ó Later
in Italy, her father again prospered. ZernerÕs educational path was equally
uneven. She had only one year of formal education before escaping Lithuania,
and entered first grade at the age of 10 in Italy without knowing the language.
She went on to become the first foreigner to study ballet at MilanÕs La Scala
Opera House, and once in the US, was placed as a sophomore in Newton High
school after only three years of formal schooling and again, without knowing
the language. Three years later, she went on to Barnard College.
Although Zerner came from a long line of
Rabbis, her family was not overtly religious. ÒMany Holocaust survivors never
really understood how God allowed such horror, my father one of them,Ó she
recalled. During the war, she was baptized Catholic and nearly became a nun.
She explored varied Eastern philosophies, but was also deeply rooted in Zionist
ideals. ÒI can look at a photo of my grandmother with Ben-Gurion, or my aunt
who was an original kibbutz founder and treasurer of an Israeli political
party, and remember vividly my Hachshara days in Italy as I trained to go to
Israel and fight with the Hagganah,Ó she observed.
In 2000, Zerner decided to reconnect to her
lost childhood. She returned to her birthplace in Lithuania, met with a friend
with whom she was in one hiding place, and revisited the Kovno Ghetto and many
past hiding places.
In 2001 the German/Jewish Dialogue group
selected Zerner to participate in a two-week trip to study Jewish life in
Germany at the European Academy in Berlin. ÒI had previously traveled to 64
countries without ever wanting to set foot on German soil and this experience
took me to sites that included extermination and concentration camps as well as
meetings with dignitaries, mayors and cultural leaders,Ó she said. She spent
the final two weeks with one of her rescuers. ÒIt was the first time I had seen
her since I had left Lithuania, and our reunion was one of the most moving
moments of my life.Ó
Zerner had planned to spend a week with
her, but as fate would have it, her airplane boarding pass was dated Sept. 11,
2001. ÒI had no luggage, my money had been stolen and I returned to Gretchen
for another week before I could obtain another ticket home,Ó she said. ÒShe had
rescued me again!Ó
ÒI personally know some of the people rescued by Irena
Sendler, as well as Stefanie, whp nominated her for this important award,Ó said
Zerner. ÒIt is not only a great day for some Jews to see their rescuer honored,
but the award creates a link between the Polish and Jewish communities by
glorifying courageous acts of selfless heroism that went against the then
prevailing social order,Ó she added. ÒIt makes an official statement that today
at least some in Poland are willing to face the past and recognize the
possibility of dialogue.
Ò96 percent of Lithuanian Jews were
murdered during the Holocaust, the highest proportion to population in Europe,Ó
Zerner continued. ÒTo me it was a miracle that mother, dad and I survived as an
intact family.Ó
For information on Irena Sendler, please
visit www.irenasendler.org.