Righteous

Photo - 2005 Quad Cities Yom Hashoah
Jewish Survivor Esther Katz with Righteous Gentile Yanina Cywinska whose Catholic father insisted the family help the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.


Last night there was a speaker from The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous at St. Ambrose University. Stanlee talked about the fears during WWII all across Europe but especially in Eastern Europe. The punishment for helping a Jew meant your life in some cases or going to a concentration camp in other cases. It makes Christians wonder "what would I have done if I had lived there during this time?" I know I've wondered many times.

Stanlee challenged the audience last night. She said each of the Righteous Gentiles she has met (Christians or Muslims who gave aid to the Jews risking their own lives). One of the responses she got hit my heart like an arrow hitting dead center. She said one person told her "sometimes God's laws are above man's laws and you just do what is right".

This is my challenge today - for myself and for you too. Do what is right. It sounds so simple and yet it can be so hard, right?

The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous - http://www.jfr.org/

Here is a story of a Righteous Gentile named Irena Sendler. A young author / illustrator from Germany by the name of Barbara Schlozen wrote her story for A BOOK BY ME a few years ago.

Irena Sendler
Warsaw, Poland... 1942 – On October 12, 1940,Yom Kippur, the Germans issued a decree calling for the establishment of a ghetto in Warsaw. About 400,000 Jews from the city and the surrounding region were forced to move into an area of 1.3 square miles. In mid-November, the ghetto was sealed. On account of the cramped conditions, poor sanitation, and very limited food and medicine, disease and starvation claimed thousands of lives each month.
In July 1942, mass deportations of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto began. Most were sent to Treblinka. Horrified by the Germans’ persecution of the Jews, a group of Polish citizens formed an underground organization called the Council for the Aid to Jews, or Zegota, in September 1942. Irena Sendler became the head of Zegota’s Children’s Bureau. She obtained documents that allowed her to enter the ghetto, and she began to smuggle children out.
Irena and the members of Zegota led some children out through the underground corridors of a courthouse and through a tram depot. They sedated some infants and carried them out in potato sacks or coffins. A church located on the edge of the ghetto also became useful. It had two entrances, one inside the ghetto and one on the Christian side of Warsaw. With Zegota’s help, some children entered the church as Jews and exited as “Christians.”
In addition to smuggling children out of the ghetto, Irena Sendler found safe places for them to hide – often with non-Jewish families in the Warsaw area. Children were also sheltered in convents, hospitals, and orphanages.
The Germans learned of Irena’s activities. On October 20, 1943, she was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the Pawiak prison. Irena was tortured brutally, but she refused to give any information about Zegota or about the children she had placed in hiding. She was sentenced to death. Members of Zegota bribed one of the Gestapo agents, and on the day Irena was to be executed, she was permitted to escape. She had to go into hiding for the remainder of the war but continued to coordinate her rescue work. By January 1945, when Warsaw was liberated by Soviet troops, the Children’s Bureau of Zegota had assisted more than 2,500 Jewish children.
Irena Sendler died in Warsaw, Poland on Monday, May 12, 2008 at the age of 98.

Have a blessed day and do what is right!

Deb

P.S. There have been ten children's books written for the series thus far about Righteous Gentiles. I would love to see more in the future. The titles of those written are:



CYWINSKA, Yanina; Yanina Ballerina; Christian who protected Jews (Righteous Gentile); Author Julia Headley of Davenport, Iowa
GOLEMI, Ismail; A Daughter's Pride; Muslim who protected Jews; Author Alya Al-Balushi of Oman
HANSANI, Basri; Basri's Door is Open; Muslim who protected Jews; Author Ahmed Al-kply of Yemen
KAZAZI, Ali & Nadia; For the Heart There Is No Color of Skin; Muslims who protected Jews; Author Anila Shaheen of Pakistan
PASHKAJ, Ali Sheqer; A Simple Piece of Melon Saved One Life; Author Ahmed Al-Katheri of Yemen
SENDLER, Irena, Yolanta and Her 2,500 Kids; Christian who protected Jews (Righteous Gentile); Author Barbara Schlozen of Germany
SINANI, Abaz & Zade; We Are All Human; Muslims who protected Jews (Righteous Gentile); Author Aisha Haji of Zanzibar
TEN BOOM, Corrie, Corrie ten Boom - A Holocaust Hero; Christian who protected Jews (Righteous Gentile); Author Kelly Schultz of Iowa
VESELI, Hamid & Xhemal; A Simple Story of Saving a Life; Muslims who protected Jews (Righteous Gentiles); Author MD Tazin of Bangladesh
ZABINSKI, Antonina & Jan; Hidden Jews in the Warsaw Zoo; Christians who protected Jews (Righteous Gentiles); Author Amanda Leslie of Eldridge, Iowa